$98.35 in sock yarn

Here's a less than fantastic pic of the sock yarn I ordered on January 10th. It always amazes me that this yarn can get from Astrid to me so quickly. Plus you just can't top the price. Of course I did have a moment of panic when I went to open the package and saw this .......

Yup, a tear in the plastic mailing packet. Nothing was wrong with the yarn at all so I worried for no reason.

Most of this will be socks for me. I have a goal for 12 pr of socks for me and I've done 3 so far. Each one will be a different pattern so I just have to figure out which patterns work well with which yarns.

Plans for my newest yarn addition .......

Last year I did a lot of socks for CIC. This year I'm going to try making some sweaters. I found this pattern . I have short attention span with my knitting so this will be challenging. At least figuring out the different yarn stripes should keep me interested.

Anyone have any other interest kid sweater patterns size 2, 4 or 6?

$55.72 so far in 2007

Very odd weather today so the pics aren't really showing the colors correctly. Two more pair of cic socks.
And 28 balls of knitpicks wool of the andes. So $55.72 spent on yarn so far this year.

As a parent .......

I tell my kids things over and over and over. The things change over the years but you still end up repeating things. For instance ..... every fall when it rains I warn my kids to drive carefully because wet leaves are very slippery. In the winter I tell them to leave 5 extra minutes to warm up the car and get the snow and ice off before driving.

Now my kids know I'm repeating myself. In fact I start off with, "It's raining in the fall so I have to give my slippery leaves speech now. I don't want to but it's in my Mother contract."

My husband has his own endless loop of things he tells the kids. His big one is, "Never let your gas get below a quarter tank. It's not good for the car." Of course this is met with rolling eyes from everyone.

Yesterday morning hubby comes home after his morning run (school bus driver) asking if I can run him back to the car. "I ran out of gas on the way to work this morning. Another driver saw me walking, picked me up, and drove me to work. He dropped me off here just now."

I drove him to the car with a gas can in the back seat without saying a word. Unfortunately that was the only silence he's heard from any family member. All 4 of the kids have been teasing him terribly. I told him not to worry because after 2 or 3 yrs they'll probably stop.

Socks everywhere

The thing I love about sock knitting is it's instant finished projects! No weeks of knitting. No sewing seams. Great for a lazy knitter like me. This is the first pair of socks for CIC. Teal and green knit picks worsted weight yarn.
And another pair of socks for me. Regia brasil in shades of blue. Fluted bannister pattern on these.
I did a pair of socks for N last month but couldn't give them to him because I didn't have the pair for W finished. N and W slept over Friday night so of course W saw his sock in progress. "I just need to finish this second one for you and then you'll be able to wear them," I explained. To which the little man chimed in, "Well you'd better get to work now." I did as I was told and finished them Sunday morning.

Cute story from the sleep over. W is almost 4 and is very interested in knitting. He saw a package of unopened double points.

W "Could these be for me?"
Me "Well when you get a little older I can teach you to knit and then yes they could be your needles."
W "You can teach me to knit just like you knit."
Me "Yes and when you get very good at it you can make socks for me."
W "No you can make your own socks."

Second story: W pushed his brother and ended up with a time out in the corner. After about a minutes he asked to come out. "You can come out and say sorry to N for pushing." The minute N saw his brother coming towards him he ran off. "Gram, I can't say sorry to my brother because he's running away. He must think I'm going to hurt him again." "Why would he think that?" "Because I do it all the time. He's smart."

Just thinking ....

I was listening to the radio while they were talking about the different memorial services held to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. They mentioned that he would be 78 yrs old if he hadn't been killed. Got me to wondering ...... how long does someone have to be deceased before they stop telling you how old that person would be had they not died?

I was at the Washington Monument on George Washington's birthday last year and they didn't mention that George Washington would have been 274 if he hadn't died. That leads me to believe there is some unspoken cut off.

So this has been a topic of discussion around here. Some people think 90 should be it. Others 80. What do you think?

Why men get married ......

Fred (elderly neighbor) called for my hubby yesterday so hubby decided to walk down and see what Fred wanted.

"Honey, what's Fred's wife's name?"
"Doris."
"His daughter is?"
"Joan."
"Her husband?"
"Jim. And remember to ask to see pictures of their new great grandson Evan."
"They have a great grandson?"
"Yes they have 2. Gavin is about 3 yrs and Evan 4 months."
"They are?"
"Joan and Jim's grandsons. Fred and Doris's great grandsons. They are really cute so ask to see their pictures."
"How do you remember all this stuff?"
"Someone has to."

Coffee Exchange

OOOOO don't you just love where you find stuff like this in your mailbox? I certainly do. Here we have the package from Ruth, my coffee swap partner in South Africa. A hand made card starts off the list. Of course there's coffee .... South African coffee which is the best.
Stitch markers hand made by Ruth herself.

Bamboo yarn. I've never knit with bamboo yarn so I'll be looking for a pattern for this. And an elephant for good luck.

Thank you Ruth. It's been a pleasure to make a new knitting friend in South Africa.

Frogs everywhere

Do you remember these when you were a kid? I sure do. The straps were leather that would break off. The springs were exposed and if someone was on it and you got too close you'd get your finger pinched. Back in the good old days before lawsuits.

Grandson #2 turned 2 yrs old on December 27th. N was sick so we just had his party last night. The theme? Frogs. We had a blast with these. Poppers are cool!

And I finished these Saturday. These are my reknit Opal purple socks. One trip through the washer and dryer and they came out perfect. They are on my feet for a test walk. LOL.

Scarves ready to mail

I ended up with 5 scraves for the red scarf project. Picture taken on the fireplace. Gee, gotta remember to take down the board with the christmas stocking hooks after I finish this posting.
On the left is a pair of socks I made last year. Beautiful Opal yarn, beautiful colors, didn't fit anyone!!! After crying a bit I lovingly took them, shoved them in a knitting bag and moved onto another project.

I found them on Tuesday and decided to reknit them into my second pair of Diane socks for 2007 so the pair on the right is my in progress pair. I figure the stitches will straightened out in the first washing so no problem.

And lastly I'll leave you with my new toy. The old oven gave up after only 12 yrs. This one has so many buttons that I have the manual out on the counter just so I can figure it out.

In cleaning out the drawer under the old oven I pulled out pie plates from a bakery that went out of business 8 yrs ago. I did what any logical homemaker would do with them ...... lovely tucked them in the drawer of my new oven to be seen again in 12 yrs. LOL

Yarn Diet

Buzz on the blogs is all yarn diet and knit from your stash. I'd probably participate if it wasn't for a couple things ..... like a computer ......... a credit card .......... and Astrid.
Fortissima Mexiko 9504
Gedifra 4208
Meilenweit Multi-Effekt 3070 and 3122
Regia 5396
Trekking 12 , 187, and 100

D3 asked last week how much money I spend in yarn every year. I guessed $600.00. This year I'll keep track .... bet I wasn't even close. LOL. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs .... I do yarn.

The sock disaster of 2007 .....

I usually don't knit for myself but this year I decided to make myself 12 pair of hand knit socks. First pair of socks is Opal dreamcatcher in shades of grey. Love the yarn but ..... what's up with that brown????

Don't even look like they are from the same ball of yarn do they! First sock muted greys, greens, creams. Second sock had bits of brown and lines of black. Why?
Because of this friggin knot of yarn I found about an inch into the leg of the second sock. Wouldn't have been bad except the colorways was backwards after the knot and the dye quality didn't match.

I was sooooo pissed!!! Friggin' $18.00 yarn with this crappy quality?!?!?! WTF! Can't remeber the vendor for this yarn because I have so much in the stash. And then I remembered .... gee I've knit 50+ pr of socks with Opal and this was the first knot I've ever seen. Makes it a unique skein. Plus my socks never match so really I don't care. So here are my first "Diane socks" knit by Diane for Diane. How exciting!

**Just a note you can take your defective Opal yarn back to the store you bought it from and they will exchange it and return the defective skein to PT Yarns. Unfortunately I can't remember which vender I bought this particular yarn from. One defective skein out of 50 is ok with me. After all if I was knitting with noro I'd be saying "Gee only one knot in this 50 gram ball. Better than the normal 3 I usually find."

Finished stuff

Not wanting to make anyone jealous but these are the treasures my grandsons entrusted to my care the other day. I'm under strick orders not to play with anything. I'll admit I've hopped the frog around while on a boring conference call but other than that I've behaved well.

You know how sometimes you are knitting along and you can't figure out if you like what you are making? I call it "knitting denial". You trick yourself into truely believeing that somehow when completed you'll just look at the item and declare it the bestest most perfect knit item ever.

Well that's me with these socks. Got through the first sock and couldn't figure out if I liked the colorways. Half way through the second one I decided that I really didn't. But hubby loves them and since they are his socks I finished them. I think they would have looked better without the blue stripes and that band of cream/light green.

Hearing voices .....

So Pat Robertson says that God spoke to him and told him that there would be a terrorist attack in 2007 resulting in mass killing. And although God did not specify nuclear Pat feels that it will be.

My friend's mom is about the same age and when she claimed to hear voices they put her in a nursing home under constant supervision. Pat's family puts him on TV. Go figure.

The rules

Ok so the rule is "NO CATS ALLOWED ON THE TABLE OR COUNTER". The cat is sleeping in a box and the box happens to be on the table so is this rule breaking or not? I decided to let is slide. After all Oscar is 16 yrs old and really who can resist curling up in a nice sunny spot.
Here are 2 more scarves for the red scarf project. The pink one looks like bamboo. It's not red but the website says they'll accept things that aren't unisex so I'll send it off. The red is a really deep red done is a split rib stitch. If anyone wants the patterns to any of the scarves just email me and I'll send it out.
And I guess the box rule should have been clarified sooner because Joey decided to sleep there too. Cats and boxes .... such an interesting combination.

My first education of 2007

So today is the first day of the new year. I'm filled with hope that they year can only get better since I've got the worst cold ever today.

January 1st we always go over to my parents house at 2:00 for lunch. I decided to make cheese cake and jello to take along today. My phone rings this morning and it's W (he's got a cold too) asking if I'm going to great grandma's and papa's house.

G "Well yes I'm planning to be there. Guess what? I made jello."
W "What color did you make?"
G "I made red jello and orange jello."
W "Did you make green?"
G "No I didn't make green. Just red and orange today."
W "Because you know it comes in different colors. You can make green. There's yellow too. They make blue. Blue is my favorite color but I like green jello."
G "It comes it that many different colors, babe?"
And then I hear it; the sigh. Goes like this ..... HUGE sigh as if to say 'I can't believe she manages to get through a day by herself' W says, "Yes Gram, they make jello in different colors because not everyone likes the same thing. They are different colors because they all taste different. Next time you make jello make the green because that's the best."
G "Ok I will. So are you going to have any of my red and orange jello?"
W "Well since you didn't know about the colors I guess I will."

Happy New Years

How to be popular: Take one Gram, add one baby ..... and suddenly EVERYONE wants to be close to you. LOL. Wishing everyone a healthy, happy new year filled with wonderful projects.

Advice for a great 2007

N's advice for a happy new year: Never pass up the opportunity to eat chocolate cake.
W's advice: Forks are for whimps! When you see something you want grab it with both hands and dive right in.
And little Miss A says: Cuddling a baby is good for your soul. The risk of drool and split is worth it!

After 16 yrs of working for my company .....

Red scarf #2. Same yarn as the first one and yes another crappy picture of it. I like this one a lot. Next one is already on the needles. It's a split rib pattern with a really deep red yarn.

I just wanted to share my holiday package from work with you. I've worked for this company for 16 yrs and honestly they don't owe me anything but a paycheck. But when you get something like this in the mail you just begin to wonder why they'd waste money shipping this to everyone in the department. 2 pads of paper, 3 steno pads, a box of pencils, a box of pens (not a single one wrote because they were old and dried out so tossed in the garbage), cheap old chocolate (that was tossed in the garbage), a broken lolly pop (tossed with the pens and chocolate, chapstick with the company logo on it, a brush for dusting my computer keyboard (like I dust? That would take time away from my knitting!) with the company logo on it, a snowman toy, and a calendar.

I feel like Charlie Brown trick or treating ...... I got a rock.

Things you'll never hear a grown up say.

Hey, why don't you take a picture of my butt? Here it is! Gotta love 3 yr olds.

First red scarf is done. It's made out of Caron acrylic. The color is actually a deeper red/maroon. I usually don't use Caron but they asked for washable and I know this can be washed. Started another one yesterday afternoon and it's about 28" along already. LOVE scarf knitting.

Gotta love blog contests

I'm sure the mailman was happy to deliver something that he could just leave in the mail box instead of having to walk up to the door ..... yes I did quite a bit of shopping on line this holiday season.
It's an awful day today for picture taking but I wanted to get these up today. Don't you love this beautiful yarn? It's for admitting that I have a neon pink poncho started and never finished in my closet. It's embarrasing but hey it snagged this yarn from Lorinda.
I also got these wonderful stitch markers and row counter from Christy for captioning a picture of her cat. Very pretty stitch markers, terrible pic due to yucky day.

T'was the day before Christmas .....

Random stuff since I've got nothing worth showing:

1. Today is Christmas eve and it's about 50 degrees here in Connecticut. No snow so far this season and very little really cold weather. LOVE IT!!! Don't you just wonder why someone who hates cold and snow lives in New England? No earthquakes, few hurricanes and tornadoes, and there's no wild fire season.

2. I was at Costco yesterday which was as crowded as I expected. I did my shopping and got in line. Knowing that I was going to be waiting I had brought along a sock to work on so I happily knit while waiting. For the first time in my recent memory no one started a conversation about my knitting while I kip.

3. Today D2 turns 22 yrs old. Her due date was December 10th but she waiting until 2 minutes before midnight on 12/24 to make her entrance into the world. I was so upset about missing Christmas with my 2 yr old daughter that I talked my way out of the hospital before noon the next day and spent Christmas with my family.

4. People seem to be taking long lines in stride. I've been out shopping a couple times and while everyone talks about people being impatient I haven't seen a single person who actually is. If you smile at the cashiers they smile back.

5. The woman in front of me at Costco forgot something and was trying to get her cart out of the line. I told her to leave it and I'd move her forward when the line moved. By the time she got back we had moved one cart space. That was my good deed for the day.

6. I went shopping for my grandkids and when I was figuring out who gets what I found that I had the exact same number of gifts for each child. Amazing!

7. I have 16 people coming for dinner tomorrow. Because the weather has been so warm I couldn't make anything ahead of time and stash it in my garage (referred to in years past as the other fridge). So I'll be doing all the cooking tomorrow which may make me grumpy.

8. I've been drinking the flavored coffees from my exchange partner Maria so grumpy doesn't last long ....... uuuuummmmmmm chocolate flavored coffee.

Sending you all wishes for a wonderful holiday season. Happy knitting to all

Something for me!

In progress with afterthought heels. Never did afterthought heels before and I have to say they were really easy.
Felted and right on the feet while still damp.

Finally a little something for me. I had a pair of these made by an exchange pal last year. I loved them so much that I wore them out. Someone posted in a link in a group for felted slippers and I decided to make them for me, me, me. The colors in the felted picture are correct. I LOVE THEM!!!! Why bright pink? So my daughters won't "borrow" them.

What's you Grinch name?

Don't know? You can find out here.

Mine is Woefulwhiner Fussypoop ....... somehow that seems fitting.

Holiday greetings

How about a nice greeting card shared by Lynn? Very pretty.

Christmas exchange pics

I had the honor of being selected as Maria's exchange partner for the Christmas exchange in one of my groups . It a really nice, well run group which I really enjoy. Maria claims to be a new knitter but you'd never guess from the outstanding job she did with cotton. Cotton who is unforgiving when you mess up on your tension just a smidge? Above is a bib she did for my granddaughter along with some coffee for my upcoming coffee drinking delights.

And although I've been having trouble with pics this week (which is why there haven't been any postings) you can see the 4 holiday cloths she made. The white and green both have the same tree pattern knit into them and the red is a different tree. The multi colored one is a beautiful pattern. All the non-knitters in my household have commented on how cute they are. I have to agree.

Thanks Maria!

Back to work Monday

Gotta say I was looking forward to going back to work today. I spent all last week running around and my sprained/broken ankle is paying the price. Oh well, gotta heal sooner or later right?

A rare picture of the 3 cats in one location. Sine they all hate each other they usually don't hang around anywhere near each other. Oscar aka Evil one claimed the most comfortable chair. Joey was left with the blue one which is not nearly as comfortable however a child was just sitting there so it was warm. And Charlie of course just can't stand to be left out of anything so he had to wander over and take a couple swats at Oscar and Joey. He's such a little brat!
This raffle winning package came in the mail Friday from Jen .
It's hand spun yarn which will be something I have never used before. I hope I hate it because I don't need another obsession ..... like spinning. I tell myself at least once a week that I will not think about learning to spin.

More christmas knitting done. These are socks for D1. Yarn is Opal Prism in purple. Love how these came out. Another pair in Opal dreamcatcher almost done for my sil. I hope to finish those tonight.

Ladybug sighting ....

I never make socks to match but these just seemed to work out that way by themselves. The yarn is Opal Ladybug.

Opal yarn is my fav to use for gift socks. Love the colors and it's ability to go from washer to dryer to foot looking great.

LYS yarn

Pics of my LYS purchase

Trip to the local yarn store

I just got back from an appointment with the dentist and since I was so close I stopped in at a lys that I had heard about. Very easy to get to, great parking right in the back, nice looking store.

I went inside and the amount of different yarns was overwhelming. OK, take it room by room. Well lots of fuzzy, furry, ribbon, trendy crap yarn that's all the rage but I don't use. No problem. There's got to be some nice wool around here somewhere. Poke into another room. Table filled with people (knitting class?) and not a single, "Hi. Did you need help with anything?"

Hummmmm, into another room. Sock yarn! My favorite! Not many colors or brands to choose from. Pick up 2 prices are about what I'd pay in other lys. Into another room and jackpot! Wool for felting! Great if you only need 2 of any dye lot or just single skeins. Lots of yarn but all different dye lots so I have to locate the tags and check each skein. Picked up 4 skeins of Cascade 220.

Go to check out and there's already someone ahead of me. Wait for 5 minutes while they chat and chat and chat. My turn. Write up my order while talking to someone else on the phone, take my money, give change and not even a "thanks" or "hope you come back again."

So much for "that personal touch that you can only get at a LYS. Think I'm better off shopping on line where I don't expect any help at all, get cheaper prices on exactly what I want, and don't have to pay state tax on anything. Pics of my purchase when D3 brings my camera back from school.

Unique tree decorations .....

Some people use garland, others strings of popcorn ..... me I'll settle for a blocked tilly shawl. Blocked a little longer than I would have liked but very nice. Should be out in the mail shortly.
I finished socks for my son in law last night. Size 12 made from Opal croc .... dinosaur added to picture so you can see how big these are lol.
Charlie says, "Well no Diane, I haven't been racing around the house picking on Joey and Oscar. See I'm right here on the circular stairs looking cute."
Finished the orange gold fingerless mitts last night too. Now I'm thinking that the split rib scarf that I thought looked too manly would really go well with these. But we'll see how I feel about that tonight when I pick up my knitting.
This is the top of tilly with the knit I cord. I love it.