Christmas Gift Cards to LYS

Wow, Christmas is over. Thank God...I don't think I've knit so many hats in a one week period since...well...ever. Everyone loved their hats and Mom thought the Woodland Shawl was gorgeous. I have a picture of it on the blocking board, but didn't get a picture of it on Mom's shoulders. Hayden loved Christmas, technically this is his 2nd Christmas, but the 1st he was only 1 month old. He had a blast ripping off the wrapping paper. I think he actually liked the paper more than the toys. Out of all the toys he got, his favorite is the popper. Remember that toy? The blue handle with the clear bubble and the balls that make that horrible annoying popping sound everytime the wheels move. Yeah, that's his favorite toy.

I received $110.00 in gift cards to my local LYS, Loops in Tulsa. Luckily, I read my emails on Christmas day and found out that Loops was having a huge sale on Friday. Everything was 25-40% off and some stuff was 75% off. So Friday morning (I had to work until 10am) I headed to Tulsa. The store opens at 11am and I got there about 10:25am. So I parked and sat in the car knitting. I watched a lady with a knitting bag walk up and look into the windows and then walk away, then 2 more woman walked up, peeked in the windows and walked away. By now, I'm not knitting anymore, I'm watching the door like a guard dog. The clock in my car said 10:43am, and then I saw the first woman coming back. Right then I decided I'd had enough of these people trying to horde in on "my sale". (I really don't know what came over me, I usually a very docile person) I got out of my car and stood next to the door, eyeing the women in the store and checking the watch every few seconds. The big clock in the shopping center started chiming and donging the hours. I looked behind me and there must have be 50 people lined up to get in the store. Suddenly, I saw the owner of the store walking towards the door. I could feel my blood rushing through my veins in excitement. She pulled the door open and took a picture of all of us standing around the door like a pack of starving dogs waiting for their master to throw the last bone into the yard. Finally, she let us in...I ran straight back to the back room where all the clearence stuff is always kept. I grabbed up about 7 or 8 skiens of alpaca in varying colors and a lady tried to grab it out of my hands. I jerked it back and said "exxxcccuuussee you" and grabbed the yarn back. After making sure there wasn't anything else in the bins that I needed I made my way out to the store to see what 40% off stuff I could find. I filled my basket with Blue Skys Organic Cotton, Noro, Malabrigo and then a miscellaneous skein of this or that, just because. I finally made my way to the cash register thinking I was probably going to have to write a good sized check on top of my gift cards. Amazingly, the total was $109.83. I handed her my 3 gift cards and said "I've got $110.00." She replied "You've still got .17 cents." I told her to keep it and use it for the next persons tax or whatever.

Mom and Dad are heading back home to Colorado today. Dad was getting antsy, he was missing his own stuff and we all know how we like our own stuff. It was nice having them here and I wish they didn't live so far away.

Chelsea had her MRI on the 18th and there were no tumors, but she does have an enlarged pituitary gland. They ran blood work (which came back normal) and a 24-hour urine test (we don't have those results back yet).

I've started knitting the Dead Fish hat, you can find it on my favorites on Ravelry. I don't have a picture of it yet, but I'll get one posted tonight when I finish the hat. I'm also getting ready to start a wedding shawl. I haven't picked out a pattern yet, but I've got to hurry because Chelsea is getting married on March 14th. I'm not sure why they are all of a sudden rushing to get married except that Spring Break falls the same week and Brennan will have been at his job for 1 year and be able to take vacation.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and ready for all the excitement that 2009 will bring.

Chelsea Star Hat Pattern

Here it is! The Chelsea Star Hat

Materials: (I was able to make 2 hats with 2 skeins of Paton's Classic Merino Wool worsted weight) MC-Cream and CC-Paprika

Note: This hat is meant to be creative, after knitting the star chart you can use your own imagination and add different color strips or whatever you feel like doing.

Needles: US 6 circular 16" and US 6 DPN
2 Stitch holders
1 marker
tapestry needle

This is knit for a SM (L) will be in parenthesis

Earflaps (make 2) same directions for either size. I don't have a chart for the earflaps, I just improvised a diagonal pattern. The first 8 rows were knit with CC, then I started knitting 2 stitches with MC and 2 stitches with CC and made a zigzag design. You can make solid color earflaps.

create a slipknot.
R 1 - K,P,K into the same stitch (make 3 stitches on needle)
R 2 and alternate rows Purl
R 3 - Kfb of 1st stitch, knit to last stitch, Kfb in last stitch
Repeat this pattern until you have 25 stitches on needle, turn and purl
Place earflap on a stitch holder.

Cap - with MC cast on 31 (39) knit 1 earflap onto needle, cast on 31 (39) knit on 2nd earflap. Connect stitches in the round making sure not to twist stitches.

Knit 10 rows with MC
R 11 - start working chart

R 26 - with MC knit 10 rows
R 36 - with CC *k12(14), k2tog (repeat from * around)
R 37 - with MC knit

R 38 - continue with main color *k11(13), k2tog (rep from *)

R 39 - knit

R 40 - *k10(12), k2tog (rep from *) ( I changed colors here and did a k1 with CC and k2 with MC)

R 41 - knit with MC

R 42 - *k9(11), k2tog (rep from *)

R 43 - knit

R 44 - *k8(10), k2tog (rep from *) with CC
R 45 - knit with MC until R44

R 46 - *k7(9), k2tog (rep from *)
R 47 - knit

R 48 - *k6(8), k2tog (rep from *)
R 49 - knit

R 50 - *k5(7), k2tog (rep from *)
R 51 - knit

R 52 - *k4(6), k2tog (rep from *)

R 53 - knit

R 54 - Finish crown with CC *k3(5), k2tog (rep from *)

R 55 - knit

R 56 - *k2(4), k2tog (rep from *)

R 57 - knit

R 58 - *k1(3), k2tog (rep from *)
R 59 - knit

R 60 - *k2tog (rep from *) (If you are making the large size continue until you are at k2tog) - 8 stitches left on needle.
Use a tapestry needle and thread threw remaining stitches and pull tight, weave in tail on the wrong side. Weave in all tails

Ties - Cut 3 pieces of yarn approximately 2 feet, (I used both colors) loop them through the point of the earflaps, make sure you have the same amount of yarn pulled through evenly, braid and tie at the end. Do this on both earflaps.

This pattern is fast and alot of fun, you can do any kind of color switches or designs that you think would look cool.

©copyright 12/17/08 Teresa Harmon (knakedknitter)

Wednesday

Well, I'm back at work. (yes, I'm blogging right now, but I've still got work stuff floating through my mind also). But anyways, I came back yesterday and everyone was so happy to see me! Yeah!!! That's job security. I was able to get back in the groove of things pretty quickly and it wasn't really busy since the economy sucks so badly right now. No body is hiring people, which is what we do. So business isn't looking good, but we hear thing should pick up in February.

Today we are having a Christmas party at the office. We decided to draw names this year and we are going to go out for lunch. We're eating at The Hammett House. YUM! I love their chicken spinach salad. It's my absolute favorite. So the girls drew names and since I wasn't here to draw, I got the last name in the hat which is Debbie. She's new to our little team and actually works in our Tulsa office. I had to do a little sleuthing to try and figure out what to get for her, but I didn't have time to go out and get something for her. I did find out that she needs a scarf, well...I thought to myself. That's easy enough, I'll just knit up a scarf for her, but then I thought about the cashmere lace scarf I made this summer. It's finished, ends are woven in and it's been blocked, no one has used it and it's so pretty. Ta-da - Christmas gift ready for wrapping! I hope she likes it as much as I do, if she doesn't I'll be bummed that I gave it to her. On the flip side of the present buying is the getting. Rita got my name and she knows that I love anything fibery or needles or notions, so I'm sure whatever I get I'll love. (especially if it's fibery).

Talking about fibery goodness, I've made another hat using my new pattern. This time I adjusted it for a larger size. But I still can't get my pictures to load. What the heck is going on with blogger? I'm so anxious for you guys to see my hats. The first one I made was white with the red star and then I reversed it and made a red hat with white star. Last night I started another one for who ever needs a gift. It's going to be very pale pink with navy blue stars.

Tomorrow is Chelsea's MRI at 7:30 in the morning. She's not happy about it being so early and it is a huge pain to get her and the baby out that early, but we'll manage.

Winter Weather

The weather was so nice yesterday afternoon. It was about 65° until 4pm and then it dropped like crazy.

I had a nice evening last night. The girls and I haven't had a knitting night since before Thanksgiving, and then the last 2 weeks I've been cooped up here with my own demons. I want to thank everyone who posted comments regarding my last post. It really made me fill good, just to know there was someone out there sending me love. Chelsea is feeling alot better, the dr. took her off the medicine because it just wasn't working for her body. She said she felt like she was completely paralyzed, she couldn't move, talk, or even open her eyes, but her mind wasn't shutting down. So even though I thought she was sleeping for 14+ hours. She was really only getting about 7 or 8 hours of actual sleep. The rest of the time she was trying to will herself to move. How scary is that. She has an appointment for an MRI on Thursday at 7:30 in the morning. But, she's doing good, no more seizures. I'm going back to work tomorrow.

Anyways, we had a Survivor finale get together last night. It was nice seeing the girls and just hanging out and not worrying. But while we were there we had a blast of sleet come in. Man, it got really cold quick. By 9pm it was 23° and the roads were really slick. I was just so happy that I had gotten a ride instead of driving. I'm not good at driving at night and add an ice storm to it and I might still be trying to find my way home. My survivor was Kenny in the Ravelry pool and of course he had to open his mouth one too many times and they kicked him off the island. Bob won and he deserved it, so I'll send my goodies off to the winners and wait for the next pool to begin.

Saturday, was nice because I was off duty. I had been trying and trying to figure out what to get my dad for Christmas. I finally decided to knit him a hat, but it couldn't be just any hat. I wanted a hat that had earflaps (so his ears don't freeze of in the Colorado mountains), something really warm (so I dug out some wool from my stash) and something with a cool design. I've never tried fair isle so I thought this would be a perfect time to try.

I found a chart for the Norwegian Star and then just started knitting. It took me about 6 hours to design, knit and complete this hat. Now if I can get the picture to upload, I'll show it to you. I'm going to write up the pattern and I'll post it in my blog if any one is interested in knitting this hat. As soon as I finished it and showed the kids, they ALL wanted one, so now I'm knitting another in different colors.

16 days till Christmas

It's been a crazy week.

On December 2nd at 9pm my daughter, Chelsea suffered a grand mall (tonic-clonic) seizure. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen.

The dr is trying to get the insurance to authorize an MRI and a referral to a neurologist. She's now on Keppra an anit-seizure medication with awful side effects. The worst side effect she's having right now is the sedation. She takes 250mg (recommended daily dose is 1000mg) at 9pm and it's now 11:33am and she still isn't awake. It makes her sleep for 14 hours or more. I'm only giving her the night-time dose because I don't want her sleeping her life away. She is 20 years old and has a 1 year old son. So until we can get her in to see the neuro I'm working from home.

I don't think I've been this exhausted since my kids were babies. I'm getting up at 5:30 or 6am to take care of Hayden and then when he goes down for a nap around 10am I try to get about an hours worth of work done. Then he's up and hopefully his mom wakes up around noon to take over.

On to better subjects:
Knitting for the holidays. Is anyone getting anything finished? I've been working on that Woodland Shawl since August and I think I'm ready to cast off. I've decided to give it to my mom for Christmas. I made my grandson the cutest pair of mittens out of Malabrigo worsted. I read somewhere that wool mittens are better for little ones because if they get wet, wool will hold in the heat and acrylics will freeze. I don't want my babies fingers freezing, so he got the good stuff.

This Christmas is going to be slim this year. I had big plans, but the funds just aren't there. This has been the worst year and I don't think 2009 looks much better for the 1st quarter. My salary is compensated with a month bonus or commission based on Ebitda percentages. In 2007 my commission checks were in the thousands, this year I think the highest I've gotten for a month is 600. That really hurts when you're used to making one amount and then it drops like that. I think my annual salary for this year is about $15,000 to $20,000 less than last year.
This year will have to be more about love, and being with family than presents.

I hope everyone has a great holiday...be safe.

Black Friday

First let me do a little updating.

The month of November flew by didn't it. From my last post, you already know that I signed up for the NaNoWriMo and .... I'm a winner. YEAH!!! I posted my novel on the 25th with 61,000 words. I'm still not finished with the story, they didn't say you had to finish it by the 30th, just write 50,000 words by the 30th. I've got my entire office and several friends and my daughter all chomping at the bit for me to get it finished. They've all been reading it a chapter at a time.

My grandson turned 1 year old this month. We had a big party at the local Pizza Hut. (I'm so glad we had it there, because I don't think all those people would have fit in my house, plus the mess ~ yuck!)

We had a great Thanksgiving Day, I cooked way too much food. But the leftovers are nice. I think I'll make some turkey and noodles this weekend. This morning I woke up early and went to Wal-Mart for Black Friday. It has been years since I've tried to get the good deals at 5am and I'd forgotten how crazy and mean people can get. We got some good deals and the very last Samsung Digital Camera for $69.00. (I think I'll wrap it from Santa to me).

I've got so many projects going right now I don't know what to do with myself. I'm almost finished with the Woodland Shawl. (I would have been finished with it over a month ago, but it's been setting in my project bag for the last 5 weeks) I got it out last night and knit 48 more rows. My plan is to do another 48 rows and call it finished. Once it's blocked it will be the perfect size and I think my mom will love it for her Christmas present.

Off to do some more knitting!

NaNoWriMo

It's been a week or so since I've written in my blog. I've joined the NaNoWriMo group. Yes, I'm going to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.

I've got a lot of stuff to do in November. Let's see. I've still got 1 more mini to knit and the deadline is November 15th. I've got to get started on some of my Christmas gifts, finish my Woodland Shawl, lots of birthday presents to buy in November. My grandson will turn one year old on the 20th, but we are having his party on the 15th, because OU doesn't have a football game that day. (isn't that sad, to get anyone to come to a baby's party, we have to schedule around the Oklahoma Sooners). My nephew will turn 19 years old on the 16th and my neice will be 21 years old on the 24th. Then we've got Thanksgiving on the 27th, and Black Friday on the 28th. How the heck am I supposed to be able to write a novel in the month of November?

I know I can write 50,000 words by November 30th, but I want the story to make sense. Would you like a little excerpt? here you go...

His mother always knew he’d be a famous author.

How would a small town boy with only a high school education become famous? Let alone on the bestseller list?

As Harrison Perkins sat at his desk, starring at the screen on his computer, writing a great novel was all he could think about. What story would make his mother proud? Mother always enjoyed the romantic novels with the half naked man on the cover, saving the damsel in distress. But Harry wasn’t the romantic type, and as the memory of his mother and her trashy novels crossed his mind, the blood vein in his temple started bulging. Blinking away the memories, Harry took another drag off his Parliament Menthol.

Does that make you want to read more? Let me know what you think, I'm just curious. I've written a few short stories in my past. But I've always wanted to write something and get it published. Maybe when I finish this and tweek it here and there, I'll send it off and see what happens.

Jaywalkers

I started my jaywalkers last night at knit night. Screwed up because I was too busy watching Survivor and talking to my girls. Frogged them this morning and started over. I can't wait to get them finished. I'm using the yarn that my Rav buddy Onesweettart gave me not too long ago. It's ubersoft, but I wound the yarn and lost the yarn band. Now I have no idea what brand or colorway I'm using.

I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it here so you can see my progress.

Frustrated by Health Care

My daughter woke up this morning with an eye problem. It seemed like an eye infection and a painful one at that. I made her go to the Immediate Care and get something for it. She dropped off her prescriptions at Wal-mart and came home to wait because they said it was going to be a 2 hour wait for them to be filled. She waited the 2 hours and went back to pick up the eye drops and pain reliever. She was told the eye drops would cost $80 with our insurance. She went back to the dr. and asked if there was something else she could be given that wasn't as expensive. He gave her the prescription and since Wal-Mart Pharmacy was closed for lunch she went to Walgreens. They told her that our insurance expired 9/1/08!!!! I told her there is no way the insurance is expired. The monthly premiums are deducted from my paycheck and open enrollment for 2009 doesn't start until 10/31/08. I told her to get the prescription back and go back to WalMart. WalMart tells her the same thing, and that the medicine will be $17.00 without insurance. So at least it was cheap enough that she could get the drops and start healing her eye.

I called the insurance company and listen to the recorded voice of the cheerful woman and answered my way through to customer service. Another voice comes on the line (recorded) and tells me that there is a problem with their facility and it is closed. What the hell does that mean? I got online and typed in the url and a white page with black letters pops up and says the facility is closed. Did my insurance company fold and I don't even know it?

In January my employer decided to help keep our insurance premiums down they were switching from UnitedHealthCare to Cigna. Cigna has caused nothing but problems this year. Most of the doctors in my town won't even accept Cigna because "they don't pay their bills". Isn't that comforting.

The Immediate Care that she went to this morning already has the insurance information in the computer and probably doesn't check each time you visit the dr. So if it's really cancelled, I'm sure I'll be getting a big bill in the mail next month.

Can I just scream? ACKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!

No one trumps Mom

Sometimes I have to step back and remember I'm not his mom. He lives with me and I'm his mom's mom, but I'm not his mom. I can give input, but I can't make the big decisions.

I found that out when he was barely a bump in the tummy. The new parents to be may ask for input regarding naming baby, what color should the nursery be, should we buy a new 4 and 1 crib or use the one that we found at a garage sale? Breast milk or formula? Those are questions that friends and family often throw their two cents worth in for. It's funny now as I'm typing this, that the examples that I gave in that sentence were real life questions she asked and she didn't take my advice on any of them.

• What should we name the baby? I thought Jack was a good name, it is a good strong name and both sides of his family had someone named Jack who meant alot to them. She chose Hayden (I love Hayden, but it's very trendy and wasn't my choice).
  
• What color should the nursery be? I was remodeling the house at the time just to get ready for baby and turned the formal living/dining into a small suite for them. I thought the room should have been painted a neutral color and then added the accent pieces for the theme of the nursey. Nope, that didn't happen either, his room is painted with 2 walls white and the 3rd wall (main wall) is dark chocolate brown and white stripes with pistachio green curtains and bedding. It's cute, just not what I would have chosen. Plus when they decide to paint over that brown wall it's going to be a bitch to cover!
  
• Should we buy the new 4 and 1 crib? You know the crib that converts to a toddler bed, then a twin bed and then a full size bed. This type of bed grows with your child. I thought that would be a nice thing to have and would last forever. She ended up with a regular crib that was purchased at an auction. It's a very nice crib, and a very expensive well made brand. But when he's two and ready for a toddler bed, the crib goes in the attic or garage and the toddler/twin bed needs to be purchased.
  
• For the last question, I breast fed both of my kids until they were 6 months old, I probably would have nursed them longer, but they both were more interested in the sippy cup by that age and the less they nursed the less milk I produced. So when she said she wasn't sure if she was going to breast feed or bottle feed, I was confused. Why wouldn't you want to? was my thought. I didn't give her the line about "you will have a better bond with your child if you nurse" because I don't believe that, I have several friends that couldn't be closer to their mothers and they were bottle babies. By the time Hayden was born she had decided to give it a try and it lasted about 1 week. She couldn't get him to latch on, so she was trying to pump and just wasn't able to get enough milk to keep him feed. Formula turned out to be his friend.

Yesterday I found out the no one trumps Mom, not even Dad. Hayden's aunt H. (who he has only seen a handful of times in his life) decided she was going to keep him on Friday night. I think there was some sort of motive behind all of this, just not sure what it was. There was no asking, "Do you mind if Hayden spends the night on Friday?" It was a phone call to his Dad stating "I'm going to take Hayden Friday night because I want to take him to the family thing on Saturday" Dad said Okay, (he's thinking ~yeah a peaceful nights sleep~) Mom said Hell no!! because he's too little to be spending the night with people he barely knows. Mom was afraid he would wake up in the middle of the night and be scared and feel abandoned and she didn't want her baby upset. My first thought was if Aunt H. wants to show off a baby, she should have one for herself. That turned into a huge fight between Mom and Dad and Mom and Aunt. I told her to compromise, take Hayden over on Saturday mid-morning and let him play with his Aunt and Cousin A. for a few hours. So that compromise was offered and turned down flat! Aunt H. wanted all or nothing, so she got nothing! Hayden slept peacfully and soundly in his own bed last night. I later found out that Aunt H. is wanting to have another child, but her new husband isn't sure he wants a baby. She wanted to practice with Hayden.

My daughter may be a young mother, but she's an awesome mother. Very loving, caring and nurturing to her little boy. She's involved in his day, playing with him on the floor, teaching him new things all the time. He's learning to talk, walk and is even learning sign language. He's a very happy boy and very loved. Just remember, a baby needs people in his life, it's great to have grand parents, aunts, uncles, and extended family and friends. But when it's time for decisions to be, whether they are the big decision or just little decisions. No one trumps Mom!

Test Socks are Finished

I finally finished the socks. These are the test socks for Ravelry member, Yarnlady40324, click this link for more information about Yarnlady. http://www.ravelry.com/people/yarnlady40324

This was a really easy sock pattern and would be great for beginning sock knitters.

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Update of BP and some other stuff

I went back to the dr yesterday morning about the same time as the day before and my blood pressure was lower, but still not where it needs to be. Tuesday it was 174 over 107 and Wednesday it was 146 over 101. The bottom number (he explained) is how long your heart takes to pump again.

I really don't want to have to start taking meds because I'm very bad about taking a pill EVERYDAY. So, I'm going to have to start getting more active, eating better. I never add salt to anything I cook, but I know that there is alot of sodium in some of the things I eat. So I'll have to start watching that. I'm going to try to get back down to the dr office sometime today to check it again.

Okay ~ on a happier note! Tonight is our knitting night. I so enjoy getting together with the girls and just knitting, talking, watching TV and eating. Tonight is my night to provide the dinner and I was going to fix salisbury steaks and scalloped potatoes, but I switched it up with all this blood pressure crap going on and now I'm taking a salad bar to her house. How's this sound, mixed greens, lots of different veggies, boiled egg, some shaved ham, grilled chicken, shredded cheese, maybe some kidney or garbonzo beans, mandarin oranges, or dried cherries. I just thought it would be fun for us to build our own salads and it would be really healthy.

I'm almost finished with the sock I've been working on for my Ravelry friend Yarnlady40324. I've finished the leg and have started on the heel flap. I'll be working on my sock tonight at knit night. Rita is still working on her beaded shawl and Michelle is about finished with her 3rd scarf. We will eat our salads, knit, watch Survivor and Grey's Anatomy. We have alot of fun and I just wish all my new friends on Ravelry could come play with us.

I've got my traveling scarf ready to mail for Group 39. This is actually a beginner's group and they needed someone with a little experience in moderating to run the group, so of course I volunteered. I also looked at this as a way to help beginner's hone their skills. So we are off and running. Here's a picture of my starter section.

I used size 7 needles, Cascade 220 in a turquoise colorway with the windmill stitch pattern. It's going to leave Oklahoma and head to the desert of Arizona hopefully today! I wish the picture wasn't so blurry. I think it will be really pretty after it has been blocked.

I'm also moderating a Traveling Scarves Group by our kids. The knitting will be done by our kids. Since my kids are grown and have no interest whatsoever about knitting. I recruited Rita's kid, Kallie. She's 12 years old and can't wait to get started on her scarf. She has never knit before, all the kids are beginner knitters so it should be very interesting on how the finished product turns out. The kids will be starting on their start section this week.

I guess that's all I've got for now.

I just got back from the doctor!

I work down the sidewalk from the clinic that we use for our Worker's Compensation patients and decided that this headache from hell just isn't going to go away. So at 8am on the dot, I walked down to see if I could get a Kenalog (?) shot. It's an allergy shot, that saved my life last year. I'm very allergic to ragweed and we are in prime season for the pretty little yellow flowers. I usually start out with sneezing, itchy eyes and throat, then in the blink of an eye it has moved to my chest and I end up with bronchitis and feel totally miserable.

So I'm in the dr's office with the nurse and she's checking my vitals and the blood pressure machine keeps starting over. She says, "ooo, that usually means it's high". Sure enough, drum roll please....my pressure was 174 over 107. My eyes probably bugged out of my head like that woman who can pop out her eyes. She said, it might just be because you have a headache and I'm thinking, the headache might be because I'm about to have a stroke. Usually my blood pressure is about 124 over 75, the highest it's ever been is 135 over 89 and that was when I was hurt. The dr wants me to check my blood pressure everyday this week and see if it goes back down. If not, I'll have to go back and see what the next step is, I think I know. It's probably to lose 30 lbs. Hopefully, I won't have to start taking blood pressure medicine.

November can't get here soon enough

I'm so tired of all the election stuff. Let's just get the vote over with, and get the show on the road. Whichever show it may be! This show will have new characters, but will the plot change or will we have the same old story? I would really like to take a peek at the new story, but....

I must admit this to myself, I am a complacent person. I'm the one who stays in a job forever because I'm afraid of change. Most of the time it's just easier to stick with the old and drudge along. I believe that all the changes are the right changes so why am I going back and forth and back and forth on this? I really really know what I should do. Go for the change! But why is it sooo hard for me?

Survey

I found this survey on http://www.knitmom.blogspot.com/ it looks like I've done or am currently working on most everything on the list. There are a couple things I want to try, but some that I have no interest in, like machine knitting and hair accessories.

The rules:
Bold the things you've done.
Green the things you are currently doing.
Red out the things you've abandoned or will never attempt.
Italicize the things you want to try.

AfghanAmerican/English Knitting (vs. Continental knitting)
Baby Items
Bobbles
Buttonholes
Cable stitch patterns (including Aran)
Cardigan
Charity knitting
Continental knittingCuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Darning
Designing knitted garments
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Drop stitch patterns
Dyeing with plant dyes
Dyeing yarn
Entrelac
Fair Isle knitting
Freeform knitting
Fullling/felting
Gloves
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Hair accessories
Hat
Holiday related knitting
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies.....)
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewelry
Kitchener
Bind Off
Knitting a gift
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting for a living
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies
Knitting in public
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting socks
Knitting to make money
Lace patterns
Longtail Cast
OnMachine knitting
Mittens: Cuff upMittens: Top down
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Olympic knitting
Participating in a Knit-a-long
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book
Purses/bags
Rug
Scarf
Shawl
Short rows
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers
Socks: toe upSocks: top down
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Stuffed toys
Swatching
Sweater
Teaching a child to knit
Teaching a male to knit
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Toy or doll knitting
Tubular Cast On
Twisted stitch patterns
Two ended knitting
Writing a pattern
Well there you have it. If you decide to do the meme let me know I'd love to read your list!

Now Hiring

Anybody out there looking for work in Claremore, OK? I've got tons of jobs that I can't fill find people who want to work. I keep hearing how bad the economy is and that we are in a recession, but here in Oklahoma we just aren't seeing it yet. In fact I may have an opening in my office soon. Let me know if you're interested.

I'm so glad it's Friday, this has been a very very long week. Sheri's last day was Wednesday, I hope that she enjoys her new job.

I'm still working on the socks, the Woodland Shawl and now I've started a new project. I got this pattern sometime last month for a stocking cap. Just plain, but really cute. You have your choice of a skull cap, a short, medium, or long cap with tassle.

My plans for tomorrow are to finish the sock and work on the woodland shawl.

The mini's are sneaking up on me also. I've still got about 7 minis to make and mail out by November 1st. I think I can do that next weekend.

The Ups and Downs

It's weird to me how one second you're happy, having an enjoyable morning and then "BAM" shit hits the fan, the rug is pulled out from under you, and you're head is spinning because you have no idea what just happened.

That's how I'm feeling right now. I was sitting in the floor playing with the baby, and Brennan comes in from his work out with a little bit of an attitude. He puts a Braum's bag on the coffee table and say "What? I tried to call and you didn't answer the phone". Chelsea and I just looked at him and said "It's no big deal". Chelsea and Brennan passed and she said "don't call me a bitch" she walked outside and he told me the only reason they are still together is because of Hayden and that they don't love each other. I asked, "So you don't love her anymore?" and he said "not when she's like that" and then Hayden, who was standing up at the coffee table tried to grab the Braum's bag and slipped and hit his chin on the table. I grabbed the baby and then Brennan took him from me and went into their room.

I'm sure alot of their stress and frustration is that they still live with us, but until Chelsea finishes school and starts working I don't know how they can afford to move out. You can't rent a place, pay a car payment, insurance, utilities, diapers, formula, food and clothing for a baby and still be able to have dinner for yourself when you make $12.00 per hour. If they moved out and she got a part-time job to help, then they would have a daycare bill on top of the other bills they have.

I'm just feeling bummed right now, so I'm going to talk about happy things like blocking scarves.

Yes, I've got my scarf for the Red Scarf Project on the blocking board, it's been there since yesterday morning and I'm going to give it a couple more hours before I take the pins out. I've also got my Traveling Scarf from Group 3. I know, I know, I should have blocked it a couple months ago, but I didn't. Also, I've got to graft my lace scarf together and get it blocked.

Now for my knitting...I was feeling bad about my Woodland Shawl because it had been a couple weeks since I'd worked on it and I was really afraid I'd forgotten where I left off, but I'm smarter than that! I had written myself a note of the date and row I had just finished. Whooo, that was a relief. Also, I decided to get out my row counter and each row I finish I click the button and then when I put it down and come back I know what row I'm on. When I finish all 16 rows of the pattern, I reset the row counter. My goal is to finish the pattern 3 times today.

Something to look forward to! The Amazing Race starts tonight. I started a group in Ravelry for anyone who wanted to be in a pool. It's like fantasy football in a way. You are assigned a team to race with. If your team wins the $1,000,000 you will win a prize valued $15-$20 from each person in your group. That's 10 people buying you a gift. Best of all - you get to decide what you want. That way you don't end up with $20 worth of fun fur that someone bought 5 years ago and has no idea what to do with it now. So if you want a certain brand of sock yarn, that's what you'll get. If you want gift certificates to your favorite etsy shop or LYS or Amazon.com, that's what you'll get.

I was in two groups during the season of Big Brother 10. I had Renny, she made it to the final 5 but just couldn't hang on. I also had Steven, the gay cowboy. I loved him, but he was targeted for eviction in the early weeks of the game. So I had to buy two gifts. Both of the winners in my groups wanted gift cards from Amazon.com. That was super easy.

I was in another pool for the Greatest American Dog. I had JD and Galaxy and they made it to the final 3. The judges were stupid and inconsistent and though JD was a poor trainer and sent them home. The winner of that group wanted stuff. She said she liked notions, sock yarn, etc. I got to put a package together that was so much fun. I got her 2 skeins of Berroco sock, and cute little notepad, a stitch marker that I had made that says I heart dogs and then I went ahead and added 2 more skeins of sock yarn that I had purchased 10 skeins on ebay. It is 100% alpaca and sooooo soft. I'm making a pair of socks with it right now and everyone who has tried the 1st sock on says it is scrumptous on the toes.

I'm feeling better now, I can hear my grandson laughing and his mom and dad are talking and playing with him. I just hope they understand how hard it is to make a family stay together and that it doesn't just happen, it takes lots and lots of work. My daughter has a sign on the back of her car window that says It's easy to hate, love takes work".

Love takes work!

Crafty Weekend

I had a crafty weekend. I love it when I get in these new crafty mood, I love going to the store and buying all the stuff to get started on my new creations. I go through stages of craftiness. So my latest crafty endeavor is stitch markers or place markers, whichever you prefer. I had so much fun making these that I didn't get much knitting done.

I went to the craft store at 9am on Saturday morning. Hobby Lobby is the closest craft store to me. Not very many people will have ever heard of this store, I think it's locally owned and has a few chains in the Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri area. Anyways, I was excited to go in and browse through the yarn, pattern books, needles etc, but was very dissappointed at the selection. They must have had a big sell, because the shelves were looking mighty bare. I went over to the notions isle and was very underwhelmed. That's when it hit me! I need to make my own stitch markers. I've got several people in my Ravelry groups that would enjoy getting a RAK and everyone who knits needs stitch markers. That would be the perfect little "I'm thinking about you" gifts.

I finally found the jewelry making isles and laudy mercy EVERYTHING was 50% off. So I loaded up on all the stuff to make some really cute markers. I couldn't hardly wait to get out of the store and over to my sister's house to use her jewelry making tools. (I didn't buy those since I knew she already had that stuff).

I arrived at her house and she wasn't at home, she was at the dentist office cleaning my dad's teeth (she's a hygenist). I had just settled in with all my charms and jump rings and stuff scattered all over her coffee table when she came in the house. I quickly realized that I had purchased a whole lot more charms than rings and was going to have to go back to Hobby Lobby again. Well, with my sister seeing what I was doing, she got all excited about making stitch markers for herself and wanted to go also. So we took off, to make the 25 mile (one-way) trip again. This time when we arrived at Hobby Lobby, I knew exactly what I was getting at least I thought I did! Something about all the charms takes over my senses and I ended up buying even more charms and by the time we got back to her house I had enough charms and rings and stuff to make about 30 stitch markers. I've got about 10 or 12 charms left, my sister has tons of beads and now I just need some more large rings and jump rings to put them all together. I did end up having to buy a set of the needlenose pliers and crimpers and grabbers (I don't know the technical terms for these instruments).

Here are some of the pictures of my creations! I really like them.

(this picture is kinda blurry)
So what do you think? That is just some of them. It was hard to take the pictures because of the glare. I made alot of them with pretty beads. I'll see if I can get better pictures.

Now I just need to get my head out of the jewelry making and back into knitting so I can finish the pair of socks I'm testing for Yarnlady and the Woodland shawl that stuffed into my knitting bag.

Oh yeah! I had another find at Hobby Lobby. I bought a cardboard pattern cutting board for $6.99 to block all my knitting. This will make it much more easy to block stuff when I can pin it to the board and put it up on the table or counter to dry instead of constantly making sure that the dogs aren't laying on it or god forbid chewing on it. For some reason the dogs really like the smell of wet wool, it must really taste good.

Shawls, Socks and Toys

I've almost let another month go by without saying anything. Alot has been going on in my world. My parents are visiting right now, they came to see their newest great grandson, Asher (my niece's baby).

There's still alot going on with our new account at Whirlpool and I'm still spending way too much time working on this account and neglecting others. But we've finally hired a 2nd shift On-Site Supervisor to take over on the evening shift. That means I won't have to work late every night anymore. Well, he actually won't start until 9/29, but I can definitely see a light at the end of the tunnel.

On to more interesting subjects - knitting! I'm working on the Woodland Shawl, it's not a quick knit by any means and you can't try to knit and watch tv at the same time, or knit and talk to friends. You've got to be in a room by yourself and just pay attention. Having a different pattern on every row is HARD! Here's a picture of what I've completed so far. I should have taken a better picture, close up so you could see the pattern. I think once I've finished knitting it and blocking, it will be really pretty.

I'm also still knitting mini's, well I've got one on the needles that's been there for about a month or so, I really need to get busy and finish the minis and get them mailed off. TASK squares are coming along very slowly, I thought it would be more fun to knit squares and mail them off and get squares from the other members of the group and put together an afghan, but it's really hard to make a perfect square 12"x12". I think I've frogged more than I've actually knit.

I'm actively working on a pair of socks for Yarnlady in Group 3 of the Traveling Scarves. She designed a pair of socks and wrote up the pattern so I'm doing a test knit for her. They are really cute and will make a perfect pattern for a beginner sock knitters. This picture isn't very good, I guess I was casting a shadow. Here's a picture closer up so you can see the pattern.


I'm working on the heel flap right now, axious to start the gusset and see how that goes. I'm using an alpaca blend, so I'm hoping that they will feel as good on my feet as they do in my hands. I'll keep you posted on my current projects.

Happy knitting!

August has been a busy month

Here we are at the tail end of August and the month has flown by. I remember my parents telling me the older you get the faster the time flies.



Let's see, at work we got the Whirlpool account and that has been a crazy mess. I've been working from 6:30am until 5:30pm everyday on this account. I rarely get a lunch hour and hardly have time to even pee until the end of the day. There are so many daily reports that I had to put up a big white board right in front of my desk just to make sure I'm getting them all day at the exact time that they are required.



August is a big birthday month for my family and we've just added a new birthday to the list. I've got an aunt who just turned 93 on August 1st. One of my dear friends turned 44 on August 10th, my birthday (the big 45) was on August 14th. We added a new birthday to the list on August 21st, my great nephew Asher was born at 11:21pm. He almost shared a birthday with his great grandpa (gramps - my dad) Dad celebrated is 69th birthday on August 22nd. My sister, Asher's grandma's birthday is August 29th and she will be turning 42.

Here is a picture of Asher Lane. This picture was taken about 2 hours after he was born.

We were a little worried that he was too big too actually be delivered and even up to the very last minutes it was still touch and go that a c-section would be required. The dr predicted him to be 9 1/2 lbs, but he suprised us and weighed in a 8lbs 5 ozs and 20" long. The little red dot is a strawberry mark, just like the one his mommy had when she was born.

Normally, the hospital only allows 3 people in the room when a baby is being delivered. There were about 7 of us in the room when the dr came in to check her progress. The guys left the room and the next thing I knew the dr said it's time to start pushing. My daughter, Chelsea and I were getting ready to leave the room because the 3 people were Josh (the dad), my sis (grandma) and Emily (Alyssa's best friend). The nurse asked us if we were staying and Alyssa didn't care so I stepped up by the head of the bed and manned the camera. The birth of a baby is so amazing. I got pictures of him being lifted onto Alyssa's belly, Josh cutting the cord and Asher being cleaned off. He's just a precious little bundle.

Onto the knitting stuff for this month. Well, I haven't done alot, mainly because I've been so busy with work that by the time I get home I don't have the energy to think about knitting. I need to get busy and finish up the mini's since the deadline is November. I've still got 9 more TASK squares to knit and mail off before March. I worked on 3 more red scarves that arrived to my home this month. The Red Scarf Project group is a little behind, the deadline to have all scarves finished is September 1st and there have been some slowdowns along the way. 2 scarves have actually been kidnapped and the knitter has fallen off the face of the earth. One of our knitters has been very very ill and wasn't able to knit for a little while but she's back to feeling good enough to knit and has caught up and mailed off everything she had. Chicago seems to have slowed us down a little, but I'm sure she's knitting up a storm as I type this. We may not make the September 1st deadline, but I think we'll still have time to get finished and the scarves all mailed to the orphanage foundation it time for distribution.

I received a $50 gift card to my closest LYS and bought 2 skeins of Noro Kuryon Sock yarn and I'm making the Woodland Shawl. It's been a challenge but a tip from one of my knitting buddies, Nicolana111 has saved the day and now I'm knitting along just fine and able to keep the pattern accurate.

One more thing I almost forgot. I got all my hair cut off. I need to take a new picture and post it on my page. My sister took me to the salon for my birthday. Rachel the stylist, cut 15" of hair. Now I've got a short inverted bob, I'm just now getting used to it. I wanted to wear it straight, using a flat iron, but I just can't get the hang of it so I'm wearing it curly. It's just so easy to do curly and I've gotten alot of comments on it. People have asked me if I've lost weight, they say it makes me look younger, and I've even had a few tell me it makes me look happier, flirtier and even sexy. That last one was a little bit of a shocker, but hell, I'll take it!

I hope everyone else has had a great month. I'll post again sooner this time.

Wow - it's been a month

I can't believe it's been a little over a month since I've made a blog post. I guess I've just been very very busy.

Let's see over the last month, my daughter turned 20 years old on July 3rd, my grandson turned 8 months old on July 20th, my son-in-law was hit by an unisured motorist, my ex husband was hit by a guy turning left but forgot to yield to oncoming traffic. (Both are okay, son-in-law's car was just a door crunch, ex husband's car was totalled). Spent a few days in Colorado with my parents, wish we could have stayed longer, work has been crazy, and I've gotten quite a bit of knitting done. (Actually more stash building than anything). That's it in a nutshell.

My sister, her kids, Alyssa 20 (and 8 months pregnant) and Baryn (18 and leaving for college this week) and I went to Walsenberg, Colorado for the week to see Mom and Dad. It's a 10 hour car ride and that's really tough when you've got 4 people in a Honda Civic and one of them is hugely prego and wanting to stop to eat or pee every hour or so. No really it wasn't that bad, ooops I forgot about our final passenger, my sisters 1/2 breed chihuaha, Booger.

We got there around 2pm on Friday and after getting all of our stuff in the house and resting for a few minutes we were off to the LYS - Edla's Yarn Store. She was so excited to see us because I'm sure when we visit her weekly sales quadruple at least. I know my sister spent somewhere around $400 and I spent around $200 this time. She was having a sale of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, $2.00 per skein usually Cotton Fleece sells for $8.00 per skein. We each bought about 35 or so skeins and would have gotten more if we would have been more quiet about our find, but our squeels of joy alerted other customers and they ran over and grabbed what they could grab before the shelves were cleared. Here's a pic of the stash I bought. There's also some Berroco Foliage in the stash that was on sale for $3.75 each and then I got that cute pink and brown project bag for $15.00. Saturday, we went back to Edla's and spent the entire day sitting around the knitting table chatting with the regulars. I also ended up with some Cashmere/Silk that I made a beautiful scarf with, now I just need to block it and it will be ready to wear this fall. Here's a picture of it.

Sunday we went to Pueblo to the movies to see Batman (Dark Knight) it was pretty good I guess, it was so crowded we had to sit on the front row, the next day my shoulder hurt so bad from leaning weird so I could try and see the entire screen without turning my head from side to side.

Monday we just relaxed and watched movies and knit at Mom and Dad's and Tuesday morning we headed home, we were planning on staying until Saturday, but Alyssa and Baryn both had dr's appointments that couldn't be rescheduled. It was a fast and furious trip, but it was still fun. Mom and Dad are planning on coming here in September to see Alyssa and Josh's baby.

Since I got home so early and had scheduled the entire week off anyways, I just stayed home and played with my grandbaby and helped my daughter, Chelsea out and gave her a little break. She wasn't feeling very good so I made her go to the dr because she had a sore throat and I could see white patches on her tonsils and was afraid she might have strep throat. The dr didn't think it was strep, but possibly mono so they drew some blood. She got the results back today and it is confirmed, she has mono. Hopefully the entire family doesn't come down with it, I'm not really sure how you get it, but the doctor said not to drink after each other. Luckily, they said the baby is probably immune since he was born healthy and hasn't had any medical issues.

That's all I've got right now, I'll try and write again before another month goes by!

Mini Madness

Yes, I've got mini madness. It's all I think about and all I want to knit. I've made mini sweaters and mini socks and trying to get them out in the mail as fast as I can. Trying to decide what yarn to use is now becoming the hardest part of the entire process. I think it's going to call for a visit to my LYS - Loops in Tulsa! I've got to get some more cool sock yarn because I've still got 16 more minis to knit and they can't all look alike.

I was able to squeeze in a quick and easy project over the weekend. The Coachella is so cute and when I saw the picture I knew exactly who was going to be the recipient of this cool summer top. My best friend Sabina. I've got pictures of her modeling, but she made me swear I wouldn't get her face in the pictures.

I think it ended up looking really good, I wish she'd been at the house while I was knitting it and I could have tried it on her in stages just to make sure I was getting it right. I'm going to end up making her another one in black but I'll make a few adjustments. I used size 6 and 8 needles instead of the suggested 7 and 9's. I'll probably keep the needle size the same and use the 6 and 8's but I'll add a few more rows to the neck and the T-Back and then a little more length at the bottom. The only reason it's a little shorter is because I ran out of the yarn. duh! I thought I had 4 balls and ended up only having 3 and a little bit of a darker brown as you can see at the very bottom.

Now it's back to the minis and mini madness! One of these days I'm going to have to finish the baby stuff I started for my great nephew, but he won't be here until September 1st so I've still got some time.

Mini Sweater Pattern

Anybody can make mini's and they are so fun and addictive because you can make 3 or 4 in just a few hours. So if you've always been scared to tackle a sweater, start here with this mini!

I used size 5 needles - fingering weight yarn.

Jojoland Melody - 1 skein

Cast on 12

Row 1 - 1x1 rib for 2 rows,

Row 3-12 stockinette stitch

Row 13 - Cast on 10 at each end for sleeves

Row 14 - 23 stockinette st

Row 24 - k 14, bound off 4, k 14, turn

Row 25 - p 14 cast on 4, p14.

Row 26-32 - stockinette stitch

Row 33- bind off 10 st at each end (sleeves)

Row 34 - 43 - stockinette stitch

Row 44-45 - 1x1 rib,

Bind off in rib pattern and seam sides and sleeves. Easy Peasy!!!

Toy's Galore

I forgot what it was like to have a baby in the house, what a cluttered mess! Bouncy chair, walker, high chair, playpen, and toys, toys, toys! Thank goodness for the Zoo Toy Bag I knit up before he was even here. It's great for hauling all his toys from room to room or house to house. Here's a picture of Hayden's toy bag. I knit this last year on a 10 hour drive to my parents house in Colorado.

When we got there, I had Mom put a lining in and it turned out really great.

Now that my niece is expecting a little boy (Asher) in September, I decided she needed a toy bag also. Asher's bag is a little bit different, instead of the elephant on the front pocket, I tried my hand at knitting a star. I didn't have a pattern or chart, just eyeballed it and I think it turned out pretty good.

I've got a few more rows of red to finish and then it will be ready for the lining and seaming. I'm going to knit the I-cords with the baby blue for a little contrast!. Let me know what you think.

Recycling

My daughter wanted us to start recycling, so we bought 4 different trash cans and she wrote on the lids in really cool writing "Cans", "Paper", "Plastic" and "glass". She gave everyone in the family the recycling rules and we got started. By the end of the week we had a full bag of cans (they drink too much pop), and almost full bags of the other 3 items. Now, what do we do with it? There isn't a recycling center in our town. So much for trying to go green!

Also, on the recycling front, I started going through old knitting patterns last night and found one of my favorites.

I made this bag a couple of years ago for a gift and it really turned out pretty. I made it exactly like the pattern. I love turquoise and brown together and with the silver beads it was really artsy and looked like it really took alot of work. In reality, it was very easy even though it was my first time working with beads.

So let's all start recycling and look through our old patterns, pick out an old favorite and knit it again! Also, don't forget about recycled yarn. My sister and I had a lot of fun one night ripping out old wool sweaters that we found at good will.

Wii would like to play

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. My parents were in town (staying with my sister). We had a good time, caught up on all of Dad's medical stuff, watched lots of movies and played with my sister's new Wii Fit.

I'm going to have to get me a Wii, because Mii wants to play. I hate exercise with a passion, but Wii really makes it fun. I can do the yoga, balance exercises, aerobics (it's funny to watch me). After you complete some of the basic exercises, it unlocks new games (exercises) such as kick boxing. It keeps track of your weight, BMI, center of balance for posture, and it lets you know if you are doing good, or need more work.

I'm saving my pennies and I'm going to buy a Wii as soon as I can find one.

Red Scarf Project

Have you heard of this project? It's through the Ophans Foundation of America. A unique initiative to warm the hearts (and necks) of college-bound foster youth. They began taking donations of handmade red scarves to put into our Valentine's Day Care Packages Your wonderful handmade creation will be sent in a Valentine’s Day Care Package to an OFA student enrolled in college or trade school.

This year a group of us on Ravelry in the "Traveling Scarf Group" decided we would support the Red Scarf Project and knit for the kids.

Usually 1 person knits a scarf, tags it with their information and sends it to OFA for distribution. We thought it would be cool for these kids to know that 10 different people put their artistic minds and hands to work and created a piece of art and love for them. We are each knitting at least 6" of each scarf, tagging it and shipping it off to the next knitter. By the time the scarves are finished and ready to mail they will have traveled from coast to coast before landing in the hands of a college-bound kid.

I shipped my starter scarf off last week to get the 2nd section of 6" knit and forgot to take a picture. But here is a picture of a scarf that I received and knit my section and ready it will be heading to Manhattan, KS by tomorrow.

Here's a link with all the information if you are interested in joining us! http://orphan.org/index.php?id=40

Tornados - Where's Dorothy when you need her!

I've live in Oklahoma all my life and when the weatherman says there's a tornado watch we go stand on the backporch and look for it. I've never been afraid of tornados (I respect them - but I'm not going to freak out and cry if there's a tornado watch or warning). I've raised my kids so that they know what to do in case of an actual tornado coming and they won't freak out either. Now my son-in-law is a different story. I don't know what happened to him as a child when it comes to tornados but he panics if he sees the little map in the corner of the TV that says tornado anything. It doesn't even have to be in our county and he's freakin' out.

So, Wednesday night there were tornado watchs and a few warnings in our county. It was raining really really hard and the wind was blowing pretty good. We live about 7 miles from town and we heard the sirens going off and that's all he could handle. For some reason he wants to get in the car and leave and I'm trying to tell him that's the worst thing to do, if he's that scared he needs to go into the bathroom and get in the tub with blankets piled on top of him. He kept saying he didn't want the house to fall on him and he needed to get out. I thought we were going to have to tie him down, sedate him or something.

Thursday morning after all the tornado commotion we did hear that there was actually a tornado that touched down about 35 miles from us - an F Zero. I'm not really sure if that counts as a tornado or not, I think it was more like really strong wind with a little rotation. There wasn't much damage, just some trees down.

Now to talk about my knitting - I'm still working on the traveling scarves and it seems they've all landed in my lap. I've got 3, mailing 1 out today, workinging on another, trying to decide what to do with the 3rd and then I'm also working on "The Red Scarf Project" This is where knitters knit unisex red scarves and send them to the orphan foundation to be distributed to the Foster kids who have aged out and are not in college. Hopefully I'll have it finished today and can mail it out tomorrow. Then there's the dreaded squares for our traveling afghan. I received my first square and it's so soft and pretty, I hope the other's do it justice. I've got to get busy working on them, I've mailed 1 and finished another just need to decide who the new owner will be.

I've got to seam together the little cardi I knit for my daughter. Seaming is the worst part to me. I'm the world's worst about knitting on something for days and when the knitting is finished it goes in the basket or bag and sits for a month or so before I get it back out again. I need to get that done this weekend also.

As long as the wind stays in someone else's backyard for awhile!

Another week has come and gone!

Man, where does the time go? Just yesterday it was Christmas, wasn't it? Now it's almost May and I've got so much knitting to do that have deadlines that won't be met.

The TASK project for our traveling afghan squares is kicking my butt! Who'da thought that knitting up twelve 12x12 squares would be so freakin hard. I never knew I was such a prefectionist, but I really want the squares to be perfect. They are going out to people who really don't know me, except for the me on Ravelry. The squares are representing who I am. I am an outgoing fun happy person on the outside, always looking for a good time, loves to hang with friends and family, but on the inside I'm not happy with myself and I guess that's what I don't want my TASK friends to see - my imperfections.

I've got to do something

I'm sure you've noticed the title to my blog, If you knit, you can't eat. Well that's not exactly true. I've been doing alot of knitting and apparently, according to the scales alot of eating. This blog is supposed to be about knitting, friends and family and my journey towards a healthier lifestyle and losing some weight. Instead of losing weight I'm gaining - to the turn of 20 lbs since October.

Yesterday morning I woke up and decided I was going to drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday. No more diet pop!!!! Healthy lunches like Subway, lean meats and lots of fruit and veggies. I did very good all day at work and when I came home someone had bought pizza for dinner. I ended up eating 3 slices of pizza (it was thin crust) but still, what the heck I totally screwed up.

I woke up this morning not feeling very good, probably the stupid pizza. Today will be a much better day. I've already started drinking my water and I'm having a cup of kashi cereal for breakfast. I'll be at a job fair during the luch hour and lunch will be provided. Usually they provide sandwiches, hopefully they are from Subway, and not something full of mayo. For tonights dinner, I'm planning on having a big salad with tuna fish sprinkled over the top and lite italian dressing. Lots and lots of water today.

On a brighter note - tomorrow is the Sheryl Crow concert!!! Yeah, I'm so excited.

Now for knitting stuff - I finished knitting the cardi for my daughter. It was a very fast knit, started on Saturday and finished Sunday. Now I just have to sew it together and I think I'm going to add a rib stitch all the way around. I was going to sew it up yesterday, but for some reason I can't find any of my tapestry needles. Where'd they all go???

I've got to get to work so I'll chat with you later!

Reading, Scarves and Squares - Oh my!

As you saw in my last post, the book reading homework assignment I have been given is getting in the way of my knitting.

I've made a deal with myself, that if I read 1 chapter (approx 15 pages) I get to knit for 15 minutes. Sounded fair to me, except for some reason that 15 minutes of reading lasts alot longer than 15 minutes of knitting. The knitting time just flies by and then I have to pick the book back up.

I have a scheduled personal day today and when I left work yesterday I "accidentally" left the book on my desk. Ooops! I guess I'll just have to knit without reading this weekend. (isn't that ashame.

I finally finshed my 1st square for the TASK (Traveling Afghan Squares for Knitters) project and I'll get that mailed off today. I got SueChicago's scarf in the mail yesterday and had the perfect yarn to add to it. I don't know if this stitch pattern is real and has a name or not, I actually was planning on a k3, p3 rib but I didn't have enough stitches and ended with a k2, when I turned to start the next row I didn't take into account that I only had 2 stitches on that end and when ahead and k3, p3, to the end and ended with k2 again. I could have fixed it but it was doing something cool and I wanted to see how it played out. It really turned out very nice, 1 knit stitch in each section stayed the same, so it is a rib pattern, just not the one I intended on making. I'm sure that's how most of the stitch patterns came to be, someone was planning on knitting one thing and screwed up and instead of frogging it and starting over they named the stitch pattern. I'll have to do a little research and see if I can actually find this pattern on the net or in a book. If not, I'll have to think up a cool name for it.

I've got pics but I can't find my cable to download, so I'll have to show you my stuff later.

TASK

Wow, it's been 10 days since I've written about anything. My lazy knitting project is being lazy and hasn't progressed any since my last blog. Mainly because I've taken on a new task, as in TASK - Traveling Afghan Squares for Knitters. It's a spin off our traveling scarf group and I took the lead on this project. Collecting personal info from each knitter, preferences, etc and compiled a spreadsheet for each knitter to keep track of their squares.

Sunday, I decided to visit my LYS (Loops in Tulsa, OK) and pick out my yarn for my first square, (I actually could have just gone to my closet and picked out a yarn, but it was a good excuse to visit Loops). I picked out a really pretty color of Samoa (cotton blend). After, showing off my "Not your normal baby blanket" to the girls at Loops. I headed home to axiously get started on my square.

I chose my needles, got my yarn, the remote control, glass of iced tea and settled down in the recliner to watch BigBrother After Dark (I tivo'd it) and start my beautiful square. What stitch was I going to do, something simple like seed stitch, or something with a cable? Cabel it is! I love the X and O cable and thought it would be perfect ya know (hugs and kisses) for this labor of love. I started (without doing a swatch first) cast on 64 stitches and began. After knitting about 3 inches I slipped my stitches onto a circular needle to messure. I'm supposed to be making a 12x12" square. It's not! My gauge should be 16 stitchs = 4". 64 stitches should be 12". It was only 10". I've started, frogged and restarted my first square 4 times already. Then I decided maybe it's the cable stitch pulling my gauge in too tight. After the 4th frogging, I've chosen a new pattern, it's sorta like a moss stitch, but I've improvised a little bit. It's simple, but it will be very pretty.

The 2nd thing that has taken up some of my knitting time is reading. I've got to read this book for work, and I'm not good about reading if it's not something I really want to read. The book is titled It's Okay to Be The Boss by Bruce Tulgan. It's interesting enough, but if I'm gonna read, I'd rather be reading a knitting mystery by Maggie Sefton.

Here's a picture of my 5th attempt at making my square for TASK and the book that is getting in the way of my knitting.

Lazy knitting

Now that I've finished the "Not your normal baby blanket" I'm doing some lazy knitting. I'm in between traveling scarves, should be getting one soon (hopefully). I've got the materials to start on my first lace shawl, I'm hoping that by the time I get it finished that my daughter or niece will wear it as a wedding shawl. But that won't be anytime soon, I'm sure. Being bored this weekend but not wanting to take on a big challenge I got out a ball of cotton and started on some dishcloths.

I love dishcloths, the hard part is using them. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to make a dragonfly dishcloth. When I started, I really didn't know what I was going to do with this. I started out with a seed stitch border, and thought to myself, that's good, I could just keep it going all the way, but I kept hearing a little voice in my head "dragonfly". I continued the seed stitch (5 stitches) on the edge, but now I wish I'd only done 3 stitches, it's okay, but leaves less room in the middle for the design. I totally winging the design, I don't have a pattern or a chart, just picturing what a dragonfly looks like and knitting it as I go.

The picture is what I've done so far.

Not your normal baby blanket Pattern!

This will be the first time I've published a design of my own. So here it goes, (if you find any mistakes - please let me know immediately)

Not your normal baby blanket
Materials - I used Debbie Bliss Rialto DK weight 3) A: red 3) B: teal 3) D: orange 3) E: pink 3) F: purple 3) G: lime 3) H: pale blue 3) I: maize 5) C: Adriafil Knitcol - 046 self striping

Needles - size 7 /4.5 mm - 26" circular, tapestry needle.
Guage - 18 stitches x 24 rows = 4 inches

NOTE: To keep from having to turn your work each time you need to switch from knit to purl, I knit backwards for my purl rows. With stitches on right hand needle, insert left needle into the back loop of stitch, wrap yarn from back to front, lift right needle over left and slide stitch onto left needle. The directions are written to turn your work, when you come to a purl section you can knit backwards if you chose.

With A cast on on 160 stitches any cast on method will be okay for this project.

Tier 1 Section 1(Base Triangles)
Row 1: p2 turn
Row 2:k2 turn
Row 3: p3 turn
Row 4: k3 turn (continue in the manner adding 1 stitch on each purl row until you have 8 stitchs purled and a triangle base has formed (1 of 20). DO NOT TURN Leave these 8 stitches alone (you are finished wtih them) starting with the next stitch repeat the process of Section 1 (Base Triangles) until you have 20 triangles on your needles.

Tier 2 Section 2 - (right side triangle)
Row 1: With B k2 turn
Row 2: p2 turn
Row 3: k3 turn
Row 4: p3 turn (continue in this manner adding 1 stitch on each knit row until you have 8 stitches knit and a right side triangle complete)

Section 3 - (left slanting rectangles)
Row 1:*pick up and knit 8 stitches turn
Row 2: sl 1 p7 turn
Row 3: k7, ssk (using 1 live stitch from the middle base triangle) continue in this manner until you have picked up all 8 stitches from base triangle. Repeat from * to end

Section 4 - (left side triangle)
Row 1: (WS) pick up and purl 8 stitch along left side of base triangle turn
Row 2: k6, k2tog turn
Row 3: purl turn
Row 4: k5, k2tog turn, continue until only 1 stitch remains

Tier 3 Section 5 - (right slanting rectangle)
Row 1: With C (WS) pick up and purl 7 stitches (to make up 8 stitches) turn
Row 2: *sl 1 k7 turn
Row 3: p7, p2tog (picking up live stitch from rectangle turn, Repeat from * until all 8 stitches from rectangle have been pick up. Repeat Section 5 until you have completed all right slanting rectangles. Continue using this process switching colors for every tier (3 times)

Bind off Triangles
Row 1:*(WS) facing pick up and purl 8 stitches turn
Row 2: sl1 knit turn
Row 3: p2tog, p5, p2tog turn
Row 4: sl1 knit turn
Row 5: p2tog, p4, p2tog turn
Row 6: sl 1 knit turn
Row 7: p2tog, p3, p2tog turn
Row 8: sl 1 knit turn
Row 9: p2tog, p2, p2tog turn
Row 10: sl 1 knit turn
Row 11: p2tog, p1, p2tog turn
Row 12: sl 1 knit turn
Row 13: p2tog (3 times)
Row 14: sl 1, ssk
Row 15: ssk - 1st bind off triange finished slip last stitch onto right needle and continue from * to complete all bind off triangles

Weave in any ends and you are finished.
Labels: baby, blanket, designs, entrelac

Not your normal baby blanket

So I decided to try my hand at designing and this is what I've done. It's about 1/2 finished and I'd like to know what you think.

My niece is having her first baby and so I decided to make her a blanket, but I didn't want to do the "normal" baby blanket. My sister and I were at Loops in Tulsa, OK and I just had to get this Debbie Bliss "Rialto". Now, I'm sure this blanket would be just fine in whatever color or yarn you'd prefer because I've got about $200 into this blanket so far.

I plan on posting the pattern as soon as I've finished the blanket. Check out my Ravelry page "knakedknitter1"

Tax Refunds

I don't know if you guys know this, I work for a staffing service. We specialize in finding people manufacturing and industrial jobs. We are not considered a TEMP service, because we only have 2% if that, that is really temporary. Anyways, as everyone knows this time of year people are getting back tax returns (some of us are paying). I've been in this business now for 8 years and every single year our employees disapear during January through March. I could never figure out why our hours dropped, numbers were sloping down and then around the end of March beginning of April the people would start calling and wanting to go back to work. A few weeks ago I called someone who had been looking for a job to tell him about a particular opportunity that we had coming up that he could start the next day. He told me he didn't need to work right now because he got his tax refund!!! What??? people actually quit their jobs or don't accept a good job because they are living off a tax refund!!! I thought you actually had to work and pay taxes before you got a refund back, but apparently not! I work everyday, I struggle, I've got mouths to feed, but I don't quit my job if I get a tax refund. Good God, what is the United States coming to?

I hate to be to preachy here, but something has got to change. We need stricter rules for giving people government assistance. Now, let me state this first, I am all for helping people who are out there trying to do for themselves. Let the single mother have daycare assistance, WIC for her children and foodstamps if needed, but the boyfriend who is laying on the couch all day while his single mother girlfriend is working a minimum wage job needs to get his ass up and find a job and quit living off the $100 worth of foodstamps she gets to feed her child. What has happened to work ethics? They need to have a mandatory class in school on work ethics. Kids need to be held responsible for their actions and not given a 3 day vacation when they mess up in school. They need to be given community service at the school, really make them work, clean the cafeteria, scrub the locker rooms, make them wear coveralls and no interaction with other students, zeros on all their work, then they might think twice about screwing up in school. They might pay more attention to their studies and really appreciate a job someday. I know no one likes to work, we'd all like to get paid and still be able to do whatever we wanted whether it's stay in bed all day, watch soaps, garden or hang out with the kids at the zoo. I work because they pay me to be here. How do we make our teens and young adults understand this?

I know I'm ranting, but it just really pisses me off, everyday I see these people coming in saying they want to work, but then no call no showing, or tardies everyday, missing because their girlfriends, step mothers, 2nd cousin is in the hospital. I've heard them all!!!