Mini Madness

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

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

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

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

Mini Sweater Pattern

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

I used size 5 needles - fingering weight yarn.

Jojoland Melody - 1 skein

Cast on 12

Row 1 - 1x1 rib for 2 rows,

Row 3-12 stockinette stitch

Row 13 - Cast on 10 at each end for sleeves

Row 14 - 23 stockinette st

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

Row 25 - p 14 cast on 4, p14.

Row 26-32 - stockinette stitch

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

Row 34 - 43 - stockinette stitch

Row 44-45 - 1x1 rib,

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

Toy's Galore

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

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

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

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

Recycling

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

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

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

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

Wii would like to play

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

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

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

Red Scarf Project

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

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

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

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

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

Tornados - Where's Dorothy when you need her!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another week has come and gone!

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

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

I've got to do something

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reading, Scarves and Squares - Oh my!

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

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

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

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

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

TASK

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

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

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

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

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

Lazy knitting

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

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

The picture is what I've done so far.

Not your normal baby blanket Pattern!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not your normal baby blanket

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

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

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

Tax Refunds

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

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

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

Leap Year 2008

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

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

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

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?

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.