I can only count up to 6 .....

I was working on Tilly most of the weekend. Between stitches markers, life lines, and the never ending counting I think I've got this lace thing figured out. Of course the down side is that since there are 6 stitches in each repeat I no longer have the ability to count past 6. On a positive note I don't feel the urge to burst into tears every time I think I've made a mistake. Now that is progress for sure. For those who need to know the yarn is shadows from knitpicks and the needles are the new knitpicks option needles. I have to say I love the cables on these needles. Think my Boyd needlemaster may end up on ebay shortly.
And this little lady bug was enjoying a sunny spot on my window sill Saturday morning when I can down to make some coffee. Making good use of W's bunny bubbles.

Sunday was rain, rain, and more rain so hubby and I decided to do some mall walking. We were walking by the toystore and heard a teen say, "Yo, look at the yo-yo. Yo" Too many yo's in one sentence so I started laughing. Yo, I'm still giggling over it.

What did I ever do before he came along?

When W was a little guy he always use to bring over a set a make believe keys to help "drive the car." If he forgot them when he got in the car to go home I'd have to run back up to the house to get them or he'd cry. Now of course he's almost 4 so he's a little more grown up. (old pic but one of my favs)
Yesterday he was over and brought a set of keys in with him. I was speaking with W this morning and said, "You know babe, you left your keys over here yesterday. I was wondering how you got home without them." I hear this sigh on the other end of the phone ... almost like geeze do I have to explain everything to this woman .... and he says, "You know Gram, those aren't real keys. They are just make believe so babies can play with them. They don't actually make the car work. You should know this stuff."

On the needles and off the trees

3 out of 4 of my kids are currently at NVCC studying various stuff. The college is having their annual hat/scarf/glove/mitten drive so D3 asked me to make something to donate.
And I've been working along on the shawl. Only one really bad boo boo that I didn't see until I was about 3 repeats away from it. I took another piece of yarn and fixed it instead of ripping back. My bad but you can't really tell.
And finally a shot of a tree in the back yard that was bright red a couple weeks ago.

Harry Potter quiz

We were watching Harry Potter this past weekend and I thought I'd share this quiz with you.

The sorting hat says that I belong in Gryffindor!
Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those with brave deeds to their name."Students of Gryffindor are typically brave, daring, and chivalrous. Famous members include Harry, Ron, Hermione, Albus Dumbledore (head of Hogwarts), and Minerva McGonagall (head of Gryffindor).

Tons of pictures

Well posting pictures when I should be working. Please don't tell my boss. Halloween was fun. This little dinosaur showed up on my doorstep wanting candy and kisses.
He brought along his sleeping sister dressed as a wormy apple. Hummmm is she wearing an apple hat? Wonder where that came from.
This is her awake and out of her wormy apple outfit. If you're wondering yes I woke her up just so I could snuggle her for a while. I make no excuses for this action. I know you should let sleeping babies get their sleep but yes I woke her up and I'll do it again in a heartbeat.
And last was this dinosaur who really was tired by the time he hit my house so he decided to just sit in the entryway and eat candy. Hey I'd do that all day every day if I could.
And there's been knitting going on around here like crazy. I finished 5 pr of socks for the grandsons but since I've posted pics before and they are all the same yarn and pattern I will not bore you with them. I did some baby washclothes for a virtual baby shower. Can you ever have enough washclothes with babies in the house? Sadly, Kristi and Noel lost one of the triplets so we're knitting for 2 little ones now. Send some good thoughts and wishes their way.
Finished a pair of socks for a secret pal. Opal Uni in a waffle pattern. Thinking of making a pair for myself maybe next year when I get a chance.
And some more fruit hats for Kristi's twins when they reach about 2 yr olds. Honestly they are the last fruit hats of the year .... unless someone else just needs to have one for their kid.
If you are wondering why I have so much stinking red superwash colorado vail yarn it's because I was at Webs last year ..... enough said to those who have been to Webs. If you haven't let me tell you it's the meca of yarn and all things fiber. Worth a trip no matter where you live.

And my last thought is this: they set up a do not call list. If you don't want calls at your house selling you stuff you put yourself on the do not call list. Great no annoying calls ...... except during election time. Why? Because the politicians decided that they should be exempt from the do not call list. You can get all the political calls and polling question calls they want to make.

Being an independent in a state with some very tight political races I can tell you that I get up to 3 calls a day from those prerecorded things. They don't make it past the first sentence before I hang up but really HOW FRIGGIN' ANNOYING!! I'm not voting for a couple people just because they pissed me off!!! Can't wait til next Wednesday just so it'll be over with.

Happy Halloween!

I'm sitting here giggling over a halloween memory so I thought I'd share. I was a stay at home mom from the time my oldest daughter entered the world until my youngest were 2 1/2 yrs old. Finances dictated that I go back to work so we could get good healthcare again.

Halloween was always a big deal at our house. The kids would choose anything they wanted to be and I would whip up a pretty good costume. But working full time with 4 little kids around made it a little more difficult so some preplanning of costumes was needed. I don't remember what the 3 girls were going to be but my son who was 3 at the time decided he wanted to be a raccoon.

I picked up all the stuff to make him a raccoon and just had to add a couple finishing touches when I got home from work. Rush home, get food on the table, get everyone in costumes. Son is crying, "Me no want to be raccoon, me want to be a dog." Quick Diane, think, think how to turn a raccoon into a dog. Well the color is ok, ears are different some dogs have markings like a raccoon. They both walk on all 4's. This is good. This can work.

I start making some changes to the costume. Son crying again, "Me no want to be a dog, me want to be a Teenage mutant ninja turtle." WTF was I thinking letting him watch TV! For the love of all things halloween how am I going to make a raccoon/dog into a turtle? Deep breaths! Get that ying yang thing going girl.

Pajamas! He's got mutant ninja pj's. Run upstairs and grab them along with sweats to put under to keep him warm. No mask. That's ok I'll just use paint. Turtle on the pj's is purple (I don't remember the purple one's name but I'm sure I was swearing it under my breath at the time). Green paint. Good. And every other color in the world except ...... you've got to be seeing this one coming ..... no purple.

Come on Diane, don't fall apart now I'm coaching myself. Ying yang, ying yang. Blue and red make purple. Yes! Mix the paint and start painting his face. And the boy says, crying again, "me no want to be turtle, me just want to stay home." NO FRIGGIN' WAY IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN. And that's when I turned into the rational mom. "You'll be going, you'll have fun, halloween is fun, fun I tell ya."

He's all set to go, tears running down his little face and hubby takes the kids next door. Trick or treat the girls say. Candy in bags. They nudge the boy forward and he gets candy. Thank yous from all and onto the next house. Same thing. Then at the 3rd house it suddenly dawns on the little man that if I say "Fick or feet" (tr's came out like f's which made the word truck something to be avoided at our house) I get candy. After that he was leading the way from house to house.

Now he's 18 and trick or treat means staying home and passing out candy but oh how we all laugh about the halloween when he was 3.

Meet you at the pool

My daughter, D1, wanted to sign W up for swim lessons at the town pool. He's only 3 1/2 yrs old but he really wants to swim. So every Saturday morning for a half hour W is in the pool with 8 other kids and 2 instructors learning to swim. It's very cute.

Now the thing with living in the same town as your family is that you never know who is going to show up to watch. Yesterday I arrived before W and his mom. I put down my stuff and pulled out my knitting to kill time. Yes folks I really do knit everywhere.

There was a boy about 4 yrs old on the other side of the table. He kind of wandered over to check out what I was doing. I keep my take along work in an old gift bag so he must have thought there was some exciting toy in there. lol. I explained that I was knitting socks. He told his mom who commented that her grandmother use to make socks and mittens for her when she was young. Knitting is always a good conversation started.

After a short time W and his mom came in and W hopped in the pool. We were sitting chatting when my hubby "stopped in while doing some errands." More knitting, more talking when who should arrive but my dad aka Papa. He was heading across town to get his oil changed and decided to pop in for a moment. So here we have great grandfather, grandfather, grandma and mom all there to watch one little 3 1/2 yr old learn how to swim. Yup, we're a little obsessed with the kids.

Yarn? What yarn?

Oh hi. I didn't see you there. I'm just laying here on the bed sleeping. Yes, just sleeping and have been for quite a while. Yarn? Oh no I haven't seen any yarn around here. No honestly I don't know anything about the green yarn that was on the bed before you went to get the camera, Diane. Really I've been right here sleeping the whole time.
Ok maybe just maybe the green yarn was trying to attack me. I was just laying here and all of a sudden it started to sneek up behind me. It was self defense I tell you. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
This is the latest of the goodies from the last 2 months with my secret pal. Love, love, love it all. And I think Charlie agrees.

This is a quick shot of the backyard. It's supose to rain this weekend so I think most of the leaves will be gone shortly.

Socks for sheep

Isn't it a bit odd that I made stuff for a project called Socks for Sheep and didn't make a single sock? All the socks I've made so far this year and not a single pair to send off to Jennifer? This package will be off in the mail tomorrow.

So here's 6 pr of mitts. Super soft wool. 4 hats
and 4 infant fruit hats.
I've got to say I don't think I'll get tired of making these little fruit hats. They are so cute!

Wonder what this pretty shawl's name is?

The pictures definately do not even come close to the beauty of this shawl. This is my "scarf" from my ISE3 pal. The name of the shawl is Diane. Yup she named her new design after me. How cool is that? It's for sale if you want a Diane of your own. LOL.

The shawl arrived with some german dark chocolate (love german dark chocolate because it's not sweet) and a postcard of Angela's town. What an exciting day at my house.

Friday already

It's fall and time to get the fireplace chimney cleaned. We had the interesting experience of having a chimney fire 2 yrs ago. If you've never had one of your own let me tell you now that it's extremely loud, very hot, and quite frightening as you watch 2 fire trucks, a police car, and 20 volunteer firefighters pull up to your house (small town so the firehouse is all volunteer). Nothing was damaged but now we make sure we have the fireplace cleaned every year. We've been burning wood every night all winter for the last 25 yrs so I guess we've been on borrowed time for a long time.

This is the fall colors today. Doesn't it look wonderful? Not! Rainy, foggy, windy, and getting colder. Great day to be stuck inside working for sure.

Project Runway 3 ... the final show

And not a moment too soon in my opinion. This season has been more than a little boring. I haven't agreed with most of the decisions on who wins and who goes. It's been very predictable.

The first part of the finale started last Wednesday. We met the designers again at their homes as they worked on their collections. Then Michael, Laura, Uli, and Jeffrey came back to NY for fashion week. Right from the minute Jeffrey walked in the door Laura seemed to have a problem with him. She had obviously been offended by something he did/said on the shows already airing.

Jeffrey had everything finished. Not a stitch left to sew; just fitting the models. He does this for a living so he knew what he wanted to do and did it. He was ready for a last minute project the producers might throw his way. Everyone else had a ton of work left to do. So Laura decided that it was obvious that someone else must have done all Jeffrey's sewing. No reason why, no evidence, nothing but a feeling.

So tonight we find out if Jeffrey did have outside help. We also get to see the runway shows and find out who won season 3. At this point I really don't care but I've been watching up to this point so what the heck.

** Season 3 is now history. Jeffrey was not cheating. He couldn't produce a receipt for something so he had to pull a piece out of his collection last minute and substitute something else. He started crying when Tim Gunn announced there was no cheating. Uli hugged him forever trying to console him. Laura actually said, "It wasn't my intent to make Jeffrey cry." No I think her intent was to get him disqualified so he couldn't compete.

The runway shows were interesting although they kept leaving the models to look into the crowd. Very disjointed. Here's how we saw it at my house.

Michael: Very tight, very sexy. Almost too sexy for the average woman to wear. He did a nice job but his lack of experience showed. Michael will do great in the future. PR was a great way for him to show what he could do. It just wasn't going to be his day to win.

Laura: All evening wear for $5,000.00 a plate charity benefits. There are a bunch of naked black birds in the world now that Laura has shown. Couldn't deny that it was a beautiful collection but I thought wow that's a lot of black. D2 thought Laura would win.

Uli: Beautiful, beautiful, wearable clothes. Any woman could find a piece to buy and wear. Hip styling, wonderful cut, and beautiful colors. S1 thought Uli would win.

Jeffrey: Interesting collection in which the fabric from one piece turned up in the next outfit only different. His collect seemed to be the most complete with all the pieces fitting together with the exception of 2 dresses that just didn't seem to work. I thought Jeffrey would win.

The judges had words of praise for all the designers. Michael was aufed first. Next was Laura. Uli left the runway leaving Jeffrey as the winner. This was probably the only decission they've made so far this year that I agreed with. Jeffrey did deserve the win. He has a hip, unique point of view which he seems to be able to get across.

Get the extinguisher ......

Because these knitting needles are going to catch fire from all this speedy knitting.

So Saturday morning I remembered that I had to get something done for my 6 month exchange partner. So I started a pair of socks. Opal Uni which is one of my favorite yarns (wash and wear) . The color is more of a terracotta than orange. Not really the same color showing in the picture. They are moving right along ..... And I mailed out the package for my ISE3 pal this morning too. I really loved the way it came out. Filled the box with a few extras and out it went. I did 6 pr of booties for the triplets.
I usually don't use cheap acrylic yarn much anymore but baby booties tend need quite a bit of washing so these are wash and wear. I hope the boys don't get lost in the woods in those booties.
And finally I finished hat #3 for the babies too. Still not happy with the top but I think the more I'd try to jazz them up the worse they'd look.

I also played with the grandsons Saturday morning and babysat all 3 of the grandsons Saturday night. My little dollie A wouldn't go to sleep so I just had to hold her and walk with her for hours. Hey a gram's gotta do what a gram's gotta do.

If you are looking for something to do in CT this weekend

Hi, everyone. Joey here. I just wanted to take a moment while I'm guarding the front yard to let you know that Southwind Farms is having an open farm day Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm. Diane (the nice lady who adopted me from the pound and feeds me treats) went last year with W and N. She said they had fun petting the alpaca. She also brought home some more of that string she likes to play with on those long pointed things. So if you like alpaca or playing with string stop by the farm and have a ball. Ok, gotta go see if I can get me a mouse before my afternoon nap.

Friday colors

First a little knitting since this is a knitting blog. I finished a couple of apple hats for an exchange partner who has a couple little ones. Can't send a package to someone with little kids and leave them out.
And I did a couple hats for a virtual baby shower. Do they look like devil horns? Maybe I'll have to add some more icord to the top.
Lastly, this morning has that fall chill in the air. So pretty today.

And right on the head ....

When you have 3 grandchildren ....

and a free weekend ..... you make 3 hats.
A little apple hat for A.
A hat with blue because blue is W's favorite color. Then you throw on some train buttons because W loves trains.
And finally you do almost the same hat for N because he is a mini me with his brother. Had to add trains to this one too. Hopefully it'll inspire N to keep the hat on his head instead of taking it off and saying, "Nooooooo."

Fall colors partly sunny day

Finished stacking a cord of firewood so here's the view yesterday..... and today. Very pretty.

Why I love my mailman!

Really I needed more yarn. After making the scarf and socks out of this Opal Batik I've got to say I just love this yarn!
And included in the package was this little baby Opal (regular Opal skein to show the size).
Very cute little thing. I think it'll end up as socks for the virtual baby shower.
I had a problem with some yarn a while back. Instead of 2 ends each skein seemed to have about 50 ends. I emailed Knit Picks and they sent out 2 more skeins ..... no questions asked. They came yesterday and I already balled them to make sure everything was ok.
I frogged my first attempt at a shawl and started a new shawl last night. Too lazy to take pics so that'll be another posting for another day.

The cool scarves on the block

Don't you just hate blocking? I certainly do. Can't think of anything worse than the whole process of blocking. What a chore but .............
I just love the look of a blocked scarf. The stitches are so straight and perfect.
The lacey pattern is shows to it's full beauty.
And a scarf that looked like a green blob of seaweed comes out looking like this.
Blocking is the magic part of knitting.

Project Runway 3 show 11

I just couldn't muster up enough time to post this last week .... Probably because I was so disappointed in this show. Anyways, we're down to the final 4. We have wild print Uli, sexy hip hop Michael, I plunge everything to the navel Laura, and I'm so great and no one else is Jeffrey.

The challenge is to design anything they want. Anything at all. Evening gown, sport wear, beach wear, clothes to go to the grocery store. Anything at all that will give the judges a peek at what they will being to the runway at Olympis Fashion Week in NY. 30 minutes to sketch and $250.00.

Uli gets hummmm a wild print. Gee who would have thought Uli would get a wild print. Oh I know EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER WATCHED THE SHOW!!!! Michael decides to do an evening gown but doesn't really have a design when he picks out the fabric. Jeffrey is doing a "romantic red, white, and blue dress" to show the judges that he isn't all rock n roll grunge. Laura will be doing what Laura always does.

Michael is stuck. Can't decide on what to make. Sketches, sketches, sketches. You just feel bad for him. Uli makes this huge mumu wild print thing that would look great on nobody. Jeffrey's dress is starting to look like something Snow White might wear, and Laura is doing what Laura always does.

Day 2 Uli takes her dress apart and turns it into something shorter, more form fitting, and hipper. Jeffrey's fractured fairy tale dress just doesn't seem to look well made or like anything an actual grown woman would wear. Michael's dress has a keyhole front that is all keyhole and no front. Getting scared for Michael. And Laura's dress is the classic Laura's dress.

Off to take pictures in the street and choose one to present to the judges along with 3 words to discribe the designer's style. This is getting tense because both Michael and Jeffrey could be sent home based on this challenge ...... and this my friends is where I just can't believe I've wasted almost an hour watching this.

Runway show, judges questions, judges comments, and designers off while the judges make a decission. The winner is Uli. I wasn't thrilled with any of the dresses but Uli's was something fun and wearable. Would the judges think one note Laura should go home? If she continues to design feathers could be in short supply in the world. Nope Laura is going to fashion week. In fact so are Michael and Jeffrey. So the final elimination was actually show 10 because all 4 are going to fashion week.

What a waste of an hour! You know what this was like? It was like when I watched the movie Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. I started watching. Nice movie. Great scenes. Movie continues. Nothing really wonderful. I've been sitting there for almost 2 hrs. It's not really worth watching but I'm so close to finishing ..... do I turn it off or continue to watch it? I continue. And after 140 minutes all I can say is "Yup I watched Far and Away."

So this weel will be the reunion show where it looks like we'll get to hear Keith whine about getting kicked off for cheating, followed by Tim going to each desinger's house to see how they are progressing of their collection, and then the actual Runway shows which are already out of the web.