Jaywalkers

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

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

Frustrated by Health Care

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

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

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

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

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

No one trumps Mom

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

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

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

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

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

Test Socks are Finished

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

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

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Update of BP and some other stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I just got back from the doctor!

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

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

November can't get here soon enough

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

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

Survey

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

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

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

Now Hiring

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

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

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

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

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

The Ups and Downs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love takes work!

Crafty Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shawls, Socks and Toys

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

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

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

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

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


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

Happy knitting!

August has been a busy month

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



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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow - it's been a month

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mini Madness

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

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

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

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

Mini Sweater Pattern

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

I used size 5 needles - fingering weight yarn.

Jojoland Melody - 1 skein

Cast on 12

Row 1 - 1x1 rib for 2 rows,

Row 3-12 stockinette stitch

Row 13 - Cast on 10 at each end for sleeves

Row 14 - 23 stockinette st

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

Row 25 - p 14 cast on 4, p14.

Row 26-32 - stockinette stitch

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

Row 34 - 43 - stockinette stitch

Row 44-45 - 1x1 rib,

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

Toy's Galore

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

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

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

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

Recycling

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

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

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

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

Wii would like to play

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

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

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

Red Scarf Project

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

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

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

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

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