My new socks

I just love these socks. Not a yellow person or an orange person but I really love the way these look. They almost match (which had nothing to do with my matching skills) but still look totally different.
Nice pic out my front door but of course you can't see what I was seeing.
The red circle is my cat Charlie. He is sitting at the edge of some brush stalking .... waiting ... listening for a little field mouse to make a move. I've seen all my cats do this at one time or another.

I finished the knitting on my cic sweater but didn't get a chance to sew it up yet. I think the sleeves are a little short so I may have to add some rows. Gotta keep those little ones as warm as possible.

A little something for your valentine?

Hummmmm when I think about Valentines Day these don't come to mind.

When life immitates Seinfeld

I had an appointment at the dentist today ......... I have louse teeth so I always have an appointment at the dentist ....... so I brought along my sock in progress ............. I always have a sock in progress ............... to work on while waiting .................. I always have to wait.

After checking in with Gail ......... kinda odd when you know everyone at a rather large dental office by first name and visa versa ............. I took off my coat, sat down, and pulled out my knitting. Craptastic day today so I was looking forward to 5 or 10 minutes of relaxing knitting when all of a sudden the door opens and they call me in. Sandi says, "No time for knitting today. We're too fast. No knitting for you."

All I could think of was the Seinfeld episode with the Soup Nazi and the soup cook's line of "No soup for you." The things that crack you up with you watch way too much tv.


On a lighter note, I won an exercise bike in a drawing. How cool is that? I can't wait. Think I'll have to try knitting and cycling at the same time.

And I finished some stuff too

These are two pair of socks done for CIC from some knitpicks wool of the andes.
And these are a pair of socks that will be put away until next christmas. The yarn is Opal Rodeo and yes I actually set out to make these match. The colors were so strong that I wanted to match the purples.
And last but not least I started a sweater for CIC. I don't have access to the pattern info right now but I'll make sure I add it as this progresses along.

$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."