Unwind, A Yarn Shop

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is firecracker day! I hope everyone stays safe and has a lot of fun. It's too hot to go camping, Grand Lake has blue green algea which sounds really nasty, so they've advised people to stay away. So I think you're better off to stay in the nice cool A/C and enjoy a movie and some knitting. I'll be open tomorrow, so if you feel like swinging by the shop, you can soak of some of my A/C.

Lots of things have been going on at the shop.

We've had fun with the classes the last few months. Everyone loves the Nook/Kindle Cozy covers and I think a lot of people will be getting them as Christmas gifts.

Last month the shop hosted a charity drive sponsored by the Claremore Toastmasters. One of my customers, Mike, who is a member of the Toastmasters wanted to do a project to get his next level in the organization. He thought a charity project would be fun and asked if I'd like to be involved. We began brain storming trying to figure out who we wanted to knit for. Janie, his wife started looking on line and found a group on Ravelry called Mitts of Steal. It is an organization that provides fingerless gloves for dialysis patients. I immediately thought of Freda, she's another customer who had just had surgery to have a port put in her arm so she could begin dialysis. It was like it was meant to be. After a few discussion with the sponsor and several others, we came up with Warm Hands from Warm Hearts. We contacted our local clinic, DaVita, and they were thrilled that we wanted to donate gloves to the patients. So it began...from June 1-15 we had a big push for fingerless gloves, knit or crocheted it didn't matter. Our goal was 100 pairs by the 15th. We were able to collect 113 pairs. The following Monday, Mike and I met at DaVita. There were 16 patients in the clinic at that time and Tina, the manager asked if we would like to give those patients their fingerless gloves. It was so nice to see the smiles on their faces as we showed them the gloves and asked them what color they would like. It really makes your heart feel good to help others.

The shop will continue to accept gloves until August 15th. At that time another charity drive will be announced. I plan on chosing a new charity each quarter to focus on.

I've been working on the coolest thing. Illusion scarves! Have you made one? There are tons of patterns on Ravelry. I just finished the OU (Oklahoma University) scarf. While I was working on it, a customer came in. I showed her the illusion and she said it would be much prettier in orange and black (OSU colors) I told her I had been trying to work up the OSU logo, but it just wasn't turning out quite right. I then told her I'd probably just knit in the work COWBOYS down the length of the scarf. She ordered 4 on the spot and didn't care what the cost would be. I think this will be a big hit at the Holiday Boutique. I'm going to have to work up a scarf for the local High School the Zebras, I've had requests for Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas Longhorns. It takes me about 4 days to finish a scarf, I wonder how many I can get designed and knit by November 4th?

Most of you who read my blog no that I love to write. I'm in the process of writing a sequel to The Best Seller (AJ Freeman Series) plus I've been writing a knitting story. Each time I publish a new newsletter, there is a new chapter. It's called A Knitting Diary. If you'd like to receive my newsletters send me a note and let me know. My email address is unwind.ayarnshop@att.net

It's time to get started with the holiday knitting...don't wait until September or October and then be knitting all day and all night. You might turn into a knitting zombie and we wouldn't want that now would we.

Keep knitting and crocheting!

The Best Seller Now on Nook and Kindle

2011-03-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

For those of you who might be interested in reading my book, I'm providing easy links to take you to the sight.

For Nook Readers: The Best Seller

For Kindle Readers: The Best Seller

The purchase price for either of these downloads is $3.49.

If you like the book, please post a review on the Nook or Kindle site for me.

Thanks,
Teresa

It's been a long time

2011-03-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted anything.

A lot has been going on, let's see what I can remember!

The shop is going great, I love everything about it. My customer base is growning daily and I've got more ideas for the business than I can do by myself. I'd really like to be able to hire someone at least part-time, but I can't do that until I can pay myself. But if business keeps up that should be pretty soon.

I designed the cutest Spring Flower Headband and you can get the pattern on Ravelry. I'm writing this from home and don't have a picture of it on this computer to show off. I knit it using Cascade's Fixation Solid and the varigated colors. Check it out!

Classes are going really well. I'm going to have a class on Tuesday evening for the "Pucker up Slippers". I've been teaching so many people to knit that I'm pretty sure I'll be able to turn the entire town into knitters within a year or so.

Lots of new yarns are coming in and I'm going to be getting KnitPicks needle sets very soon. I'm really excited about that!

On the home front: Chelsea and Brennan are doing great in school. I don't know if I told you that Brennan started college in August and is working towards a nursing degree also. Chelsea should find out in May if she has been accepted into the nursing program at RSU. I'm praying and keeping my fingers crossed that she gets in for the fall semester. Hayden is growning like a weed. I can't believe he's 3 years old. He sparks a fire in my heart everytime he says, "Grandma, you're my best friend." I love him so much! It looks like we are going to be doing a little more remodeling soon. Chelsea wants a place to study that is more private, so we are building a wall in between their bedroom and the old nursery. We will be moving Hayden into the new room and turing his bedroom back into a guest room/office. Davy is working very hard at his job. He is going to be moving into a new house in a few months, that's really exciting for him.

My book, The Best Seller is now available on Kindle and Nook for $3.49. It still have a few typos that my proofreaders didn't catch. I guess that's what happens when you don't have a professional editor/publisher. But, hey, I've bought books from professional authors that still have typos.

I guess that's it for now, I'll try and do better with my posting in the future!

Bibs for Babes

2010-07-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight we are doing a little charity work. Unwind, in conjunction with The Manger, will be hosting a knit night. We will be knitting bibs and burp cloths from the Mason-Dixon book. The Manger is a non-profit organization that provides some food and clothing for children and babies.

I'll take pictures tonight and post them later.

Summer knitting projects

2010-05-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ooops, it's been over a month since my last post. Sorry about that.

First things first, on the weight loss journey, it's been 5 weeks and I've lost 13 lbs and 15.25 inches. That's pretty good for a month. I've got to stay focused and make sure I write down everything I eat. That's what usually gets me in trouble, I think, Okay, I've got this and then I start slacking on the little things like journally and the weight starts creeping back up.

Now for the real reason you're here. I've been doing a lot of thinking about quick and easy knits for the summer. I know it's hard to get motivated about knitting an afghan or sweater when it's 95+ degrees outside. But what about knitting up some cotton coasters for your patio table, or a wine cozy to dress up that bottle of wine that you take to your neighbors next bbq or dinner party, or a cute teddy bear for the kiddo. Here are a couple of pictures of some of the summer time projects I've been working on.
Don't forget if you're going on vacation, a long car ride or plane ride is the perfect time for knitting. Sure you could take a nap, but it's such a great opportunity to get that baby shower gift finished, or start on some of those Christmas presents instead of waiting until November to knit all your family member mittens.

I've been working on double knitting, it's alot of fun to see your projects become reversible items. Check out this coffee cozy. . Now I just need to figure out how to knit in letters that are correct on both sides instead of the reverse side being backwards. I have an idea in my head, but I just need to figure out how to make it work.

Just in case your wondering, the Great American Afghan KAL is coming along beautiful. The majority of the group are right on track working on squares 5 & 6 this month. I just finished #8, and there is one lady in the group who is now working on #14. It's been alot of fun seeing how others have changed the patterns or added different colors.

I'll try and post again before another month goes by.

Knitting & Eating Healthy

2010-04-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

For those of you who were following my blog before I opened Unwind, you might remember that it focused on my weight loss journey. Back in 2002-03, I lost 50 lbs with Weight Watchers. My sister and a co-worker joined the journey with me, both reaching their goal weights and becoming lifetime members. I still had about 20 lbs to lose, they quit coming to the weekly meetings and I guess I felt abandoned, that I was left to finish the race on my own and eventually the weight came back. Well, 45 lbs of it. I've tried twice again to go back to WW meetings, but I just couldn't get in the grove. I guess my head wasn't on right or something.

For the last few weeks, I've been feeling that pull back to healthy eating, and healthy living. Just this past Friday, my sister (who has also gained her weight back plus a little) and her daughter, who has an 18 month old baby were in the shop talking about food, dieting, and back when we felt alot healthier. We made a pact that day that we were going to work the program together. We are going to have our unofficial WW meeting at Unwind on Friday mornings. We all left the shop that night and went straight to Wal-Mart to stock up on fruits, produce, lean meats, yogarts, etc. We all went home and weighed in and measured. We bought notebooks to write down all our foods and points. We've got all the WW materials from days gone by so we will go over them on a weekly basis. I signed up with Bootcamp Buddies again, it had been 8 years since I'd used my login id and back then I wasn't knakedknitter. But now I am, so if you are a bootcamp buddy and reading my blog, look me up. I need all the support I can get.

I won't monopolize my blog with writing my food journal entries here, but I will discuss how my week went and my weight loss.

Now on to knitting...I'm almost finished with the anu tunic that I'm making for my niece. Only a few more inches left on the armholes, then I'll start working on the little cap sleeves. Hoping to have it finished in few days. I'll post a pic of her wearing it. I love the yarn. If you haven't tried Berroco Weekend, you are really missing out. It is so soft and light. A cotton/acrylic blend perfect for spring and summer.

I'm into the 2nd lace pattern of the 2nd half of the Lacy Sampler Scarf. I can't wait until everyone in the classes finish theirs so I can take a picture of them all together. It is a gorgeous scarf and you can find the pattern by googling Lacy Sampler Scarf by Ginger Smith. It's a great pattern for a beginner lace project.

Today, we are having our 2nd meeting for the Great American Afghan. The plan was for everyone to have the first two squares completed and ready to talk about #3 and #4. Some of the knitters have blown past #1 and #2 and are finishing their 4th square. Others are still working on #1, but they are steady. I'm ready to start the 7th square, but will wait until my other two projects are finished. The book says #7 is supposed to be one of the harder squares to I need to be able to focus on this one.

I'm sure most of you have read the Debbie Macomber books on Blossom street. I just started reading them a few days ago. I was more interested in Maggie Sefton's book because of the mystery and murder and didn't think I'd like the Blossom Street books. Well, I have to give Debbie my apologies. When I started reading the first book, I thought, that sounds like me. No I haven't battled cancer twice and I have a great sister who is super supportive. But, I still felt like it was me. Love the book, can't put it down. When I first opened Unwind and the customers started dribbling in, there were several who said my shop reminded them of the shop on Blossom Street. They were right!

Have a great week knitting and making healthy choices for yourself and your family!

March flew by

2010-03-30T08:32:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted anything. March has been a busy month with lots going on.

March classes all went well, we started the Great American Afghan and so far so good. Most of the knitters have finished one square and are working on the next. I've been trying to work ahead so that I can help with tips or techniques. I have to say that square #5 just about kicked my butt. It was really easy until I got to row #39 or 40. There were too many K2tog, yo and SSK, yo. I guess I kept missing a YO which kept throwing me off at the end and then I'd had to back that row off and start over. It probably would have been easier on me if I wasn't trying to knit it at 1 AM. It was a relief to have #5 finished and blocked. I decided to let the squares rest for a week and work on some mindless knitting.

In November I will have a booth in the Women's Holiday Boutique. There are five of us that have decided to work together to knit up items to sell at the boutique. Julie and Julie (new knitters this year, but doing exceptional work) are making hats and scarves, Leigh is making Christmas stockings and house slippers, I'm not sure what Pam is going to be working on, so far it's just been her garden. I told her to make salsa and jams for the boutique, and I'm making bath sets. I've got Grandma's Lye Soap and I've made bath mits and back scrubbers. I think they will make good Christmas gifts.

I'm also making fingerless gloves, and I'm working on a pattern that is a little girls lace hat that will turn upside down and make a little purse. I'll post pics if I ever get that far. I also think I'm going to make some doggie sweaters for the boutique. You know how people love their dog babies.

The shop is going great, I've got classes set up for a Cashmere lace scarf sampler using Filaturo Di Croso Superior. The 2 at-a-time socks class was such a hit, I'm going to do it again this month and then I always have a beginning knit class and the "after knit and purl" class.

I've been trying to rearrange the shelves to make room for Cascade 220 and Berroco Weekend which will both arrive tomorrow or Thursday. When I chose to sell Marble Chunky and DK I never imagined what a huge hit they would be. I can't keep the stuff on the shelves. If you have your own shop and looking for a big hit, get Marble Chunky!

Here's another picture I wanted to share. Here's Hayden, hanging out with Maamaw at Unwind. He likes to look out the door and watch all the "big trucks" and wait for the Oo. P. Eps (UPS) man to come see me.

2010-02-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

March will be a very exciting month for classes.

Traditional Sock Knittingwhen: Sat. March 6th, 13th and 20th
time: 10:30am—12pm
cost: $30
Instructor: Teresa Harmon This class is for intermediate knitters. We will be learning the techniques for knitting socks on double point needles. This will be a 3 session class.
Materials needed: 100g sock yarn and #2 or #3 dpn.
Maximum participants will be 6 people. Reserve your place today by calling Unwind at 342-9276

Beginning Knitting Class
when: Tue, March 2nd and 9th
time: 10:00a—11:30am
cost: $35
You will learn to cast on stitches and knit in the first session. In the second session we will touch on purling and binding off.
Materials included: Size #10 US needles and 100 g worsted weight yarn, instruction booklet, and tote.
This class will be 2 sessions.
Maximum 6 participants. Reserve your place today by calling Unwind at 342-9276.

Beginning Knitting Class
when: Tue, March 16th and 23rd
time: 10:00a—11:30am
cost: $35
You will learn to cast on stitches and knit in the first session. In the second session we will touch on purling and binding off.
Materials included: Size #10 US needles and 100 g worsted weight yarn, instruction booklet, and tote.
This class will be 2 sessions.
Maximum 6 participants. Reserve your place today by calling Unwind at 342-9276.

After Knit & Purl
When: Mon, March 15th
Time: 2:30pm
Cost: $20
So you’ve got the knit and purl stitches down. Now how do I read a pattern, or increase and decrease? What if I drop a stitch?
This class we touch on all of the above.
Materials needed: US#9 or 10 needles, 50 gram scrap yarn.

Great American Afghan Knit Along
When: Sun, March 21st
Time: 3:00pm—6:00pm
Cost: The class is free, I only ask that you purchase your materials from Unwind.
We will be knitting the Great American Afghan. This is an intermediate project. I have ordered all the yarn in the colors that the pattern book calls for and will put together kits. Each kit will contain the yarn needed to knit 6 squares. Each month we will get together on the 3rd Sunday. To complete this project in a year we will need to knit 2 squares each month. We will officially meet on the 3rd Sunday, but if you want to just come in and hang out on Sundays afternoons or Wednesday evenings. I’m here. Yarn kits should be available on Tuesday, March 2nd. Note: This is really not a class, but a knit a long. I will help you when I can, but I’m going to be learning a lot of this right along with you.
The pattern book is available for purchase at Unwind, if you would like to join the knit-along, call Unwind at 342-9276.

Everyone’s doing it!

Michelle is modeling her first cable project, the Provence Cloche'; Pam is modeling her Flare Vest, made out of Paradise; Julie is holding the baby blanket she made using Comfort DK Prints; Cali is modeling her very first knitting project, a neck warmer with a button; and Leigh Ann is modeling her new button slippers.

Tuesday Night Mad-Hatters Group
I wanted a picture of the girls for this article, but I wasn’t able to get it. In January, I had a class for beginner knitters, that met on Monday evenings for two weeks. Only four ladies showed up for the class, Ginger Rice, Cheryl Roush, Shelly Jones and Lynne Martin. Each woman quickly caught on to the concept of knitting, either in the Traditional method or the Continental method. At the end of the second session, they were anxiously ready to start on something new and that new thing was the felted derby hat. We decided to meet again the next Tuesday night. Unfortunately, Ginger hasn’t been able to return, but we’ve picked up Freddie Gaffney who brings a lot of life to the party.
After two weeks of knitting hats and getting them ready to felt. They just weren’t ready to give up on the Tuesday night gathering, so now we are working on a Cable Scarf pattern.
The cable pattern has given them more of a challenge, but I’m sure they will do great. I’m anxious to see their progress this Tuesday night and even more anxious to see what project they add to the queue for our future gatherings.

Marble Slouche’ (slew-shay it’s French)- Pattern

Materials:
1 skein Marble Chunky Sandpiper
US #9 16” circular, US#10 24” circular and US#10 dpn
Stitch Marker
Tapestry Needle
Using #9 16” circular needle, cast on 72 sts
Join in round
Knit 2, Purl 2 rib for 2 ½ “
After rib is complete;
INC Row *K 1, M1 tbl (twisted stitch) repeat from * 31 times, K10, ** M1 tbl, K1 repeat from ** 31 times. (134 sts)
Change to #10 24” circular needle, continue knitting in stockinet stitch for 7”
DEC Row K14, K2tog, [K15, K2tog] (5 times more), K14, K2tog (126 sts)
Knit 2 rounds of stockinette stitch
K1, [K2tog across] to last 3 sts, K3 (65 sts)
Knit 4 rounds of stockinette stitch
Change to dpn when stitches are too tight.
K2, [k2tog across] to last 3 sts, K3 (35 sts)
Knit 2 rounds of stockinette stitch
K1, [K2tog across to end] (17 sts)
Knit 2 rounds of stockinette stitch
K1, [K2tog across to end] (9 sts)
Knit 1 round
Run a tapestry needle through the 9 live stitches and pull tight, weave in ends

Did I tell you I'm an author?

2010-02-14T15:07:00.001-08:00

Lookie here! My book is being published! It will be available very soon at Amazon.com, so I expect everyone of you to go out and buy a copy!!! (if you want to - no pressure)
Some of you might not be into psycho killers, sex and nasty words, but there is a yarn shop amidst all the kaos. I think my sequel with be more involved with the yarn shop. I might even have to add myself as a character.

Let's see, what else has been going on? I've got a class tomorrow night, 2 at a time socks. It should be fun and interesting, then Tuesday we've got part 2 of the felted hat class.

I just finished knitting another hat for my son, this time I used acrylic because he has the stinkiest head and wool just doesn't work well for him. This way it can be thrown in the washer whenever it starts getting rank.

I decided to model the hat since he isn't around and he is horrible with picture taking. How do you like it? It's the same pattern as the Chelsea Star hat, but I did increase the crown a little bit more so it's kinda slouchy instead of fitting like a skull cap.

Looking forward to next week, I should have lots of new yarn showing up. An order from Berroco should arrive tomorrow and maybe even an order from Knit One Crochet Too. The Brown Sheep order should arrive around Thursday. I recieved a new order from AslanTrends, Santa Fe sock yarn which is yummy!

I've started working on the Easy House Slippers by Liecel Tverli Scully that I found on Ravelry. Since I've got so many people having fun with the felted hats, I thought this might be another fun pattern for them to do. We'll see how it goes.

2010-02-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

Geo Mitts

Materials needed:
1 skein Knit One Crochet Too Geologee in #382
1 set of DPN US #7 and US #8
Stitch holder or scrap yarn
Tapestry needle

With smaller needles cast on 32 stitches and divide evenly on 4 needles. Place marker.
Starting with the cuff: K2 P2 rib 14 rows or until measures 2”
Switch to larger needles
R 1 thru 5 knit in the round

Left mitt:
R 1: Knit to last 8 stitches, next st, knit into stitch below. Knit remaining 8 sts of the round.
R 2: K
Repeat last two rounds until you have 40 sts (7 more times)

K 36 sts, slide 4 sts before marker and 4 sts after marker onto a stitch holder or scrap yarn.
Cast on 4 new sts, join in the round. You should have 36 sts on your needle now.

Fingers:
Knit in the round for 1”, change to smaller needles and begin the K2, P2 rib for 1 1/2” Bind off loosely in rib pattern.

Thumb:
Using larger needles, Pick up 4 cast on sts at thumb and one st on each side of thumb sts. (6 sts) Place 8 sts from holder on two needles . K 7 sts, SSK 8th st and 1st picked up st. K 4, Ktog last picked up st and next st. (12 sts)

Knit 2 rounds and switch to smaller needles and begin the K2, P2 rib 1”

Everything will be the same for the right mitt except:

Right mitt:
R1: K 8 sts, k into st below 8th st. K remaining sts of the round.
R2: K
Repeat last two rounds until you have 40 sts (7 more times)

The fingers and thumb will be worked the same on both mitts.

Using a tapestry needle, weave in all loose ends.

Scoop Neck Cardigan

2010-01-26T08:02:00.001-08:00

I finished the Scoop Neck Cardigan (finally) I had the knitting all finished on Saturday the 23rd and it took me two days to put it together. Because this is a reverse stockinette pattern, something in my brain kept telling me that the right side was the wrong side. I had the shoulder seams finished the sleeves sewn in and was getting ready to start the side seam when I realized I was stitching on the right (wrong) side. It was a real booger to get this taken apart because I did such a wonderful job weaving in the ends, I couldn't even find them. On Sunday, I started again, but this time I had my Sunday afternoon knitters visiting and about 1/2 way through the 2nd sleeve, I realized I'd done it again. After painfully tearing it apart again, I put it down and walked away. After everyone had left, I decided to give it one more go. I know it doesn't sound like it would be so hard, but it's like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. Your brain takes over and does what it wants to do. Finally, the sleeves are in correct and I start seaming up the side, you're not going to even believe it if I tell you. The wrong side again!!!!!!! ARRRRGGGGHHH. So I threw it in my bowl, locked up and went home. Monday morning, I figure third times a charm. I'm all alone, I'm rested and ready to start the day. I pull out the cardigan and get my right (wrong) sides together and I was able to finish it up. All the threads on woven in and the buttons have been sewn on. I'm finished!

Friday night knit night was fun, there were about 8 people here for the evening. (Which is really about all my tiny space will handle.) We can drag in the folding chairs and shuffle some furniture around to accomodate more if it turns into something bigger next month.

Saturday was the 2nd session of our 1st beginners knit class. All the ladies came back (I really thought a couple would drop out). Two of them had finished knitting their scarves and were ready to bind off and start something new. One woman, Cheri, did a really good job, she bound off and added fringe to finish the scarf off. The second woman, Marth, started out with 20 stitches for about 4 inches and then grew to about 60 stitches which she continued to knit for about 8 inches then she remembered to start knitting 2 tog and got it back down to 20 stitches for the last 4 inches. She was going to rip it out, but instead we folded the widest section wrapped it around her neck and sewed a big button all the way through (since we didn't have a button hole). The yarn was stretchy enough that it will fit over her head easily. Here is her picture: This is Martha and her first knitted project.

I wish I would have gotten pictures of the entire group with their projects, but my batteries died on the camera after taking Martha's picture.

Louise knitted up a bright red scarf and was almost finished, she said she'd come back this Saturday, so I'll get her picture then. Cindy, a lifetime crocheter, did a good job on her scarf and has decided her next project will be the felted derby hat. Theresa, Betsy and Florence all ripped out their scarves and each returned with about 2 inches completed. Hopefully, they enjoyed themselves and continue with knitting.

Last night was my second beginners class, this isn't a very good picture, but you can tell they were having fun. (left to right: my sis Leigh, Ginger and Cheryl) Concentrating on what they were doing is Lynne and Shelley.

I only had 4 show up for the class last night, I was supposed to have 8. I think for my next class, I'm going to have them prepay and let them know that there are no returns, but they can reschedule for the next class if they aren't able to make it. If I had known that they 4 ladies weren't going to show, I could have called the list of people who wanted to take the class and were on the waiting list.

So, today is another day, Berroco Comfort is on the truck and should be arriving today. Unfortunately they are shipping it to my house instead of the shop. So, I won't be putting it on the shelves until tomorrow.

Friday Night Knit Night Tonight

2010-01-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

I'm getting ready for my first official Friday night knit night. This has been a very busy week, so let me start at the beginning.

Saturday was our first beginners knitting class and it went really well, I'm anxious to see how their scarves have progressed this week. Hopefully, they will all return tomorrow for their lesson.

Monday, I started the Daylily Scoop Neck Cardigan. I had gotten 6 new colors of the yarn in and it wasn't moving at all. It's amazing what a sample will do, I had a lady come in yesterday and buy the yarn and pattern to make the same cardigan, then this morning I had 2 customers come in and both buy the yarn and patterns. I'm going to have to get busy knitting something else as soon as I finish the sleeves on the cardigan. This is the back and both front pieces completed. I'm making the size small which calls for 8 skeins, but I really think it's only going to take 6.

I finally finished the sweater I was designing for Hayden. I thought it was going to be huge on him, but it actually turned out really cute and he still has room to grow into it for next winter also.

I made a pair of Alice's Fingerless Mitts for Chelsea. (I didn't really follow the directions, in fact I kinda did my own thing all the way around). Here they are: well here is one of them, it's almost impossible to take a picture of your own hand. I used Knit One Crochet Too's Geologee for the mitts. Chelsea thinks they are too long and wants me to make another pair, so I guess these are going to be mine.

My next project is going to be a lace shawl using Fino (Alpaca with a Twist). I've started looking on Ravelry for a lace pattern that will be challenging for my mind, but not so crazy that if I put it down to help a customer that I'm lost forever.

I got my picture in the newspaper again! This time in the Oologah Lake Reader. Carolyn Estes wrote a great story about the shop and I've had many calls from our neighbors in Oologah.

Tuesday, I had a group of ladies come by for a knitting lesson. It was alot of fun, I had 3 of the 4 knitting within 30 minutes. I'm curious to find out if the 4th lady is still trying or if she has given up. Maybe she'll come back in a day or two and show me her progress.

Last night, one of my first students, Amy brought her home school mom's for a Mother's Night Out. They arrived around 6:30pm, picked out yarn and needles and were ready for their lesson. I'm so glad my sister was here to help out. There were 8 women, luckily three of the women had knitted as children or teens and just needed a little help back on the bicycle and they were off and knitting. Leigh helped 2 of the ladies and I helped the other 2. They invited us to join the circle and before you knew it we were all sharing our life stories with each other. The evening ended around 10:30pm and they were all so excited and ready to plan their next knitting night out. By the time everyone left and I balanced the cash register, I was exhausted. I guess I didn't think about the 12-14 hour days that would go into running a business. But I wouldn't trade it for any other job right now. Benefits and a paycheck would be nice, but I'm hoping that will come in a year or two.

I just need to gear up for tonight, I'm hoping that my first Friday night knit night will be a success. Wish me luck!

The article from the Claremore Progress

2010-01-16T08:03:00.000-08:00

I want to thank Joy Hampton and the Claremore Daily Progress for allowing me to post the article from the paper. I thought it was an excellent story, but I might be a little bias. I wasn't able to get the pictures, but here's the story. Enjoy!

A place to Unwind...
Women share winter yarns, avoid unraveling during times of stress

By JOY HAMPTON
jhampton@claremoreprogress.com

If the cold weather and holiday stresses are getting you down, there’s a new place to unwind in Nemar Shopping Center in Claremore.
Teresa Harmon dreamed Unwind yarn shop into existence. It is a place where friends old and new can gather with their yarn in a unique community of knitters and crocheters.
Harmon had been unwilling to quit her full-time job with benefits to follow her dream of having a yarn shop. Fate intervened when she was laid off after 10 years on the job. A merger of two branches of the company where she was employed made her position obsolete.
“I was no longer needed,” said Harmon.
In a move as bold as some of the modern yarn colors she uses to create her many pieces of functional artwork, Harmon sunk her 401 K into starting a yarn store in Claremore. It’s not the first, Harmon says there was another years ago, but it’s the first yarn store in Claremore in many, many years.
“I sunk it all in here,” she said, and gestured at the comfy sofa and chairs, shelves of yarn, and walls of needles and other accessories. “I decided, it’s now or never.”
The yarn store opened Dec. 1 and has already become a haven for a small group of women who are ready and willing to welcome more into their fold.
Pam Cantwell loves the soft fibers, colorful projects and friendship of other knitters and crocheters.
“I come to hang out and knit and buy yarn,” said Cantwell and she loops a strand of hot pink yarn over her bamboo needles. “It becomes an addiction but it’s a fun addiction. I learned to knit about five years ago. Ever since, I’ve been going crazy at it.”
She said she likes to sit, knit, talk and unwind.
Which is, of course, the point, said Harmon.
Lynn Emanuel said she was excited to find the new store. She is rediscovering her talent for crochet. During her college years, Emanuel inherited her grandmother’s crochet items and became very involved in creating all types of projects.
“They used to call me Grandma in college because I crocheted so much,” said Emanuel.
Then, when her children came along, she found her hands too full for the crochet hook and put it down.
For a time, that old love was forgotten.
Now with her children nearly grown, Emanuel is rediscovering her lost art. And she’s also learning to knit, courtesy of Harmon who offers private and public lessons as well as tidbits of free casual advice for anyone who happens along and stays to knit.
Harmon said Emanuel’s story is a common one. Often modern women learn to knit or crochet then put it aside when life gets busy. Many are carrying on the tradition of their grandmothers, but with new, modern yarns and accessories that have revolutionized the art.
“My grandmother taught me to cast on stitches when I was three,” said Harmon. “I would cast on and take them off again.
“When I was five, she let me have two needle. I actually started knitting. At 12, I taught myself to crochet. I thought it was faster. I made baby blankets and booties and gave them to the neighbors. It was all squares.”
Harmon has always enjoyed giving her handmade products away. She says that way two people get to share in the pleasure, herself in making the project, and the recipient of her gift.
“I quit after my kids were born,” said Harmon.
Then one day she was visiting her mother in Colorado. There were knitting needles with a project started on them.
“I picked them up and just started knitting,” she said.
It turned out there was a local yarn shop in the area and her mother was taking lessons. Harmon and her sister Leigh Ann Bump rushed to the store and bought yarn.
“We became completely addicted to knitting,” said Harmon.
“My friend Terry got me excited about it again,” said Emanuel.
Harmon said the best thing about knitting and crocheting is the friendly, helpful people.
Cantwell adds that it’s therapeutic.
“It’s like a quilting bee, bringing people together,” said Emanuel.
Some days women stop by and just hang out and knit or crochet, said Harmon. On Friday evenings, she reopens the store at 7 p.m. Women bring snacks and show up in comfy clothes like sweats or even pajamas. They knit and swap stories and advice until they’re tired and go home.
“It’s almost like a slumber party but we don’t sleep here,” laughed Harmon.
Cantwell is working on a baby blanket.
“The minute I found out I was going to be a grandmother, I came right up here and bought yarn and started,” she said.
Harmon said there was a knitting revival in 2004.
“It’s not just grandmas,” she said. “I’ve got college age girls that come in here. I hear all the stories.”
Unwind Yarn Shop is modeled after the one in Colorado that inspired Harmon to pick up her art again, Edla’s Yarn Shop.
Harmon and Bump met Edla after their mother told them about the yarn shop. They still visit her regularly.
“Now she’s our Aunt Edla,” said Bump.
Edla is originally from the Faroe Islands, an island group that lies between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean about half the distance between Scotland and Iceland. Growing up in the cold farming community, female children like Edla were required to knit a sweater sleeve a day.
“They could knit while playing kickball,” said Harmon.
Knitting, the sisters believe, is in Edla’s blood. Her yarn shop inspired Harmon to create a place of peace, harmony and knitting all her own in Claremore.
Many of the yarns carried by Harmon at Unwind Yarn Shop are all natural fibers such as wool, alpaca, and cotton.
Acrylic blends are machine washable and available in a wide array of styles, textures, and colors. Some yarns are extremely soft. Some have sparkle.
Very soft, skinny thread on tiny needles is used to make socks.
Sock knitting has become popular and many want the best, softest yarns available for their feet, said Harmon. A yarn made from bamboo keeps feet from sweating, while a variety of stylish variegated colors allow the knitter to create argyle socks or socks with stripes.
Knitting and crocheting can be a solitary pastime, but it can also be about community, said Harmon. A barn raising quilt is made of different colored patches. The idea is for each person to contribute a different square, each of a designated size, to the project. The squares are then blocked and sewn together.
A traveling scarf is also a group project. Harmon has created her fair share of them with friends across the country she met online. Each knitter in the group starts a scarf then mails it to the next person on the list. Each contributes a stripe or block to the scarf. When finished, each participant has a multicolor scarf made by several people.
Harmon said she is grateful to have the opportunity to make her dream a reality. She hopes her yarn shop can be a place for people to come together and unwind from the stresses of life. She also wants to pass on her art to a new generation of knitters and crocheters.

Unwind's newsletter

2009-12-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

I finished the newsletter and sent it out to everyone that I had an email address for. I've tried and tried to copy it into this posting, but I can't get it to work. It's in a pdf file. If anyone knows how to do it let me know.

If you would like to received an email copy of the newsletter, send an email to me at unwind.ayarnshop@att.net and I'll send you a copy.

Tomorrow marks the end of my first month in business. Bills are paid, yarns still on the shelves and I've still got money in the checking account so I think that means I'm doing pretty good!

I've got classes scheduled for beginning knitters. I had no idea how many crocheters were in Claremore. I'm going to have to work on my crocheting skills. But, I've got a lot of the crocheters interested in learning to knit.

I finally got my computer at the shop and I've been working on getting all my inventory loaded into Quickbooks. Man, that's a job and a half. Then I need to do inventory and figure out how much I have of each item and make Quickbooks do what it's supposed to do and tell me how much I've sold.

Once I get all that figured out and sorted through, I'm going to work on setting up a website. I'll have to figure out how to make a shopping cart and accept credit cards etc.

I hope everyone has a very happy and safe New Year's Eve tomorrow night. I'll probably be in bed before the ball drops.

Happy 2010!

Easy Button Scarf

2009-12-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

Easy Button Scarf
Final measurements 28” x 5” (the ends will be 5” and the center of the scarf is approximately 3 ¾”

Materials:

#11 needles
1 skein Life DK – Copper
4 buttons 7/8”
4 stitch markers
tapestry needle

The pattern is available at Unwind for free with the purchase of yarn or if you'd like to use your own yarn the cost of the pattern is $3.99.

grrrrr

2009-12-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

The UPS man drove right past me today. I checked the tracking and it said the packages were on the truck for delivery. My daughter called and my yarn was delivered to my house.

Now I'm waiting for grandson to wake up from a nap so she can bring me the yarn. grrrrr...

I'm getting some more chairs for the shop. They are blue and on wheels. I think they will be more comfortable around the table instead of the folding chairs that I have right now. Then I can put the folding chairs up and just get them out when I have alot of people here.

Started working a new project this weekend. I was planning on making the Kertzer, Easy Hoodie using Marble yarn in the ocean blue color. But I'm improvising the pattern so much that it won't even be the same hoodie when I'm finished. I decided to make it in the round instead of front and back and I'm adding a raglan sleeve. I've taken pictures but I forgot to bring my memory card thing to download the pictures. I'll do that later.

I've had quite alot of people in today, which is good, because last Monday it was pretty slow.

Ordered more yarn!

2009-12-11T20:47:00.001-08:00

I've got an order from Berroco coming in on Monday if the UPS guy will stop this time. I spent all day with Betty from Brown Sheep. Got lots of stuff from Brown Sheep and Knit One Crochet Too.

My sis and Pam showed up this afternoon and they helped me pick out some stuff. Oh, I also got some great needle holders for dpns and circular needles.

My Amy Butler bags sold today and I've got more on the way. I'm going to have to hold one back for myself this time.

I left Chelsea in charge of the shop for about 15 minutes today and when I came back the front room was full of little boys and a dog. One of my new friends Amy, who I taught to knit last week brought in her boys, three of them. I taught the 10 and 7 year old to knit and they are doing a good job. The 10 year old is making a pillow cover in Orange for the Oklahoma Cowboys and the 7 year old is making, well, I'm not sure what he's making. Oh and the dog is theirs also. Apparently the dog was attacked by a big dog today and they were making sure he was okay and didn't want to leave him alone. Sweet puppy. Then another new friend, Kim came in with her son and she shopped while all the boys played. Thank goodness I've got a little coke crate wagon with some of Hayden's toys in it, that kept them all busy while Moms shopped.

The day flew by today, I hope tomorrow is as good as today was.

I just found out that my computer has now been delayed until January. It's hard not having a computer at the shop. There would be so much more I could get done if I just had a computer with me during the day.

Why won't the UPS man come see me?

2009-12-04T13:13:00.000-08:00

He was in the parking lot, I was standing at the door like a kid looking in the window of a toy shop. Sending the UPS man the strongest vibes I could send. "Bring me my stuff!" I said in my mind hoping the telepathic waves to reach him. I watched him get in his truck, put on his seatbelt, pull the gear shift down to drive. Here he comes!!! I thought to myself as a huge smile spread across my face. Then I watched him drive right past my door. The smile turned to a frown. Why won't the UPS man come see me????

Oh well, I've got an order coming in on Tuesday according to the tracking. But I want the stuff that was backordered!!!

It's been slow today. Maybe 4 customers sales under a $100 so far, but I've still got 2 hours and 45 minutes left today so maybe someone will come in and suprise me.

I'm trying to get my class schedules set up. Looks like the majority on class suggestions was a beginners class and magic loop. I might try and do a beginners class before Christmas, but then again this month might just be too busy.

Have I said that this is the best job ever? As long as I can pay the rent and the shop bills and replenish my stock, I'm happy. I'll let the rest of the family worry about the household bills right now.

I meant to post this yesterday, but as I was typing, I had several customers come in and then I just didn't get back to writing.

Saturday, November 5th

I'm getting ready to head to town, got to run by Wal-Mart before I go to the shop. I forgot to pick up my blood pressure medicine yesterday, so I've got to take care of that first thing.

I'm expecting to be pretty busy today. I had several people tell me they were coming back on Saturday so I hope they really make it back in to see me. Even if they don't it gives me an excuse to finish knitting the 2nd Susie Hoodie. I've finally reached the hood part and this hoodie is actually going to fit her this time. Since I'm up to the neck she was able to try it on yesterday. It would be nice to get it finished today and then block it tonight and display it for a few days in the shop before I have to wrap it up for Christmas.

Time to head out, I'll talk to you all later.

Unwind is OPEN!!!!

2009-12-03T05:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, the past two days have been alot of fun.

On opening day, Tuesday. I woke up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. My mind was reeling with things I needed to do before I opened the shop to the public for the very first time. You know how first impressions are and I wanted mine to be perfect.

The first thing on my 3am list was to go to the bank, because I completely forgot about getting change for the cash register. I guess since I rarely carry cash and use my check card everywhere my mind just assumed everyone would do the same. duh... but the bank didn't open until 9am. Also on my list was getting the table set, vaccuuming again, clean the windows and door just to make sure they were really clean. Get the apple cider in the crockpot and started heating. I left the house at 7:15 (I don't open until 10) got to the shop at 7:25 and started my chores which were all finished by 8 o'clock. I straightened the shelves just to make sure every skein looked it's best and then sat down and started knitting until 9, so I could go to the bank. Between 8 and 9 I probably had 6 or 7 phone calls from sales people wanting me to buy their credit card terminal. Left the shop, got the change and came back. Decided to put on a pot of coffee. At 9:45 I saw a car pull up and two people got out. I recognized Rebecca and her daughter from Ravelry. I opened the door and the day began. It was soo much fun!!!

People signed my email list so as soon as I get my computer I can start sending out emails to everyone. I also made a class suggestion list. It looks like most people want a beginners class and magic loop class, so I'll get those going as soon as I can.

Yesterday was a little slower. I had about 7 people come in and only had 1 actual sale. It was a teenager wanting to make a scarf. She spent 11.00. Luckily my buddy morgaine from Ravelry called bought a $50 birthday gift card for Amber, another Ravelry buddy. So my total sales for day 2 was 61.00 (about 7 times less than day 1). So here's hoping that today will be better than yesterday. My goal is $1000 this week, let's see if I can hit it.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend

2009-11-29T20:16:00.000-08:00

We sure did. Mom and Dad were here, the family was all together at my sister's house and it was a housefull.

I made broccolli rice casserole, candied yams and my daughter made a green bean casserole (her father-in-laws recipe) We had enough food to feed 20 more people. My sister made 5 or 6 pies, I'm really not sure how many we had but they were good. Actually, I did pretty good, I only had 1 slice of chocolate cream pie and then a bite of cherry pie. After we ate and ate, we decided to go out for our traditional after the food movie. That tradition started many many years ago, when the men would sit around the TV with their pants unbuttoned watching football, Mom would take us to a movie and the tradition continued. This year we didn't have all the kids with us because the babies are too little to sit through a movie. The attendees were Mom, Leigh, Chelsea, Alyssa and me. We decided to go see A Christmas Carol at the IMax in 3D, but unfortunatly it was sold out, tried to see Blindside, also sold out. We settled for New Moon. Chelsea and Alyssa had already seen it and wanted to see it again. It was okay, but I just haven't been able to get into the whole Twilight scene.

We got home, fixed everyone a plate full of leftovers and headed to the house. All in all it as a great day.

Friday, Chelsea and I decided to brave the stores. We weren't as crazy as my sister. She got up and left her house a 3:30am. There just wasn't anything that I thought I needed that badly. We hit Wal-Mart at 7am and got the few things we were interested in. But we missed the $88.00 battery powered jeeps.

Today, I got the shop ready for opening day on Tuesday, passed out fliers and met the neighbors in the shopping center. Everyone I've talked to is really excited about the shop and the classes.

I got the class schedule worked out, December will only have 2 classes because I'm sure lots of people will be busy getting ready for Christmas. The Friday knit nights will start in January. I made up my business cards and some gift cards. Set an appointment with Berroco for tomorrow at 2:30. I told her I had cheated a little bit and ordered some Berroco yarns from a friend. I thought she would be upset with me, but she told me since I'd already placed an order and Berroco shipped it directly to me, I wouldn't have to meet the $1500 minimum now. I can order whatever I need to order now. It makes me wonder if thats a company rule or a rule for the sales reps? hmmm.

I'm tired, going to bed now. I'll keep everyone posted and let you know how opening day goes. Wish me luck!

2 more days

2009-11-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

We are closing in on opening day. I've got 2 whole days to finish up the little details to get the shop ready to open on Tuesday. I hope I get another shipment on Monday to fill the shelves.

Mom and I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and bought a bunch of stuff to decorate the shop for the Holiday season. I went with silver and turquoise decorations. Mom made the bows and we hung silver ribbon and turquoise beads above the windows with a little greenery in the middle. It turned out really pretty. I've also got a little Christmas tree in front of the window.

The guys doing the signs haven't finished yet. My sign on the roof isn't hooked up to the electricy yet and doesn't turn on at dusk like all the other business in the center and I don't have my decals for the windows, but Chelsea used window paints and wrote on the windows for me.

I'm going to have some cookies and other goodies for opening day, hopefully people won't get chocolate on the yarn.

Did I tell you my brother-in-law and Mom went in halvsies and bought me a new computer!!! I was shocked. It should be in next week.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get some fliers ready and go out and hang them up everywhere I can so everyone will know I'm opening on Tuesday. I've got to get my class schedule made up and I'm going to make up some gift certificates in case someone wants to buy one for a Christmas present.

The shelves are filling up

2009-11-24T19:51:00.001-08:00

One week from today and the doors will be officially open for business. I received 13 boxes of stuff today. 12 were full of yarn and 1 had some notions.

Chelsea and I saw the UPS man in the parking lot today and we stood at the door waiting to see if he was coming to our door. He got in the truck and drove over to our side of the parking lot. Then it looked like he was going to leave, but he stopped and backed in. When he did that we knew we had alot of stuff coming. We must have looked like little kids waiting for a big suprise because he saw us and smiled. He brought one box out and sat it down, then went for another and another and another. Then I noticed the numbers written on the side of the boxes 1/10, 5/10, 8/10. I held the door open for him and he said "I've got 13 boxes for you today!" YIPPEE!!!!

We got right to work, opening boxes, checking off the product from the packing slip and labeling each skein by hand. Yes, I said by hand. Apparently, the pricing gun I bought wasn't the right one to buy. I can only get orange and yellow labels for it and everyone who I've told has said that orange and yellow are for discounted product. I need white labels. Guess what, the manufacturer is out of inventory and there is no eta of when the white labels will be in. So, we went to Wal-Mart and bought 2500 little white labels and wrote the prices on each one and stuck them on ourselves. Chels did most of the labeling while I put the yarn on the shelves. Yes, I've got pictures. Here they are:

I received a partial order from Kertzer, part of the back ordered order from Alpaca with a Twist. Tomorrow I'm hoping I'll get my Aslan Trends and Berroco. I don't think I'll get the Regia and Nashua until Monday.

I made my first unofficial sale today and got my first dollar bill which is signed and on the wall. My sister Leigh and friend Pam couldn't wait until opening day to start buying. Thank God for family. It was probably good to have some sales before opening day just to be able to practice with the cash register and the credit card terminal.

The phone is now turned on and if anyone wants to call me the number is (918) 342-YARN (9276). The fire marshall came by today and did his inspection. I've got to get the EXIT sign fixed, probably just a battery; my number 917 on the door and the fire extinguisher checked or charged and hung up. I've got to remember to call the fire extinguisher people tomorrow.

Now I need to get the computer (my mom brought me one of her computers and my brother-in-law is going to had memory, a bigger hard drive and Microsoft Office and Quickbooks to it for me. Mom is also buying a 20" flat screen monitor for my Christmas present. I need to get all the inventory into the computer so I can keep track of what I've got and what I need to reorder.

I think I've got the Plymouth lady coming next week and Knitting Fever has been calling to make an appointment. I would love to get some Noro for the shop, but I've heard really bad things about Knitting Fever and their pressure sales and customer service. If anyone has any good info to give me about them I'd love to hear it. I'm not real good with pressure sales. Guess I'm going to have to become a hardass when it comes to dealing with sales reps.

Weekly Update - 11 days till we open!

2009-11-20T19:33:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pictures of the front room of the shop. Got the furniture moved in, now I'm just waiting on all the inventory to show up. This week I received more needles and notions, books and some patterns, one Amy Butler bag and half my order from Alpaca with a Twist. Let me just say Baby Twist is my new fav, it is soooo scrumptous. I can't wait to start knitting something with it. Hopefully, the rest of the yarn shows up early next week because Thanksgiving is on Thursday and I doubt UPS delivers on Friday because of the holiday. I only have the following Monday left and then opening day is Tuesday, the 1st.

This is a picture of what will be my office, and that's just one of the baskets of my own stash that I'm going to sell for 1/2 off.

This is a picture of my coffee/tea bar.

David got the other peg board hung today and installed several new outlets and a light switch for me, killed a GIANT fiddle back spider that was hiding inside the wall when he was cutting the holes for the outlets. It was 1/2 the size of a 2x4 board. He's now dead and hopefully he wasn't a she with little fiddle backs hiding somewhere.

What else, one of the most important things that happened today was Hayden turned 2 years old. We are having a birthday party for him tomorrow at Pizza Hut. He had his first "real" haircut yesterday. Really it was just a trim because he wasn't too sure about the lady holding the scissors. Mom and Dad are arriving from Colorado tonight and will be here until the 30th, unless I can talk them into staying one more day for the opening. They are bringing me a computer for the shop.

I can't fit my dining room table in the back next to the coffee bar, it's too wide and will block the exit door. Which reminds me, I've got to call the fire marshall and get my inspection taken care of before I open. My channel letter sign for the roof should be installed Monday or Tuesday and the decals for my windows are being created. I'm sure there are many more things that I need to take care of but I can't think of them right now.

It's been a busy week

2009-11-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

Let's see. Monday night I went to the auction with my sister and our friend Pam. It was alot of fun, I ended up getting a couple of orange retro looking chairs for the shop for only $20.00, a little tikes desk for Hayden and a Sony digital camera and tripod for $35.00. They failed to mention that the camera was the kind that take the little CD's, I don't even know if they make them anymore.

Tuesday, my buddy Michelle and I went to the Oklahoma Tax Commission's workshop on business taxes. Thank God, I went. I didn't realize that once you had your company name and had formed an LLC that you had to trademark your name and logo. The guy teaching the workshop said that people will go online and search company names and if they haven't been trademarked, they will steal your name and then call you and say that they have the name trademarked and you can buy it from them for $10,000. I freaked and ran home as fast as I could to work on my logo and get it finalized. I've filed the name Unwind, A Yarn Shop LLC and the trademark is now mine. Whoo, that was stressful. I could only image someone calling me and wanting a butt load of money to buy back my company name.

I got the carpets cleaned on Wednesday and you would never believe a motorcycle shop had been in there before. All the stain came out and it looks pretty good for old carpet.

Yesterday, I met with the guy who represents Crystal Palace, Classic Elite, Nashua, Jitterbug and a couple more that I can't even remember right now. It was a very stressful day. Have I mentioned that I don't like salesman very much, so pushy. Telling me that I need to have this or that and if I don't I shouldn't even go into business. I'm trying to do this on a shoestring budget, but still make it really nice. I want a good variety of stuff, but I can't afford to pay a $1500 opening order to all the different companies. So, I doing it the sneaky way. I've got a good friend who owns a yarn shop and she is letting me buy the yarn through her for right now. Hopefully, the shop will be a success and I'll slowly be able to get my own account with these companies.

Today, I cleaned up the dining room furniture that I'm taking to the shop. My Lantern Moon needles came in today. I've got them hung on the peg board and they look so pretty. The credit card machine also arrived today. I've been playing with the cash register so I don't look like a fool when I'm trying to ring up someone's purchase. My sister came by and brought some baskets and a vase with some of her old needles in it, I also have a big vase with needles, so I should have plenty for people to use or practice with. My daughter brought Hayden up for a little while and he liked his new desk. Then my niece showed up with her son Asher. The kids played for awhile, pushing around the baskets and the little coke crate wagon. Then Pam came in with her daughter and two of her grandkids. I realized quickly that 600 sq feet can get full really fast.

Tomorrow's plan, well, I don't really have a plan right now for tomorrow. I need to set down and figure out what my hours of operation will be, work up a class schedule, and do some paperwork. Sunday, we are borrowing my son-in-law's father's truck to move the furniture in. I can't wait to see what it looks like with stuff in there. I hope the yarn starts arriving soon.

Only 18 more days till I open.

Monday morning

2009-11-09T05:15:00.000-08:00

It's 7:00am, and I'm sitting here thinking about everything that I have to do today.

1. Grocery Store
2. Come home unload groceries
3. Go to Unwind
4. Touch up paint in bathroom
5. Help David build the checkout counter
6. Call the carpet cleaner and reschedule
7. Call the OK Tax Commission and make sure I'm registered for the class tomorrow.
8. Get all the building supplies out of the shop

I'm sure there are a ton more things to do today, but those are the ones I've got to get taken care of.

I've been playing with logos for my shop window, but I don't really have any software for graphics except paint. Here's one, let me know what you think. Can you tell it is the word Unwind written with the yarn? I hope so, because that's what I was going for.

I met with Stephanie, the yarn rep yesterday. She was great, I ordered Alpaca with a Twist and way too much from the Kertzer line. We never even made it to the AslanTrends because it took over 4 hours to just go through those two lines. She is planning on coming back through on 11/18 so I'll probably go ahead and get AslanTrends taken care of on that day.

Oh, I just remember something else to add to my to do list... #9. Take the Notions application and fax it this morning.

I've got to head out to the grocery store now and get my day started.

23 days before opening

2009-11-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

Did I say I was tired? I don't think I've worked this hard in a long time.

Let's see, the plumber came and fixed the Tidy Cat Liter mess. He couldn't believe that they had it hooked up like that. So that's taken care of and we don't have to worry about the little hot water tank anymore. The only thing is that the tank was still too big to fit under the vanity. That was really a bummer because I didn't want it just out there. Dave build a little shelf to go around it, but it doesn't have a front cover because you have to have access to the valve or screw thing, but it looks better and it gives me a little counter top to put the Kleenex box and maybe a candle or something.

He is so handy to have around, the last tenants had the phone line running down one wall about midway and then looped around the corner and up another wall to their phone jacks. Dave cut the wire and ran them through the walls. No more ugly phone lines stapled to the wall.

He built a couple more shelves for me and hung the over the john cabinet in front of the breaker box to hide it's ugliness. Today we are going to hang the peg boards for the needles and notions. I hope I have enough materials. We had gone over to Lowes to pick up the peg board stuff the other day. The board comes in a 4' x 8' sheet, so we had them cut it down into 4' x 4' so it would fit in the back of Dave's BMW. Well, we should have had them cut in 4' x 2' pieces because they wouldn't fit in the back seat so we put them in the truck, but they were hanging out a little bit. I said "Will they break if you don't have the trunk lid tied down?" (because we didn't have any straps, rope, yarn or anything in the car to tied down the lid.) His response, "No, it will be okay." So we head down the road, it's probably only 2 miles if that. Get to the shop and guess what? The boards are broken. So now I'll have a peg board wall covering about a 4' x 6' area. I'm figuring thats probably okay for now.

I also bought a couple of 1" x 4" boards to have him cut into 2' sections. I want him to drill holes and glue wooden shaker pegs into the holes and I'm going to hang hanks from them. I though it would be cute.

I received my color card book from Plymouth last night. It's huge. Worked on my order with Lantern Moon, now I know why the minimum order is only $200. They don't want to intimidate newbies with a huge opening order, because they know you'll place a big order anyways. Has anyone every used any yarn from AslanTrends? I'm going with them also, I haven't felt their stuff, but it is really pretty online. I need to get a fax machine so I can get all these orders turned in.

Well, it's about time to head back to the shop, talk to you later.

27 days left before opening day

2009-11-04T19:24:00.000-08:00

I've been a busy bee! First let me thank my wonderful ex-husband David, he's been a real trooper, building, installing, and doing everything I ask to get this shop ready in time. Everything is painted, the toilet and vanity/sink is installed. The 3 wall units are built and secured to the walls.

I've got several appointments scheduled. Sunday, I'm meeting with the rep from Rowan, Regia, Alpaca with a Twist, there are several more that she represents, but I can't remember them right now. Monday, the carpets are being cleaned. I hope and pray that the oil and grease comes up. Did I mention that someone who would repair motorcycles on carpet must have a screw loose? Tuesday, I have a class at the Oklahoma Tax Commission for Businesses, then I'm meeting with Plymouth Yarns at 2:30, Wednesday is a free day (so far), Thursday, I meet with Crystal Palace. I've got the order forms for Lantern Moon, Malabrigo and Berroco. I really want to get in with Blue Sky Alpacas and get some Spud and Chloe' but theres a waiting list and a $3000 opening order. YUCK!!!

I went shopping last night at my friend Pam's barn. She's got tons of shabby chic stuff. I got an old red desk that I'm going to use as my checkout counter, a coffee table, and drop leaf table, and little hutch and a cool lamp. I'm using my grandmother's dining room table and hutch that have been in my garage for a couple of years, my kids have a couch and chair that looks like it's from the 70's with rust, beige and brown vertical stripes. I'm hoping to give the place the look and feel that you can come in relax, kick off your shoes, shop, knit and Unwind...

I got my big sign for the roof...I got so lucky! The first bid I got was for the word YARN in big red letters. It was a bid for $2200 which didn't include installation, tax or permit. The total cost was $3395. I felt sick, until yesterday when the other company called and said they had just taken down a sign that was left by the previous owners and being a channel letter sign (that means the letters are all seperate and screwed onto a raceway) he could take it apart and it just happened to have the letters Y A R N in turquoise with a deep red trim. I went by today and looked at the letters. It's in great condition and he said he could build it, install it and everything permit, tax and all for $1472. I paid 1/2 down today and it should be installed the week of Thanksgiving.

I spoke with Edla (from Edla's Yarn in Walsenberg, CO) today and she has some yarn that she is willing to sell me at cost, so Mom is bringing it with her next week when she comes down for Hayden's 2nd birthday party. Edla gave me alot of tips on where to get this and that.

I've still got to get my credit card processing stuff and shopping bags (I may have to use all the Wal-Mart bags that are stuffed under my cabinet). I think I've got a cash register. I really want to get all the credit card and cash register stuff on the computer along with Quickbooks so I'll be able to keep track of inventory, but right now I don't have enough in the budget to get a new computer, so I'll do it the old fashioned way and handwrite tickets. Unless, I'm just super busy, which I hope is the case.

Well, I've got to get up early and get to the shop in the morning to meet the plumber to fix the little hot water tank/tidy cat litter box issue.

I'll update more soon!

I'm tired

2009-11-01T18:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy weekened. My feet are killing me, I'm covered in turquoise and gold paint and it will start all over again tomorrow.

I had picked out a paint color that I thought would blend well with the brick. NOT!!! it looked like a school cafeteria or a mens bathroom. I couldn't stand it so I headed off to the paint store and instead of buying a gallon of something again, I bought a couple of samples. One was very light with a turquoise tint and the other was a very light sage. Got them back to the shop and tried them on the mason wall. They both looked like shiny white. I could barely even tell the difference. Thank goodness my buddy Pam came by. She just happened to have a couple of gallons of paint that she used and had leftovers. One was a blueish turquoisey color and the other she decribed as "gold". I love turquoise, but not a fan of gold. She ran and got the paint and we slapped it on the wall and the decision was made. I painted the back room the turquoisey blue color, the office gold (it's really a light mustardy color) the trim above the paneling in the front room is gold and I decided to go ahead and livin' up the bathroom and painted it gold also.

The pictures I have don't really do the colors justice, but here are a couple that I took yesterday with my cell phone.
Dave is working on the back room painting the walls with the blue color (even though the picture looks gray) and Chelsea is painting the office gold.

That was what we got finished yesterday. Today we went back, I got the bathroom painted and Dave build one of the wall shelving units. We've got 2 more 7 foot x 7 foot shelving units to build tomorrow. I've gone back and forth on trying to decide what to do in the bathroom. I'm trying to save as much money as possibly and was going to make a curtain to hang around the sink, but found a really cute vanity and marble sink at Lowes that would be perfect in there for $98.00. I think Dave can build be a pantry for the corner to cover up the old pipes from that hot water tank that used to stand there. I'll try and get the vanity tomorrow and see how my plumbing skills are. I think I can get it hooked up without too much excitement.

I still have to decide what kind of desk or counter I want for the cash register to sit on. I think I want an "L" shaped counter top so I can use part to check out customers and the other side to do my paperwork etc. I've got to call the carpet cleaners and hopefully they can get the greasy oil stains out of the carpet, if not I'll invest in some area rugs to cover it for the time being.

Trying to decide which vendor to use for credit card payments, need to order shopping bags, find a pricing gun, move the furniture in, get the yarn and I'll be ready to open.

Next Tuesday, November 10th, I have a business tax workshop to attend and then I've got a meeting with the distributor from Plymouth Yarns. Crystal Palace Yarns distributor is also coming into town the same week, but I don't have a confirmed date with him yet.

This month needs to go by slower than normal, so I have enough time to get everything finished before December 1st. I've also got a very important birthday party to attend this month. My grandson will be turning 2 on the 20th. I can't hardly believe it's already been two years. It seems like yesterday that I was holding that little newborn baby in my arms. I think that must been that November is going to fly by in a flash. I hope I can get everything ready in time!

Signed the lease ~ no turning back now!

2009-10-29T11:26:00.001-07:00

I signed the lease today. Registered my company with the Secretary of State, bought the lumber and stuff to start building shelves. I've got appointments with two different yarn distributors for next week. It's really going to happen. I just pray that it's a success.

I got a quote for the lighted channel letter sign that is required for the rooftop. $2200 plus installation, tax and permit. YUCK!!! But, instead of putting my name on the roof, I decided to just have the work YARN lit up in big letters. I'm going to have my name and phone number etc. on the front door and side window. But, the landlord told me that if I get my sign up within a month of opening, he will give me a months free on the rent.

So this weekend is going to be busy, building shelves, painting, fixing the bathroom and getting rid of the Tidy Cat Litter box that the last tenant had attached to the mini hot water tank. I've got to get the electricity in my name, the gas switched over, the phone and internet set up and a countertop for the cash register. Whoo, I'm tired.

Photos

2009-10-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

I hoping to sign the lease this week and get busy fixing the place up. It is rented "as is" which isn't very good. There is exposed red brick which I like, paneling (not really fond of) and filthy filthy carpet. The last tenant owned an motorcycle repair shop. Why in the world would you repair motorcyles on carpet? I'm hoping I can save some money and get Stanley Steemers to clean the carpet and if the oil stains won't come out, to cover them with an area rug. I'm going to leave the paneling as is and paint the back walls and the space above the paneling.

The tiny little room to the right is just that. I think I'm going to put the cash register counter right there and then put a file cabinet and small desk at the back and make that my "office area".

I though about making that a kids area, but then I realized I won't have any place for my paperwork. Here's a couple of pictures of the bathroom. It's gross, you can definitley tell it was used by guys.

I think I'll take down the medicine cabinet and put up a framed mirrow, put a skirt around the sink to cover up the tiny hot water tank. Hopefully some bleach will clean the floor and then put up a cute vintage knitting print on the brink wall.

Like I said, I'm trying to do this a cheaply as possible.

I wanted to thank all you guys for the names of the shop, I really like Knit Together but I think I've come up with a name. To me knitting is a time to sit and relax, chat with my friends and just unwind. I'm going to call it unwind. One of my ravelry friends told me there is already an unwind in Southern California, but there isn't one any place else and they don't have a copyright on the name. If for some reason I can't get the name registered with the Secretary of State, then I'll probably go with Yarn Over. But, keep posting your ideas and if I see something that really grabs me, you'll get a prize. I still really like the Ktog, but I don't think people will understand what it means. I'll keep everyone posted on the progress and I'll keep taking pictures.

Still trying to figure all this out

2009-10-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

I found out yesterday that the complex that I want to lease for my shop requires a Lighted Channel Letter sign. Did you know these signs cost between $2000 and $4000???? I didn't either. Well, that's throwing a huge kink in the plans. If the price varies depending on how many letters, I'm definitely going to have to rethink the name of the shop. Knots & Needles is way to many letters and spaces. I'm going to have to come up with something catchy in 4 letters or less. Just kidding, but I am willing to take suggestions at this point.

Ewe Knit?
Yarn Over
Woolies
K2T

Maybe I could make this a contest. The winning name will get a prize.

The space is very small, only 600 sq feet. It leases as is, so it will require some paint and carpet cleaned. David said he would build the shelves and a counter top for the cash register. Rita has a cash register that I can use for the time being. I'm going to have to go with yarns that are affordable and practical until I can get into the really expensive stuff. I love berroco yarns and plymouth has some great stuff. I'd also like to get some local dyers and spinner to showcase their stuff. It's very overwhelming. I need a partner.

Now back to my own knitting...I finally got Hayden to put the fish sweater on that I made him.

The smallest size was a 4T, but I knit a little tighter and used smaller needles. It probably is between a 2T and 3T. The sleeves are a little long, but he'll grow into it.

He's the hardest kid to get a good picture of, I've got pictures of him running, twisting, dancing, but I can't ever get a picture of him straight on standing still. This was about the closest I could get.

Knots & Needles - Revised

2009-10-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

That's going to be the name of my shop. I found out that I don't have to have any licenses. I just need to have the fire marshall inspect the space. Taxes are going to be a nightmare, so I think I'll have to beg my ex-employee Rita (she lost her job also) to be my accountant. I'm just waiting for my money to come in so I can rent the space and get started. Trying to make decisions on should I have a big table for everyone to sit around or should I have a comfy couch here and a few chairs there. It's very scarey!!

On a less scarey note, I finished a bomber jacket for my son. I had knit this pattern or someting like it a few years ago. I couldn't find the pattern, so I improvised. I started to knit it all in one piece and then decided not to do that. (The next one I do will be in one piece). The last time I made this sweater, I didn't like the collar, it kinda hung out there like bat wings, so I modified the collar and then stitched it down. I really like the way it turned out. I get a picture of it and post it later.

Well, here's a picture of the bomber jacket finished. The bad thing about this jacket is that it doesn't fit my son. I thought him and his dad were closer in size than they really are I guess. So, guess who gets the jacket. I need to get some more yarn and make another before Christmas and adjust the sleeves and girth of the sweater for the kid.

Business Decisions

2009-10-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

Let's see, it's been a few weeks since my job ended and I've had a couple of interviews that were jokes. After the second interview I got to thinking about what I really want to do. Do I want to work for someone doing something that I probably wouldn't like or do I want to do something that I love? The answer was easy, I want to do something that I love and second to my family is knitting.

I started researching what it would take to open my own shop and if I can figure it all out and come up with the financing that's what I'm going to do. I've found a small place in a shopping center here in town and I've written my business plan. Tuesday, I'm going to a seminar at the Oklahoma Tax Commission to find out all about the taxes and licenses and permits.

If I can get this going it would be a dream come true. I've always wanted to have my own yarn shop. So I'll let you know if it happens and if you're ever in the area stop in and see me.

Alot has happened

2009-09-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

Let's see, the 1st weekend in September, my sister (Leigh), a friend (Pam) and I drove to Walsenberg, CO to visit mom and dad (and Edla) over the Labor Day weekend. We had a great time. Mom had a garage sale that weekend, which she REALLY needed to have. We hauled boxes out to the caul-de-sac, where she and neighbors had tables set up ready for the early morning garage sale buyers to come buy all there wares. In Colorado, the hard-core garage sale buyers don't wander out until 9am or so. Even with the slow start, she made $114.00 the first day. (She could have made alot more, if we could have pried the good stuff out of her hands). We really just wanted to get rid of the junk, so we were selling boxes for $1.00 each, but they had to take the entire box and couldn't pick and chose what they wanted.

The second day, the girls and I headed over to see our good friend Elda, she owns the LYS in Walsenberg. She was so glad to see us (we made her sales go way up for the week). We bought way to much yarn, started a couple of new projects. I made the Fake Isle cap out of Boku and Encore. I haven't got a picture of it yet. But I'll add it later. I also started the Gone Fishing Sweater for my grandson. Leigh also started the sweater for her grandson. I'm sure they will only wear the sweater once, but we are going to get a picture of both boys in the new sweaters.

We left Edla's at closing time and drove over to LaVeta and had a couple of tacos at the Mexican Cantenna. Pam and Leigh indulged in a margarita or two and got a little loopy. But we had a good time laughing and taking pictures.

By the time we got back to Mom and Dad's it was around 7pm. We settled in for our evening of knitting and watching tv, and Mom decided to count her garage sale money. Remember the 1st day she made $114.00. She counted and had $106.00. I thought that's pretty good $120 bucks for a bunch of old junk. But she said that she hadn't taken the 1st $114.00 out of the box. I started thinking about that morning. I had gone down to the caul-de-sac with her to get things set up. There was a younger lady who came by and was looking at stuff. Then a friend of theirs came by and bought the old church pews for $10.00 he handed me a $20.00 I put the money in the box and gave him a ten. I noticed there wasn't much money in the box, but assumed Mom had taken out the bulk of the cash and just had a few dollars for making change. I walked back up to the house to get her drink and something to eat and when I came back, I noticed the cash box was on one of the sale tables. I handed her the box and said "someone will end up getting this if you're not careful" and she put it by her chair under the tent. The problem was that someone had already helped themselves to all the money. So, it ended up she made $106.00 for 2 days worth of work. We can only hope that the person who took the money needed it more than Mom needed it. And if the truth be told, most of that stuff was just old junk, that we should have donated to goodwill.

Monday morning we drove back home. I went ahead and took a couple more days off just because I needed to use up some vacation. I came back to work on Wednesday 9/9/09. Everything was good until Friday, when I was informed that my position as Operations Manager was being eliminated. The company decided to merge the Claremore and Tulsa office into what they are calling a Hub and Spoke model. Tulsa will be the hub, which does everything. Taking orders, placing employees on assignment, all administrative work will be done in Tulsa. The Claremore office will be the spoke which won't do much at all. The office will only be open by appointment. If an employee needs to come to the office for some reason and they can't get to Tulsa, they can come here and sign papers or do whatever needs to be done.

So, tomorrow is my last day officially. I'll get 9 weeks severance pay and the rest of my vacation, which is almost 2 weeks. This week has been torture and I've cried more yesterday and today than I have in a really long time. In fact, even when she told me my job was eliminated, I didn't cry. I think I had a tear or two, but I think I was more in shock. Thank God, my sister and niece had decided to eat lunch across the street. Because she was there for me. I've decided that I will finish out the day today and tonight before I leave, I'll send her an email and let her know that I won't be back. Tonight I'm knitting with Rita and Michelle and I'll give Rita my key to take back to the office tomorrow.

It's sad, I really enjoyed my job and my employees and co-workers. I spent 9 years with these people and they were like family. I'll miss all of them but one person. But, I'm the type of person that hates change. I would have stayed here forever, making low-mid salary and crappy bonuses. Maybe this is the push I needed. There must be something bigger and better out there for me. I wish I had the funds to open my yarn store. I think it would be a big hit in Claremore, there are tons of knitters who have to drive 50+miles to Tulsa to buy yarn. But in reality, I still have to pay the bills.

The Rogers County Fair is this weekend. I entered my Barn Raising Quilt, so maybe I'll win the blue ribbon. I'm going to go to the fair tomorrow afternoon and see if I won the prize. I'm spending Saturday with my BFF Sabina and we are going to work on my resume.

The summer blazed by!

2009-08-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that summer is almost over. It seems like yesterday that school was getting out for the summer and now the kids have all gone back to school. Chelsea's got 2 more classes to finish before she can apply for respiratory therapy program. My nephew went back to Independence KS for his second sememster and my niece is going back to TCC and wants to get in the nursing program. I have to leave the house a few minutes earlier everyday to miss all the school buses. Unfortunately, this morning, the buses beat me. Why can't all the kids gather at one location to get on the bus? I was behind a bus this morning that stopped at one driveway of an apartment complex and picked up about 5-8 kids and then drove to the next driveway (approximately 20 feet) and picked up about 5 more kids. I guess it wouldn't be so bad, but why does it take the kids so long to get their seat and for the driver to take off. Then, he drove about 1/10 of a mile and picked up 2 more kids (well there were 2 kids waiting on the bus), but we had to wait approximately 5 minutes for Miss Priss to walk slowly up the street. If I had been the driver I would have told her to run or I'm leaving. I bet by the time we hit every stop, and before I was able to turn off the road, there were probably 20 cars behind me. I'm leaving early tomorrow for sure. I don't want to deal with the bus route again.

Mom and Dad came down from Colorado last week. We had a good visit. It was my great nephew's first birthday and Dad's 70th birthday (1 day apart). They headed back home Tuesday morning and Mom got a traffic ticket in New Mexico.

My sister, her friend and I are going to take a road trip to Colorado over Labor Day weekend. It should be alot of fun. I'm ready to get some new yarn from Edla.

Speaking of yarn and knitting...Rita loves the Susie Hoodie, I've started a 2nd hoodie for Leigh. Her birthday is Saturday, she won't get it on her birthday, but hopefully by mid to late September it will be ready to wear. Davy wants a black hoodie for Christmas too.

The Rogers County Fair is September 18th - 21st. I have to have the Barn Raising Quilt turned in as an entry on September 16th. That will be exciting to see if I can win something. The bad thing with this fair is that you can only enter one knitted item per person. If I were a crocheter I could enter upteen different things. There are categories for household items like dishclothes, there are seperate categories for afghans, clothing, baby, miscellaneous. But only one category for knitting. I was hoping to be able to enter the BRQ and the Susie Hoodie, but I guess I can't this year. I think I'll have to put a bug in the decider the the categories ear and see what happens.

Susie Hoodie is FINISHED

2009-08-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

Actually I finished it about a week ago. I made the XL size and the plan was that this would my sister's birthday present. Her birthday is August 29th and it would be perfect for her to wear to the football games. So, I worked my fingers to the bone to get it ready for her. By the way it turned out gorgeous.

Once I had attached the sleeves, I had my daughter slip it on just so I could see it hang. I got a little worried because my daughter is no where near an XL size, she's a medium at best. But it looked like it would be a comfy size on her. You know, when you can overlap the sides in front of you and cuddle up. This concerned me, so I tried it on. My sister and I are about the same size except my boobs are bigger and the front panels didn't meet together. I could pull it together, but then it looked a little stretched. Okay, now I've knit this entire sweater and half of the hood and it's not even going to fit her. But I continued hoping that once the hood was complete a miracle would occur and the sweater would be the perfect size. Well, it didn't happen.

I brought the sweater to work with me, because we were having our girls night knitting that evening. I let Rita try it on. Now, Rita is about 5'10 and probably weighs 150ish. It was like the sweater was made for her. It fit perfect, the length was right, the sleeves were right, everything was right. We were standing in the bathroom looking at the full length mirror and I just said "Happy Birthday" (here birthday was August 10th). Her eyes got wide and her mouth fell open. "Are you serious? You can't give this to me, it's for your sister!" I told her I'd make my sister another one. This sweater wouldn't have fit her anyways and I want it to be worn and loved. "She said, I'll love it and wear it all the time."

Sorry Sister...I'll try and get yours finished by Christmas.

Here are some pictures of Rita modeling, she hates getting her picture taken and didn't want me to get her face in the pictures, but I had to get at least one with her smiling and happy about the new sweater.

Happy Friday

2009-07-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm the only one in the office this morning so I've been doing the Friday Happy Dance around the office. It's a lazy Friday, so not much real work is getting done. But hey, I worked really hard the other four days of the week.

Let's see, what's been going on in my world? Well, the most important thing is that Hayden is getting cuter and smarter everyday. He love riding on the lawn mower with anyone who will give him a ride. It's so cute to see him great you at the door, with his arms raised high, and shaking his hands as he continues to say "maw mo ah" until you pick him up and start the new John Deere.

The other day he found a really old picture of my sister and her family probably from 1993 or so, he picked it up and pointed to Brent, he looked at me and said "Bumpy? Bumpy?" I said yes, actually shocked that he could tell that the skinny young man in the old picture was Brent. Then he pointed to Alyssa's (my niece) and said "Sissa?" The only resemblence from the picture of a 5 or 6 year old to now is the red hair. But he's a smart little boy and he loves his Maamaw.

Yesterday, we had a guy show up in the office, he's been coming around for several years but I don't know his name. He peddels knock offs, Coach bags, wallets, sunglasses, etc. Well, I hope they're knock offs and not stolen. I bought three pairs of sunglasses for $20 bucks. He was supposed to come back today during our lunch hour with new purses in different colors. He also sells "blackmarket" DVD's not sure how he's getting his hands on these movies, since some of them haven't even come out on DVD yet. I didn't buy any, but the last time he came back with his wares, a couple of the girls bought some of the movies. I guess you get what you pay for...the movies are $5.00 each, but the lip syncing is off, so it's like watching a old Japanese movie. And, occasionally something will flash on the screen, Rita said it flashes so fast she can't make out what it says. It reminds me of a Seinfeld episode, but at least you can't see people standing up and you don't here whispering or laughing while you're watching these $5.00 gems.

So, do you watch Big Brother? I'm totally obsessed this season. Well, maybe not totally, I haven't bought the live feeds yet. But I do stay up until 2am in the morning watching Big Brother After Dark. I know who won the HOH, I know who's on slop and I love sharing everything I know, but I won't do it here, because some of you might not want to have the show spoiled for you.

On the knitting front...I'm determined to finish the Susie Hoodie this weekend. I've finished the body and I've started on the hood. My next project will be to design a cardigan style hoodie for my son. He's really the only person in my family who appreciates my knitting talents. I've never designed a sweater, but I'm going to give it my best shot. It's name to expand my designer wings and maybe even get published some day. Wouldn't that be cool!

Well, it's about time for lunch so I'll talk to you guys later.

Susie Hoodie

2009-07-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

Progress Report:

I've been working on the Susie Hoodie for a little over a month and I think I'm about 60% finished. Notes: A few things that helped me stay on track.

A. I ended up having to write down the rows, like

r1 - cable row 6

r2 - p

r3 - cable row 8

etc. I would check mark each row as I finished it. This way if I sat my work down and came back I'd know which row I left off on.

B. I wish I would have researched the pattern a little bit more before I jumped in. When I got to the cuffs on the sleeves, I did it just like the pattern said, which in hide sight seemed screwed up, but I just kept on going. Check for errata before starting. It turned out okay, you can't tell because of the way I stitched the cuffs. Also, when knitting the sleeve, I had to make sure and use my row counter because there are so many repeats that I didn't want to screw up.

C. When working on the waist increases...do a little research on how you want to do the M1. I've always, well almost always considered when a pattern says to increase that it meant to knit in front and back unless otherwise noted and a Make 1 (even though it's an increase) was considered to be knitting the bar between the stitches. Well, if you do it this way, it will make a hole in your work. Someone told me I should have picked the bar up from the back with my left needle and knitted it twisted. Unfortunuately, I didn't stop and try to find out a better solution, I just kept on going, assuming that's what the designer wanted. I wish I would have watched the Cat Bordhi video on increasing before today. She talks alot about family, like the stitch on the needle is the daughter, and the one below is the mother and the one below the mother is the grandmother, and it got a little distracting for a second until she started knitting. She didn't knit the bar between the stitches, she picked up the mothers right leg and knit that. It made a very tiny hole, but much better.

Here is a picture of the cable up close. I can't wait to get this finished. It will be really nice for someone to wear to the OU football games.

It's because of Farkle

2009-07-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

I have to come clean and admit that I'm addicted to that stupid dice game on facebook called FARKLE!!!! It has consumed my life, I have it minimized on my work computer just so I can pull it up and play a game between phone calls, I don't spend enough time with my Ravelry groups because I'm playing Farkle, I'm not getting my knitting finished because I'm playing Farkle and now my grandson sees me sitting at the computer and he runs over because he wants to play "caukle".

Why do I have such a competitive attitude with this game, it's ridiculous!!! My sister and some of my friends play it and I can't stand it if they are ahead of me. That's why I keep playing.

I think the makers of Farkle want you to become addicted, I finally had to turn the sound off on my computer because even when I wasn't playing the game, I could hear the noise in my head that the dice make as they are rolling.

The only positive thing about this game is that it's free, because if I were spending a quarter a roll, I'd be broke and in the poor house. And, that brings up another thing, it's a free game, so why do they have it programed that if you get a really great score on round one like 2650 points that on your second round it FARKLES when rolling all 6 dice.

There needs to be a detox program and a 12 step program for Farklers...I don't think we're bad people, I just think we're sick, it's a Farkle disease. We know we want to quit and that we need to quit, but we just can't help ourselves.

Hang on, I've got to click on the cup so the dice will roll again.

SEE, see what I mean! I can't even type in my blog without having Farking Farkle pulled up on the next tab!!!

Love it!

2009-06-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

What do you think about it? I love it, the colors all blended perfectly. This is actually 2 columns wider than the pattern called for. It still needs to be blocked again, but before I do that, I think I'm going to knit 6 more squares. My original plan had been to knit 63 squares all along and make it a 56"x63", but I wanted to start another project so I decided 56" x 49" was fine. Because I couldn't block all of my squares to 7 1/2" it's not exactly the measurements it should have been. I've got so much sock yarn left over, it shouldn't be that big of a pain to knit up 6 more squares. I've already got 1 extra.

So I've decided I'm going to enter this in the Rogers County Fair. I just need to figure out who to talk to and how to get it entered.

Nothing left but the sewin'

2009-06-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of the 1st half of the square that have been blocked. Look closely, do you see your donated yarn in one of those squares? I wish I knew how to make the names appear when you hover your mouse over a square. Not that I can remember exactly which person gave me which yarn, but I do remember some of them, like the dark turquoise, 3rd row from the bottom, 4th from the left came from a great competitor in the Amazing Race...Kara, or better known as Knit4ever. The bright orange with the reddish stripes on the 3rd row from the bottom. That is a joined effort. The golden orange came from Zoe, aka Tekgirl and the red stripped came from Michelle, aka Vaguegirl. See the one pink square, 2nd row from the top all the way to the right. That yarn came from Kimber, aka KnitKimberKnit. The picture makes them kind of hard to see, but I'm going to have to tag them somehow. Here's another picture of some that are still on my blocking board. See the light blue square at the top of the picture in the 3rd column? That came from my good friend in the Traveling Scarves Groups, Nancy aka MsPalmTree. She also sent the yarn for the turquoise square in the next row 2nd column. 3rd row down last column, the turquoise square with a hint of greenish yellow in the corner also came from KnitKimberKnit. In the 4th row down the 1st column, the varigated green square came from Jody26, and the denim colored stripes, came from Tekgirl. The pink in the 1st column at the bottom of the picture came from Vaguegirl.

I need to take some more pictures, I've got some other squares, I mean donors that I need to acknowledge. I'm planning on spending the weekend sewing this baby together.

Thank you all so much for your donations, and I'd like to pay it forward. If anyone wants to make the barn raising quilt, I've got lots of scraps that I can send out into the world.

Barn Raising Quilt

2009-06-16T06:51:00.001-07:00

I don't have any pictures yet, but all the squares are knit and half have been blocked. I'm very excited to get this blanket finished.

This is a picture of the newest project on my needles... The Susie Hoodie. I'm making it with knit picks "Wool of the Andes" in cranberry color. I've completed about 20 rows, the celtic cable took a few rows to wrap my brain around, but now I'm catching on and it's moving along great. This will be the perfect sweater hoodie for this winter. I'll continue to post updates as I progress.

I should have completed pictures of the BRQ by the end of the weekend.

It's cool to be cool

2009-06-11T09:59:00.001-07:00

I don't know if I mentioned in my last post that our AC/Heat unit was on the fritz. It is a Geo Thermal unit, the kind that has wells buried in the back yard with antifreeze and it keeps the water circulating through it at a constant 70°. This keeps the electric bill down and helps with the hot water costs. Anyways, the guy came out on Friday, May 29th to do whatever he could to make it run. After about 3 hours, he told me he could fix this and that and it would cost approximately $3,500 and maybe last a few more years. The unit was put in the 39th week of 1985. So it's old. Or, I could spend $7,600 and get a brand new unit that will last 25 to 40 years. I told him to order the new unit.

It was a hot, muggy week and a half, but on Tuesday, June 8th, two guys showed up at the house at 8am. They worked on it until 7pm, but it's done. They did have to make a couple of adjustments. The old unit had an air return in the ceiling of our hallway with the thermostate in the hall also. This unit being brand new stainless steel (did I say, it's really pretty) has a return on the side instead of the back so they had to cut a 24"x24" hole in my dining room wall and that's where the return and thermostate are located now. I was hoping that the hole could be cut closer to the floor, but nope. It's pretty much right in the middle of the wall, which really sucks. I asked them if there was anything else they could do and they mubbled off a few things that didn't really make any sense to me. Oh, I was at work during the installation, so the mubbling took place on the phone. And they didn't tell me the hole would be 24"x24". I thought it was going to be like 9"x9" (like an air vent). It's probably alot more noticable since my walls in the kitchen and dining area are a tuscan terra cotta reddish color. I wonder if I could paint the grate?

By the time they were finished it was 91° in the house. It took several hours to get it to a comfortable 75° and it was so nice to be able to sleep without sweating.

Let's see, my son moved out into his own apartment. That left a vacant bedroom and I had some big ideas of turning it into my knitting room. I wanted cubbie shelves on one wall and I was going to have all of my yarn sorted and displayed beautifully. I wanted to put a big chair in there and a tv so I could sit back and knit. Also, I wanted to move my desk and computer into that room. My big ideas quickly dwindled when Chelsea said, so is that going to be Hayden's new room......If you've been reading my blog for very long, you might remember that a few years ago when Chelsea was pregnant. I remodeled my house for the new baby. I turned the formal living and dining room into a mini suite. Chelsea and Brennan's room was the living area and Hayden was in the dining room side. I thought about putting a wall between the rooms, but ended up running out of time and money. They have a king size quilt hanging as a room divider. So back to my original story. Chelsea wanted to know if Hayden could move into the other room. Of course I wouldn't deny my sweet boy anything and off I went to purchase new paint, curtains, a book shelf, etc. We got everything painted and set up and last night was his first night in his new room. I was a little worried that I would be up all night. But he didn't wake me up at all. I never heard him even once.

So, I think my next plan is to go ahead and put up the wall between Chelsea/Brennan's room and Hayden's old room. I'll turn his old room into my new yarn room/office.

WOW - how time flies!

2009-05-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

It seems like yesterday that I was typing about all the rain we've been getting. It's still raining occasionally, but but we don't need to call Noah to get the big boat out yet.

It's hard to believe that May flew by in the blink of an eye. So let's see, what's been going on this month?

The full moon run came and went. Yes, I had big plans and a goal to be able to run in the Tulsa Full Moon run this year. It didn't happen, my couch to 5k fell apart in March when I busted a rib on the baby bed. There's always next year!

Mother's Day was on the 10th, I won a Mother's Day basket from 94.1 FM, it contained a pair of Michael Kors sunglasses, a braclet, necklace, and a t-shirt. The kids cleaned the house and bought dinner.

Mom and Dad drove in from Colorado and arrived on Friday the 15th. We had a good week together, I took Hayden over to my sister's house just about everyday that Mom and Dad were here. He is still a little skiddish of everyone, but he's getting better around people he doesn't see alot. Except for Gramps, (that's my dad) I think Hayden is afraid of old men.

Yesterday was Memorial Day, didn't have a big weekend. The most excitement around our house was the air conditioner going on the fritz and the toilet backing up. To save a little money during this low economic period, we decided to do our own maintenance work. Starting with the AC, David tried to fix it, but he thinks it's a valve and he decided it was more than he wanted to try and tackle. So the AC guy is coming tomorrow morning. Then we moved on to the plumbing problem. Since all the rain we've had, our septic tank hasn't been very happy. If we flush a toilet or drain the tub, something in another room gurgles. Someone was in the shower on Sunday night and my bathroon toilet and the shower started backing up. The toilet was so close to spilling over on the floor it was scary. Monday morning, David and I decided that watching the plumber once or twice was enough experience to handle the problem ourselves. So, with our gloves and shovel, we started digging down to the septic tanks lid. Did you know, that snakes are underground? I was shocked when he dug up a baby snake. I couldn't tell if it was a baby cotton mouth or just a black snake. Do baby snakes that are poisonous have the triangle shaped head yet? Oh well, back to my plumbing story...by this time, the shovel has snapped in half and he's trying to just dig with the spade, but finally gets down to the concrete lid. Armed with the snake catcher, a big stick, two rubber gloves and 1/2 of a shovel, he pries off the lid to the septic tank.

OMG....is all I can say!

The snake catcher came in very handy with it's gripping mechanism. Apparently, Hayden has figured out that the toilet is a great place to drop things and watch them disappear. We found Hayden's baby comb. You know the cute little blue comb and brush set that you get at your baby shower? Yeah! That's it and then an entire roll of toilet paper was pulled out of the pipe. It looked like someone might have flushed a sock and some sheet rock. Yes, I said sheet rock! After a few flushes of the toilets, we made sure it was all running smoothly again before putting the lid back in it's place. Then we decided to just bury all our findings...It's now our time capsule. I'm sure we will be digging that hole up again in the next couple of years.

So that was my exciting weekend. Came back to work today, Mom and Dad left to go back to Colorado, Chelsea has been calling me all afternoon to talk about changing her major and it's now 4pm and I'm ready to go home and relax.

More rain in the forecast!

2009-05-04T06:32:00.001-07:00

This has been one wet weekend. Friday, my town flooded, but not as bad as one of the neighboring towns. There was a drowning. A woman tried to drive through the water even though the road closed signs were up. It's very sad. As I drove home on Friday after work, I wondered what I would find as I got closer to home. The local dairy that I drive past was flooded, I don't mean a little water, I mean a freakin lake. You could just barely see the tip top of the hay barn sticking out of the water. Luckily, my road had cleared and I was able to get to the house, but the neighbors chain link fence showed the yuck and muck caught in the chain link and the water was either to the top or over the top of their fence. There is a pond in my backyard, thank goodness the house is higher than the pond, but I'm glad it was there because it took all the run off from the neighbors house.

They say we will have more rain over the next few days. I don't know if my septic tank can take anymore rain. Right now when you flush the toilet or drain the bathtub, the other toilet gurgles. Last night one of my son's friends used my bathroom at the same time my daughter was draining the tub. Bad combination, the toilet overflowed. But the worst part of this is that she didn't tell me the toilet was overflowing and just walked outside with the rest of the kids. So needless to say when I went into the bathroom about 5 minutes later, the floor was sopping wet. I could understand if she were a 12 or 13 year old, but she's like 23 years old. She just walked out and said "Thank you" and left. I don't know why she would say, "hey your toilet is messed up." At least I would have caught the mess sooner.

I didn't work on my BRQ squares at all this weekend. I was bombarded with TSG scarves. I received one from Group 39. I am the last stop for this scarf and it will be heading back to the original owner tomorrow. I meant to bring it with me today and get it in the mail and totally spazed this morning and forgot everything. I also got a scarf from Group 52, I think these are my favorite scarves. We are doing this group lengthwise, so we are each knitting on circular needles about 300-400 stitches per row. They are turning out really pretty. I then received a scarf from our Red Scarf Project. This is the charity for kids who have aged out of foster care. At valentines day the OFA puts together gift bags and gives each kid a red scarf. Last year we did this and each person sent the red yarn with the scarf and each knitter did a different pattern. This year, we are adding our own shades of red. They are turning out really pretty too. Then finally, I received my latest project the Friendship Chain Project. One of my buddies from TSG has started this group. It is her plan to make the longest continuing chain for the prevention of suicide. I was lucky enough to get to start the chain, so I'll be sending my link off to the next person so she can add her link to mine. Now that I have all my special little projects finished and ready to go to the post office, I can focus on the BRQ again. My goal is to be completely finished by the end of June. Let's see if I can do it!

Spring Showers

2009-05-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

Spring showers around NE Oklahoma really means torrential rain storms. It has been raining so hard this morning that I could hardly hear the phone ringing. The ceiling in the back office is leaking, I just hope the ceiling tiles don't fall and cause a huge mess. I've called the landlord, but who knows if he'll call me back. It's supposed to rain for four days. I wish you could hear what I'm hearing. Rita (my co-worker) called and she's stil trying to get to work, she said that hwy 69 is like a river, the water is up to the doors of her jeep right now. She just made it to work and her husband called and said they've shut down hwy 69 and that the traffic is backed up 8 miles and that people are getting their boats out to get back and forth.

Now lets talk about work...things have been looking better this week. We actually had some jobs to fill. We were able to actually place 14 people in full time jobs. That will definitely help our numbers. And, it looks like we are going to need another 20 people to start on Monday! YEAH!!!

Has anyone read the book The Shack? My sister bought it for me last summer and told me I had to read it, I told her not to buy a new book, I'd just borrow hers. She told me she didn't want to give up her copy because she's going to highlight in it and read it again. I started it, maybe read about 10 pages (actually, I don't think I made it past the Forward section) and put it in a drawer and really just forgot about it. A few days ago, my friends Sabina said, "I'm reading the best book, my sister, Pam bought a copy for me, Jackie and Monica because she didn't want to give her copy up because she's highlighting in it and wants to read it again." I said, " is it The Shack?" and she said, "OMG, how did you know?" Anyways, I found it in my drawer and decided to try and read it again. I'm about 1/2 way finished and it really is a good book. It makes you think about yourself, God and the relationship that you have with God or lack thereof. It's not a shove it down your throat book about Christianity or religion. It's just a good book. If you haven't read it, it's definitely worth the $10.00 to get a copy for yourself. I'd loan you mine, but I'm probably going to highlight in it and read it again. LOL

Now on to the really important stuff...my barn raising quilt. I've just finished square #47, only 16 more squares to go. I'm making it almost 50% bigger than the pattern calls for. I wanted it to be long enough to really be able to cover up with and not have your toes sticking out from the bottom. Rita (yeah, my co-worker and Thursday night knitting partner) has finished her 6th square and excited to get more finished.

After I get the BRQ finished I'm going to try and find a pattern for a light weight sweater, maybe with a lace pattern. Just something that I can put on in the office when the AC is turned down to 60° and I'm freezing to death.

Okay, gotta get busy and find those 20 people to start work on Monday.

Sunday Squares

2009-04-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a happy Easter day. We got up and watched Hayden open his Easter basket. He actually had more fun throwing the grass around than anything else. But he was introduced to Hershey's Kisses which he calls cacalot (chocolate). He ate a half of a kiss and then another and we put the rest of the bag up for later. I bought him a cute little blue monkey that was wearing rabbit ears, and some Easter stickers. He loves stickers now, he likes to stick them on everything and can play for an hour or longer with 1 sticker, he calls them ditters. I forgot to get the peeps, but it's probably better, he doesn't need all that sugar.

The kids went to Brennan's grandpa's house in Jennings for the afternoon. It rained most of the morning and into the afternoon.

I started to make a ham and all the fixin's for an Easter dinner, but since it was just me, David and Davy I decided we really didn't need all that food. So instead I made chicken breast with rice and then some brocolli and cauliflower on the side. I really didn't have a recipe, but it was pretty darn tasty. I put some rice in the bottom of a casserole dish, covered it with cream of mushroom soup, place the cut up chicken breast on top, poured some chicken broth over the whole thing and then dobbed some green chilis over the top of the chicken. Added some poultry seasoning, and pepper and baked it covered for 1 1/2 hours at 300°.

After we ate, I started working on my squares again for my barn raising quilt. I finished #35 last night. I wish I had kept better track of the square that came from yarn donated by my Ravelry friends. I'll have to go through them and see if I can remember which square came from what yarn. But I was smart enough to start keeping track with the ones I just finished. This is the square that came from the beautiful Koigu yarn that Mspalmtree (Nancy) sent to me.

Isn't it pretty? I love the colors and it is going to blend so well with the squares I've already worked up. This was also the first time I'd knitted with Koigu. It's quickly become one of my favorites to work with. She also sent me another skein that I'm going to start of very soon.

I've got another picture of a square that was from donated yarn. Well actually this yarn was won in a bet. I'm involved with the Ravelry pool (The Amazing Race). It's a pool where each person who signs up is assigned one of the teams racing on the show. The object of the game is to be assigned to the team who wins the race. All the other members of the group will then send the winner a prize valued between $15 and $20. It's a lot of fun. So I was assigned the cheerleaders, Cara and Jaime. One of my buddies Knit4ever (Kara) was assigned the blond flight attendants or STEWS for short. We had a little side bet going that the first team out between the two of us would send the other an extra gift. My cheerleaders outlasted the Stews and this is the yarn that Kara sent to me. It's Panda Wool, another that I've never used before. It's so soft, I'd like a sweater out of it. But I don't think I could ever
afford to buy that much of it to actually make myself a sweater, I'll have to stick with socks.

I had also gotten some sock blanks and started dying them. I've got pictures of the blanks on my stash page in Ravelry. But I decided it would be a while before I got around to actually making myself socks and really wanted to use some of the yarn for BRQ squares. I seperated the 2 strands and wound them up. I used the "Northern Lights" for this square and I think it's one of my favorites in the whole bunch. The funny thing is that this dye job was a total mistake and a flop, but the finished square is gorgeous. I'm going to have to block some of these pretty soon and start trying to figure out the best color scheme and sew them together in strips.

I hope everyone has a really good week and I'll try and post again really soon!

Teresa

Medication and Insurance Companies

2009-04-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, I just posted a nice fun post, but now I'm irritated. As you all know, my daughter got married a couple of weeks ago and you also know that she has been diagnosed with a seizure disorder (epilepsy, is what they are calling it but they don't really know). Anyways, when she was on my insurance her medication was a $50 co-pay. On her husbands insurance, they are telling her it's going to be $86.44. When she told me that it made no sense at all because, I had contacted the pharmacy before she got married to find out the cost of the medicine without insurance and was told $150 something dollars. Her new insurance card states that prescriptions are as follows: Tier 1 - $10, Tier 2 - $20, Tier 3 - $30, all other 20% copay. Okay $86.44 is more than 1/2 the cash price. So I called the pharmacy, I know, she's married now and an adult with a child of her own, but I'm still her momma. Anyways, I called the pharmacy and they are now telling me the cash price is $331.72 for a 1 month prescription. What the hell happened in the last 3 weeks???? Okay, so if her medicine is that much and she has to pay 20% that's only $66.34, where is the other $20.10 coming from. The pharmacist technician, Mandi, told me that I would have to contact the insurance company because everything is done online and that was the price she was given. Chelsea called the insurance company and found out that her medication is actually a Tier 3 drug and should be a $30 co-pay. Wait, Chelsea just called me back and was told that because she has to take 100mg per day and the pills are 25mg each it is basically a double prescription each month and the price will be $86.44. I don't understand that at all, if it's a Tier 3 and should be a $30 co-pay, even doubled would only be $60. What a rip off.

Now my question, what if she didn't have insurance? How in the world is someone supposed to live with a siezure disorder and carry on a 1/2 way normal life if they can't afford $331.72 a month for medication. I guarantee you that the insurance company isn't paying near that for the prescription. They are probably only paying 1/4 if that. It's so sad, but shouldn't it be the other way around. I know Wal-Mart has the new $4 prescriptions, unfortunatly her medication isn't on that list.

Okay, my rant is over.

Did you get fooled?

2009-04-02T06:04:00.000-07:00

I went all day long yesterday and nobody tried to get a joke on me until I had already left work. I stopped at the tag office to pick up the car tag and left my phone in the car. I came back out about 30 minutes later and had 5 missed calls. Just seeing that the calls were all from Chelsea and David made me panic just a little bit and when I noticed that they were all within minutes of each other I really started getting nervous. My mind started spinning out of control and all I could think was something has happened to the baby.

I immediately called David and he asked if I'd talked to Chelsea. I told him not yet and asked what the heck is going on. He said, "You know the wooden spoon that 'little dude' (Hayden) likes to carry around?" and I said "Yes". He said, "Well it's found a new home." I was confused and asked him what he was talking about. He replied with "Well let me just say, I can't move the big screen TV by myself." I gasped and said, "Is he okay?" "Yes, he cried, and it scared him when it popped and sparked, but we got him calmed down." All I could picture was him sticking the wooden spoon through the screen and hurting himself. It's not a glass screen, but I thought maybe he could have been shocked. David told me that the screen was ruined and the spoon had fallen inside and messed something up and the TV was dead. I guess once I realized that the baby wasn't hurt, I really didn't care about the TV. I just said I'd have Davy and Brennan move it out and put the TV from the bedroom in it's place. (The big screen is old, probably from 1995) I've been wanting a new TV anyways. After I hung up with him, I called Chelsea to check on Hayden. She informed me that it was April Fool's Day and it was Dad trying to get me. Okay, ha ha ha, you got me.

On to the important stuff, like knitting.

I've been working on my barn raising quilt and I've got 30 squares finished. The pattern calls for 42 squares but I think I want to make it a little bigger so I'm aiming for 56 squares. If I knit when I get home, I can usually get a square finished in about 3 hours and depending on what's going on during the weekend maybe 2 or 3 finished. This is Chelsea and Brennan's wedding present from me, I knew I wouldn't get it finished by the wedding, but it was a good start. When Chelsea saw the picture she asked if I could make it big enough to fit their bed. They have a king size bed and I have no idea how many squares it would take. I'm enjoying knitting the little squares because they are a fast knit and I don't get bored. I like being about to bind it off and put it in my stack of squares and start with another colorway. My plan was to have the 56 squares finished by the end of the month, but you never know, I may keep adding on squares until it will fit their bed. Maybe this will actually end up being their Christmas present. Here are some of my squares. In no particular order. What do you think?

I'm also working on a new Red Scarf for 2009. The Traveling Scarves Groups, better known as TSG has a group that is working on the charity for the Orphanage Foundation, they give scarves to all the children who were in foster care that have aged out and are now in college. Last year, the TSG - Red Scarf Project made scarves that started out as a 4x5 inch square with live stitches that traveled from person to person, each adding their own unique pattern to the scarf. All the scarves were made with the same yarn (which traveled also). This year we are going to have a free for all. Some of us are making lengthwise scarves, casting on 300-400 stitches and then each person that it travels to, will add up to 3/4" of their own red shade of yarn to the scarf. It should be very interesting, some are going with the traditional scarf like we did last year and sending their own yarn and others are going with a uniform pattern throughout but with different shades of red. The scarves officially start their travels on Saturday, April 11 and all the scarves should return back to their original starting place within 4 to 5 months as long as we don't have any snags along the way. I'll make sure and post a picture of my red scarf as it travels along.

Mr. & Mrs

2009-03-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

It's finally over and they're married! Chelsea and Brennan said their vows on March 14, 2009 at 4pm.

My mom, sister and I started working on the decorating and food on Friday right after we got the call that the cala lillies didn't arrive. We took a quick trip to Sam's Club and were able to get some beautiful cream roses and white daisy. It wasn't what she'd planned, but they were very pretty.

We were able to get the sanctuary decorated and the punch made and in the freezer before the rehearsal started at 7pm.

Have you ever known someone who just carries stress and tension into a room with them? That would be Brennan's sister, Heather.

Let me give you a little background on Heather. She is 25 years old (2 years older than Brennan). Their mother died about 6 years ago, and their father has never remarried. Heather has now taken the role of the mother. When Chelsea and Brennan started dating 4 years ago, Brennan asked me if I could help his sister find a job, since I'm in the staffing business. So, it just happened that our Tulsa branch needed a receptionist for a temp position and I sent her there to fill in, a few months later she was hired as an admin. We've always gotten along okay I thought, until Hayden was born and that was when she decided she was in charge of everything.

So, back to my story...Heather shows up at the rehearsal and everyone is supposed to pay attention to her. I just tried to ignore her and get on with the business that we were there to take care of. At the rehearsal dinner, she asked me what time I was going to get to the church and I told her I had to be there at 9am to finish decorating for the reception. (I couldn't do it after the rehearsal because AA meeting in that room and I didn't want to take the chance of someone spilling coffee on a tablecloth). She told me she would be there at 9am...I quickly told her she didn't have to help us, if she could just pick up the cake at 11 and the sandwichs at 1pm that would be great. Guess what? She showed up at 9am and took over. I pissed her off a couple of times and then my mom pissed her off because she didn't like what we were already doing. Then out of the blue she says she wants a bouquet for her grandpa to carry, in memory of his late wife and she wants to carry a bouquet in memory of her mother. We didn't plan on this and with all the problems we'd already had with the flowers I was a little irritated. She wanted me to take flowers aways from Chelsea's bouquet so she could have flowers for the two bouquets that she requested. It was a nice thought, but it felt like she was trying to make the whole wedding about her mother and not about Chelsea and Brennan and the new life they are starting. But Chelsea decided to run to Wal-Mart and get a couple of bouquets of yellow tulips to keep the peace.

Chelsea got to the church around 1:30 to start getting her hair and makeup done. She was calm and relaxed and they were having a good time getting ready. Heather had left the church around 1:30 to go and take a shower and get ready. But at 3:00 Heather comes blasting into the dressing room wearing sweats and trying to get her daughter, Avery (the flower girl) dressed. I left the room to go get my sister (the photographer) to take pictures of them getting ready and Chelsea getting her dress on. We walked into the dressing room and Heather is standing in the middle of the room stark naked. We are trying to get pictures of Chelsea and keep the naked girl's reflection out of the pictures. That was about the time Chelsea started stressing and the tears started flowing.

The wedding coordinator (she tells you where to stand and when to walk) had the bride's family ready to go to the parlor and wait to be seat. Suddenly I see Heather hurrying around the corner with Hayden and he's screaming his head off. I went to him and she turned him away from me. He was reaching for me and she didn't want me to take him because she wanted him to walk down the aisle with Avery. Ok, that would have been a great idea and he enjoyed walking with her during the rehearsal and picking up the flower petals that she was dropping. But now it was a different story, he didn't want anything to do with anyone there except me or his grandpa. I took him from her and got him calmed down and walked down the aisle with him and my son Davy.

The wedding started and it was so pretty. They had made a slideshow of their lives. It started out with me holding Chelsea just minutes after she was born and went through pictures of her life, then it show pictures of Brennan's life, their lives together and then pictures of their family with Hayden. It was so touching, I cried through the entire thing. Then the preacher pronounced them husband and wife and I started bawling again.

After the wedding, we went back into the sanctuary to recreate some of the wedding pictures that we weren't able to get during the actual ceremony and that was when Heather told my sister that she wanted a picture of her family and Hayden but she didn't want Chelsea in the picture. What the hell is that about? This girl is a psycho. I think we were just a the same wedding and Chelsea is now part of your family. So here's the picture of Heather the matriarch and her family. (excluding Chelsea)

Here's Chelsea waiting while Heather get's her picture made.

Finally we were finished taking pictures and moved into the reception area, where everyone was having a great time.

The happy couple left to go on their one night honeymoon while I kept Hayden. He was so exhausted, it had been a couple of very busy days for the little guy and he was way past sleepy. He woke up a little fussy around 1:30 in the morning and I didn't want to make alot of noise and get him fully awake so I was trying to arrange him and his blanket without putting down the railing. I'm only 5 foot tall and it was a very bad idea. As I was stretching to reach the blanket, I suddenly felt my ribs seperate and the bar of the railing tear through the muscle. OMG...the sound of the cracking was enough to make me want to puke. It didn't really hurt, but I think it was because the nerves had gone numb. Yesterday morning, I hurt so bad and this morning it is almost unbearable to try and move around. I came to work, but all I can do is sit in one spot and type. I can just hardly answer the phone. I went to the dr and they took an x-ray and gave me some drugs so I can sleep tonight.

So that was my weekend.

The countdown begins

2009-03-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

5 days and counting till the wedding...

Mom and Dad arrived on Friday night. Saturday we took the dress to Mom and she began the alterations. With a scare here and there and one point when I think I peed my pants it all ended up perfect. We thought for just a few minutes that the lop layer of chiffon had been cut wrong and ended up about an inch shorter than the other layers, but after Chelsea tried it on again it was perfect.

I've gone over the checklist several times today and with Mom's help (thank god for her) we are going to be able to pull this all together. Now I know why people hire wedding coordinators. The groom and his family are just laxidaisy (is that a word) about the whole thing. The bride is shutting down and won't communicate with us anymore, except with shruggs and or screaming. At this very moment, my mother is out getting the last of the decorations and stuff for the reception.

I still have to find shoes that will fit and not kill my feet 30 minutes after putting them on, I've got to get my son something to wear because I'm sick and tired of waiting for him to go get something. If he had his way, he'd wear holey jeans and a holister t-shirt. Thank goodness he's not in the wedding party.

I'll be happy when Sunday gets here!

The things I put up with for Traveling Scarves

2009-02-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

Before I tell this story, I first want everyone to know that I am not making fun of anyone.

As most of you know I'm one of the Administrators for the Traveling Scarves group on Ravelry, so every couple of weeks or so I'm at the post office mailing off my next package. On Tuesday, 2/17/09, (the post office was closed for President's Day) so when I walked into the building I quickly saw the line off 20 people or so. I took my place in line to wait and said hello to the gentleman standing in front of me. The line moved just a smidgen and the door opened as another customer entered, I turned to smile and saw a older woman approximately 60ish with a man who was probably in his mid 20's carrying a blankie and was extremely mentally retarded. I smiled and said "Hi" and the man began parroting me. He said "hi" to everyone in the post office. The woman said "Hold Grandma's hand." which he repeated many many times in his grandma's voice. She said that he was a victim of child abuse when he was two years old and that's where his mind stayed. I didn't have a problem at all until he walked up to me and said "Hi, Good Lookin and squeezed my boob. (it was just one squeeze but multiple squeezes) I gently removed his hand and looked to Grandma for some guidance or help in what to do in that situation. She said, "BJ leave that woman alone." then he repeated that several times. At this point I was afraid to make I contact because I didn't want to encourage the fondling episode ago. He then let out a loud cry and then in a high pitched voice said "he's baulin'." Then he did it again and in the same voice said "he's pitchin' a fit." It was like listening to a parrot mimick the family he lives with. The line started moving again and he got loose from Grandma and grabbed my boob again. By this point I'm really feeling scared and uncomfortable. The line moved again and suddenly my head jerks back like whiplash and grandma said "BJ don't pull her hair." I completely understand how a two year old behaves because my grandson pulls hair, has hit, etc. But he's only 25 lbs and 30" tall and a little bit easier to control. BJ then began flipping his blankie at me and then I heard the postal clerk call next. All I could think was thank God there was some distance between me and the 6' 200lb BJ.

All I can say is Grandma is one angel and what happened to BJ's abuser? Did they get a short sentence or a slap on the wrist? Poor BJ is stuck as a 2 year old for the rest of his life and Grandma will never have a peaceful life. I can't imagine what strength you would need to be a fulltime caregiver for an adult 2 year old.

So I just want all my TSG friends to realize that I'm willing to be molested in the post office line while trying to get my scarves mailed out.

Couch to 5K

2009-02-17T06:32:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to update my blog for several days now and just can't ever seem to find the time to just sit and type.

A week or so ago I was watching TV, it was late, I was in my bedroom lying on my bed. A show ccame on about the one ton man, he was lying face down on his bed because that was the only way he could breath. The firemen had to take out a wall to get him out of the house and to the hospital. I was thinking to myself, how in the world can someone let themselves get to that point and then I caught my reflection in the TV screen. There I was lying on my stomach, just like the one ton man. So I got up and did a few jumping jacks to remind myself that I could still move and be active.

The next day I was on Ravelry, talking to one of my friends and she told me about Couch to 5K. It's a plan to get yourself off the couch and doing a 5K race in 2 months. If you've read my blog, I'm sure I've mentioned how much I absolutely hate exercise and don't understand how people can say they are addicted to running or weight lifting. But, I remembered how proud I was of my sister when she started running years ago. I was proud and jealous at the same time, I so wanted to be a runner, but I always made excuses about my knees (yes, my knees do hurt and crack and make it really hard to jog) but I know if I were to lose some of the weight, they might not hurt as bad.

So I recruited my sister to join me in the couch to 5K. I've got a goal! My goal is to walk/jog/run the Tulsa Full Moon Run on May 9th. I might not be able to run or jog the entire 5K by then but I'll finish it. We started our "training" last week and we walked the trail at the lake it's a little over a mile. It's a hilly little trail and it's really hard for me to walk and talk at the same time without being so out of breath. The shin splints finally went away. We drove 2 cars and parked them at opposite ends of the lake and walked to one car and drove back to the other car. We will continue this routine this week and then next week, we will walk from one end to the other and back again to the car. After we are able to do that for a few days I think I'll be ready to start adding some jogging into the mix.

Remember a paragraph or two back when I said I hated exercise. Well, last night I didn't get to go to the lake with my sister for our walk and I really missed it. Chelsea's neurologist appointment was last night. She's been on the Topamax for 1 month and no freaky side effects which is really good. The dr asked how she was doing and said "Okay, I'll see you in 6 months." and that was it.

On the knitting front: The girls and I started up our Thursday night knitting night again. After Survivor ended last season we tried to switch to Tuesday nights, but that just wasn't working for us. I think we only met 2 times since Thanksgiving. Since the new season of Survivor started last Thursday, we met up again. Michelle ordered pizza, Rita invited her cousin Pam to join us. She's a brand new knitter, never held needles in her life. She did really good, we started her on a dishcloth. I'm working on my TASK squares and still have a few to finish. I was having so much trouble with them and the gauge. Who would have thought that knitting a 12" square would be so hard. But, I found a great way to finish them up. The log cabin pattern is really working out great and it's easy to stay on gauge. I've promised myself that I will get them all finished and mailed out before I start a new project. My new project that I'm wanting to get going on is the Barn-Raising Quilt which is a bunch a squares. I'm not real excited about knitting squares again, but at least they have a pattern and they are with sock yarn which is so much fun for me to knit with.

Here's a couple of pictures of the Barn-Raising Quilt that others have made. Aren't they pretty?

I love this blanket, I think it will be a late wedding present for my daughter Chelsea. Yep, she getting married in less than 4 weeks and we are no where near ready for the big day. I've planned to take off on the 12th and 13th just to finish up the last little details.

The Groundhog saw his shadow!

2009-02-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was groundhog day and that damned groundhog saw his shadow and ran back in his hole. 6 more weeks of bad weather.

I just hope we are finished with the ice. Last week, Jan 26th on Monday afternoon the ice started. Freezing rain was coming down so fast that I had 1/2" to 1" of ice on my windshield within an hour. We closed up the office and slid home. It started out as a really scarey evening, my house is totally electric and like a goofball I never called the firewood people to have them bring out any wood. So, at approximately 8pm our electricity goes off. Since it was pitchblack in the house except for the couple of candles I found to light, we all decided we might as well go to bed.

I sat up and read by the light of my cell phone for an hour or so until it got so cold I couldn't keep my arms outside of the covers. At 3:30am the electricity came back on, because the TV was blaring and the lights came on. I shot out of bed like someone had invaded the house. I ran though really quick and shut off all the lights and turned off tv's and went back to sleep. The next morning, the schools were all shut down and the roads were like ice skating rinks. So I made an executive decision for our office to work from home. We were fortunate enough that the electricity stayed on for the next couple of days and the ice finally melted away.

We are on the countdown to the wedding...6 weeks from this coming Saturday is Chelsea and Brennan's wedding day. This Friday I'm taking a vacation day to take Chelsea to order the cake, pick out flowers, figure out the music, etc. The invitations were mailed on Saturday so it's a done deal. The date is picked and the dress is bought.

I finally finished the sweater for Angie's baby. I can't believe that Thursday is her last day and that her little boy will be here on Tuesday. Here's a picture of the sweater:

Slacking on my blogging

2009-01-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

I really can't believe it's been almost 20 days since I let you guys know about my life and it's ups and downs.

Let's see, Chelsea had the ultrasound done on her thyroid because the neurologist said it was enlarged. She had the EEG and the MRI and then on Monday, the 19th we went back to the dr. I don't think I like this dr. because I can't go in the exam room and ask questions. It's driving me crazy. But, she told Chels that the MRI on her pituitary gland showed small tumors (she said they are benign, but that makes me terribly nervous), her thyroid was okay, no tumors and her EEG showed signs of distress on the brain. She gave her a prescription for Topamax and so far it hasn't turned her into a zombie. She has a follow up appointment on Feb 20th.

On the knitting side of life - I finished the cute little baby sweater for my secretary's new baby who will be arriving in a couple of weeks, but I forgot to take a picture. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it, that makes me so mad. But I was litterally weaving in lose ends up until an hour before the shower started. Finished it, tucked it in the tissue paper and wrapped the box.
I'm hoping to get a picture of him wearing it sometime very soon.

My latest knitting obsession (which I haven't started yet, but I'm dying to cast on) is the Barn-Raising Quilt. But, before I can start another new project, I've told myself that I have got to finish the TASK square for the Traveling Scarf Group. So to curb my appetite a little bit, I'm using the Barn-RAising Quilt pattern to make my squares. I'm just using worsted weight and doing a few more rows to get the right gauge for the 12" squares. Then, and only then will I pull out all my sock yarn and start designing the color theme for my barn-raising quilt.

What else has been going on???? Hayden is getting smarter and smarter every day! He's talking up a storm, we aren't always sure what he's telling us, but I'm sure it's really important. The words we have deciphered all seem to start with a "d" sound. Like dog, and daddy, drink, down, diaper, but then there's also cat, which sounds like dat, or cow which sounds like dow, or pig which sounds like dig. He still hasn't said mommy or grandma, but I'm sure he will any day now.

Hopefully, I can check back in with you guys before 20 days fly by again.

Chelsea's tests

2009-01-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

So after our long stressful evening with Nellie. Chelsea went to see the neurologiest today for the brain test. They tried to induce a seizure but were not successful. She didn't get to see the dr today and the lab tech giving the test couldn't say anything.

So we are still in the dark. She has the ultra sound scheduled for Monday to check her thyroid and then a follow up at the neurologist on the 19th. I'm assuming at that time they will prescribe her new medication.

On the knitting front - I'm ready to talk about fun stuff.

I'm working on the cutest little sweater for my assistant's new baby who should be arriving on February 10th. Baby Landon will get to come home wearing the Lutzling Sweater.

I'll post pictures soon.

Long stressful evening

2009-01-09T10:11:00.001-08:00

Last night, I got home and got online to finish up some Ravelry issues and then I was going to settle in to watch the BCS Championship game. OU Sooners vs the FLA Gators. (We won't talk about the game - yuk)

Anyways, my son-in-law came in about 20 minutes after me and suddenly he said "Nellie's bleeding to death!" Nellie is our sweet little 1/2 weenie dog 1/2 terrier. I jumped up and she was standing outside the door looking for help. Someone had shot her. We live in the country where dogs have no boundries. It was already close to 6pm and I knew the vets office was closed. I called to find out that the vet was in Tulsa at a Football party and couldn't help us. We called several other vet clinics and it seems they were all wanting to watch the game. I finally reached one clinic and the dr. was a complete asshole (sorry for my language). He told me if I didn't have a credit card with at least 200.00 available credit he couldn't help me. I told him I had $20.00 in the bank, but I could write him a check to cash on Thursday. He said no! I asked him what I was supposed to do, just let her lay there a bleed to death? He said, maybe you should ask someone to shoot her. I hung up on him. Aren't vets supposed to be humane? Don't they take some sort of oath to help animals?

Chelsea was crying so bad, Nellie was a great dog and we couldn't let her suffer. My son-in-law called his father and he came over and shot her. It was horrible.

I don't understand how people can be so cruel. Was she doing something she shouldn't have been doing? Maybe. I don't know.

It was a rough night.

Update to Chelsea's dr's appointments

2009-01-08T09:33:00.000-08:00

I wanted to let you guys know how the dr's appt went yesterday.

Chelsea saw the neurologiest yesterday morning. She was told "by definition" she has epilepsy. "by definition" means if you've had 2 seizures in your life. She is going back to the dr. on Friday morning to do the brain test. They will hook a bunch of pads to her head and then try and make her have a seizure to see if they can catch it on the scanner. The last time she did this, they couldn't force the seizure.

The other thing is, the dr. said her thyroid is enlarged so she is having an ultrasound on Monday to get that checked and then a follow up on the 19th. The dr is going to put her back on medication (not Keppra) and hopefully it doesn't react the same way that the Keppra did. I don't think my boss will want me taking another 2 or 3 weeks off of work.

I really hope that the seizures were caused by her thyroid. I think it would be easier to take thyroid meds for the rest of my life versus epilepsy meds.

The dr also told her that it is against state law for her to drive right now. Which she hasn't since December 2nd. She will have to be seizure free for 6 months to be able to drive again. The state hasn't revoked her license, but if she were to drive and had a seizure behind the wheel and wrecked her car or someone elses, we would all be in big bad trouble.

Deep down in my gut, I really think it has something to do with the time of the year, and studying for math finals. During the 3 years that she didn't have a seizure, she wasn't in any math classes. The neurologist said it doesn't have anything to do with math, but could be stress due to studying for math. But, the dr's and scientist don't even know what causes epilepsy, so how could she say for sure that it doesn't have anything to do with math.

I know there are people who live a normal life with epilepsy, they drive, take care of their families and hold down jobs just fine. But they aren't my child.

It's so hard not having a confirmed diagnosis one way or the other.

Christmas Gift Cards to LYS

2008-12-29T10:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-17T07:21:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-15T12:22:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-28T05:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Update of BP and some other stuff

2008-10-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-07T06:30:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-07T05:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-04T06:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-09T05:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-22T04:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-18T04:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-31T04:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-04T05:41:00.000-08:00

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!!!

Leap Year 2008

2008-02-29T04:51:00.000-08:00

Wouldn't it be weird to be 40 years old today, but only celebrating your 10th birthday? What if you were a twin and one of the babies was born at 11:58pm on 2/29 and the other was born at 12:01am on 3/1. Would you just tell them they were both born on 3/1? That reminds me, my brother-in-laws birthday is tomorrow, and he's a twin (identical). Was there a leap in in 1966? hmmm, makes me wonder.

So, thank goodness today is Friday. I've really been tired this week, going to bed too late and getting up too early. But, tonight my plan is to leave work (maybe stop and pick up dinner - I don't want to cook) head to the house, play with Hayden for a little while (until he gets cranky, then I'll let him mom have him back), starting planning the yarn organization project, better known as YOP.

Oh, I forgot to mention the traveling scarf. I mailed my scarf to Lindaspinandknit last week, she received it but I don't know if she's sent it on to the next person yet or not. I did receive a scarf from Merrypurl on Wednesday. I went home and sat in the floor of my closet with my stash spread out around me trying to decide what to do with Merrypurls scarf. She started it with a yarn that is bulky and thin, the color is a purplish and black, on size 7 needles in a lace pattern. I finally decided to use Pattons 100% wool in a worsted weight in a very pale pink, it's a huge contrast from the dark to light, but I think it works and will probably be very pretty once all the other knitters add there flair to the scarf. I decided on using the herringbone rib stitch for my section. I love this pattern, it's easy and quick. So I started knitting and noticed the edges rolling in on me a little and realized the guage just wasn't going to work using size 7 needles, so I did what all knitters have to do sometime in their lives, I frogged it. Yep, ripped her right out of there. I thought about using a double strand, but was afraid the pattern wouldn't show as pretty with 2 strands of yarn. I then moved up to a size 8 needle and actually could have probably gone for a 9 if truth be told. I knit my 4-5 inches and it's very nice. The edges do still roll a tad bit, but not bad, I think I'll block it before I send it on, just so it looks nice and neat. Tonight when I get home, I'll take a picture of the scarf at this point and post it in the Spoilers thread on Ravelry. I'm hoping to get it mailed off tomorrow, Monday at the latest.

I hope everyone has a great weekend
ttfn
Teresa

Traveling Scarf

2008-02-21T05:09:00.000-08:00

I've joined the traveling scarf team on Ravelry and I'm so excited. Yesterday, after I found out who my team mates were going to be I ran home at lunch and started digging through my stash and started my scarf. The rules of this game are very simple. You start a scarf and knit 3 to 4 inches and then you will mail it on a stitch holder to someone else on your team, along with a note card with any instructions or suggestions for your scarf (needle size, type of yarn, etc) also, each knitter will sign the note card so the owner of the scarf will know who knit which portion. We will each be given 1 persons address and mail each scarf to the same person, that way we are sure that everyone knits on each scarf.

I started my scarf with a deep chocolate brown acrylic/cotton blend, if I remember right it was Black Horse brand. I bought it at Edla's Yarn store in Walsenberg, Co last year on a visit to see Mom and Dad. Edla was discontinuing the yarn so I bought a gob of it at $4.00 a skein instead of the normal $7.99 per skein. (I always loves me a yarn sale). So when I got home and picked the needles up again, I just wasn't feeling this scarf, so I went and dug through the stash again and found a skein of olive green tweed Tahki wool, I don't remember the exact name right now, but I'll include it when I send out my scarf.

So, I've already knit my 4 inches, but if there are 13 people on my team and each person knits 3-4 inches, my scarf will be somewhere between 39 and 52 inches long. I was thinking, if I knit 5-6 inches at the beginning and then the other 12 team members knit 3-4 inches and then when I get it back I'll knit another 5-6 inches on the other end to make the ends match that might just work out long enough. That would put it roughly around 60 inches which is perfect.

Now I've just got to add another 2 inches and get my team mates address and ship her off in the mail, then it's just waiting for my next scarf to arrive to do some creative knitting for someone else's scarf.

This is going to be so much fun to see all of our creative minds working together.

The ugly little bug

2008-02-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

The weekend started out great. Our granny slumber party was off to a bang and everyone was happy and cooing and gooing. Sabina and I ordered sandwiches from Jason's Deli at 7pm for delivery. At 8:15 still no sandwiches so we called them, we were told they were in the car and on the way at 9pm we receive a call from Jason's Deli saying the driver was in a car accident and the food was back in another car and on it's way. So our chicken salad sandwichs and pasta finally show up around 9:15pm and the driver told us he was only charging us 1/2 price. I thought it should have been free by then. So I ate 1/2 of my sandwich and a few bites of pasta salad before Hayden woke up. But, he was back down for the night by 10:30pm. We were all awake by 7am on Saturday morning and then everyone's Mommy's came and picked them up.

After the babies were gone, I stayed at Sabina's and did her kids taxes and then we ended up going to the Creek Casino for the evening. I'm not sure if we caught the bug at the casino or if it was our chicken salad riding around in a car with the heater going for over 2 hours. I ended up spending the night and woke up Sunday feeling a little queezy. I got home around 2pm and was really starting to feel bad. Mike had planned on coming by around 3pm for me to work on his taxes and I was actually feeling relieved when he didn't show up. I was just about to head to bed at 4:45pm when he showed up, so I let him know I wasn't feeling good at all, but did his taxes in a hurry and then excused myself to the bathroom.

The worst feeling in the world is not knowing whether to sit or stand, so I sit with a bowl in my lap most of the night. I stayed in bed all day yesterday and slept most of it off. My fever finally broke around 7pm last night, I'm still achy and very tired so I stayed home from work again today. But I'm feeling better so I'm sure I'll be back at work tomorrow.

I haven't done any knitting since Wednesday nights knit-in with Carrie, Leigh Ann and Pam. I need to get back to it and get my wrap finished up. I've got to get busy making some baby things for Alyssa's baby. I have a feeling she's going to have a girl, but don't want to get carried away with pink things before we are sure. It seems like just yesterday that I was a young mother and my sister was having a baby, now we are the grandma's.

Granny Slumber Party

2008-02-08T04:59:00.000-08:00

First let me just say, TGIF - Thank GOD!!! it's Friday...this has been the longest week in forever. On Wednesday, I was feeling like I'd already put in an entire weeks worth of work. I don't know why I've been so tired lately. But, finally, here we are and it's Friday. Yes, I've got plans tonight. I'm going on a double date with my friend Sabina. We've got the most loveable guys in the world. Our grandbabies. After work (I'm going to try and take off early) I'm taking Hayden to her house, her son is dropping Caden off with her around 5:00 tonight and we are going to have a Granny Slumber Party. We've done this a few times and it's getting more fun each time we do it, the babies are finally starting to notice each other. Caden is 2 months older than Hayden and he is really cooing and telling you all about it, always laughing and very interested in what Hayden is doing. Hayden has just started really focusing on us and making noises, he has really been watching our mouths and trying to mimick what we do. It's so much fun to watch them learn and grow everyday.

Now, for knitting talk. I found out last week that my niece, Alyssa, Leigh Ann's daughter, is going to be having a baby. Her due date is September 1st. We are all hoping she will have an August baby. That way the family August Birthday Bash will be even bigger. My birthday is on the 14th, Dad's is the 22nd and Leigh's is the 29th. Leigh wants her grandbaby to be born on the 29th so they will share a special day. Of course it's too early to know what the babies sex is, but they all think it's a girl. Don't worry - I'm getting to the knitting talk right now (I had to build the suspense at little). I found the cutest little sweater/coat pattern. I'm going to use Debbie Bliss cotton, it's probably considered a little girls sweater, but I think a boy could also wear it as long as it's not pink. So I was thinking mossy green or maybe even gray for the color. I'm also going to knit her a baby blanket as soon as I found out what colors she's planning for the nursery. Once I get the knitting finished on the blanket, I'll have mom back it with fleece and sew a satin edge around it. I made one like this for Hayden and it's a great blanket to put on the floor for playtime.

It's time to get busy and get the work day finished so I can start playing.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Why do I have to work?

2008-01-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

I'm tired of working. I just want to play with my yarn, buy more yarn, organize my yarn, knit my yarn and have fun. I think I might have been a cat in a previous life, lol.

One of these days, it may take me 10 years to make this idea come into fruition, but I'm going to open my own yarn shop. My idea is that I'll let my kids have my house, if they want it. I'm going to buy one of the old buildings downtown on main street, renovate it and have my yarn shop downstairs and turn the upstairs into an apartment. Then I can play with yarn all day long. My vision is a cute little shop with all types of yarn with all price ranges. (I won't carry Red Heart or Bernat because they can get that at Wal-Mart cheaper than I could carry it). I'll have a big round table in one room for people to sit around and knit, retro couch and chairs in another room, a tea pot with hot water at all times so people can help themselves to a cup of tea.

I may have to win the lottery to actually afford to buy one of the buildings, but that's my plan. What do you think about it? I can't tell you the name I have in mind because I don't want anyone using it before I get the chance.

It's coming along nicely

2008-01-30T05:46:00.000-08:00

It's not a fast knit by any means, but it's coming along nicely. I wish I'd have been able to find some other colors, the picture is hard to tell but I have a pale blue and a pale lavendar side by side and they look like the same color and then I also have a deep red and a burnt orange side by side and they look like the same color too. I found the color swish so I'm adding it in my next square and I've got dewberry and drab on the way. I guess I should have waited until I had all my colors to start, but I just couldn't stand it any longer. I'm the type of knitter who can only have one project going at a time. I start feeling guilty about leaving a project and going to the next, kind of like I might hurt it's feelings. I know, I'm just weird like that. I'm the same way with reading books, I've got friends who will say "I'm reading this, and that, and I've just started on the next one, etc" I have to read one book at a time. Plus, with knitting I like to look at the pattern read through it, work a few rows and then just go. If I had 3 or 4 projects going at the same time, I'd have the patterns mixed up and my knit a mitered square in the front of a sweater. Hmmm, that give me an idea for a sweater, just take this pattern, some cool colors and viola! a retro 70's sweater. Maybe I'll make one for the baby.