it's beginning to look a lot like.....

Two days of cold, rainy, windy, cloudy -- nasty, nasty weather! I seldom enjoy these kind of days, and I have really disliked these last two. I need a regular dose of sunshine -- it doesn't have to be warm, just sun!

So, October flew by -- don't know where it got to, but it's outtahere! And Thanksgiving is next week?!? I swear, it must be early this year! (I know that Thanksgiving can't officially be early, but it sure feels like it!) And have I finished any of my Christmas knitting yet? Noooo, of course not. The sweater for my mom is almost done; the vest for my hubby is almost done, the scarf for Nat is almost done. The socks for my d-i-l are not even on the needles, and neither are her hat and fingerless gloves. Oh yeah! the sweater for my DS is finished!! Woo hoo! (but, that doesn't really count, since I started it last year in some sort of sick, deluded belief that he would get it for Christmas last year). I have one, that's right - one - fingerless glove finished for one s-i-l; the other 3 or 4 pair are still in the planned stage. And have I bought any other X-mas gifts as yet? (you know the answer to that one).

And to boot, I'm in charge of the Advent team at church -- a devotional booklet to put together; a live nativity to finish organizing, of which I am specifically responsible for writing the script to be broadcast, as well as getting the guy over to record it; an Advent Sunday school lesson to finish writing (as I will be teaching it) -- and all of this is supposed to reflect the theme of preparing, remembering, and celebrating Christ's birth -- you know, not to overdo, to remember that Christmas season starts on Christmas day

I will not panic; I will not panic; I will not panic......


AHHHAAAAHHHAAAA!!!

ahhh...fall at last

It has been the nicest day! Low 70's, no humidity -- absolutely perfect weather! Finally -- because just two short days ago it was 88 degrees!!!! I know the South is hot most of the time, but you would think that living in Tennessee it would not be quite as blessed hot as living in, say, Mississippi, would you? But no we have to have the funky-assed weather here -- it's even been more erratic than the weather in Atlanta -- which is about 150 miles south of here!!!

But, breathe, today has been lovely, just lovely. And I feel like I was productive -- did all the obligatory houseworky things -- even mopped the kitchen floor -- and still had time for some serious knitting.

I'm telling you people -- this working part-time in a yarn store is not good for someone suffering from castonitis. Every freaking time I turn around, there's another good pattern, and the most simply lusicous yarn to knit it out of.....

...calling my name,

.....whispering sweet nothings in my ear....

I'll be the best knit you ever had, darhling...

Well, I couldn't just ignore it, now could I? sigh.

But I only started two new things in the last week....that's not that many, right? And, and I'm almost finished with the Brea bag from Berroco -- I will have it finished this weekend, and I cast on on Thursday evening --- woo hoo!

And my mother's sweater? Finished the back, about 8" up the front -- so it's really coming right along. Other WPI's: Falling leaves scarf -- 2 1/2 repeats of 5 total finished; my nephew's sweater -- I'm not loving the yarn -- I think I will keep the pattern stitch, but the yarn is simply not doing it for me, so what do you call that -- a work in progress of being ditched and restarted? The Charlotte scarf -- starting on the third color repeat, and I'm being sure to add the Koigu ruffles every now and then, so that I don't have 40 eleven rapid increase ruffles to do at the end!

and the other new cast on baby? Well, it's absolutely stunning....and it's all for ME! One hank of Prism's Wild Stuff, two skeins of Tilli Tomas silk and one of some unknown varigated mohair from the stash -- cast on longwise -- six or so rows alternating -- using a double wrap drop stitch on the mohair -- I'll post a pic when I get a couple more repeats finished -- but no drooling allowed!

Well, it's about time for bed -- so until later!

I yam what I yam

Well, I'm as inconsistent as I feared I would be. I really do mean to post more often, but I simply have not gotten into the habit of it. Oh well. sigh.

I'm working part time at the LYS, and so far, I haven't spent more than I have made -- but just barely. There are just simply too many luscious yarns to tempt me -- what can I say?

Well, I only had a sec to post -- off to my bible study (which lasts around 2 1/2 hours -- talk about seriously cutting into my prime knitting time!)

ta ta

the crime scene...

the evidence.....







the culprit......






the victim....


my Koigu that I had just had rolled into a ball. It would have been bad enough (and it was) that she gommed up my precious yarn, but she chewed through the *#%& Ziploc bag to get to it!!!!

Needless to say, there hasn't been playtime this morning.

tricky proposition

Well, it's been over a week since I last posted; I'm not being as consistent with the posting as I had hoped I would/could be, but, oh well! It wasn't a particularly busy week, but it just seemed like I was never still long enough to post. I suppose I will need to get into the "habit" -- you know, develop a mind set that makes posting almost second nature.

I did get a microphone/headset so that I can record audio -- I've briefly considered the podcasting thing, but not too seriously yet. But I certainly do want to leave some audio comments on some of my favorite podcasts -- and I have an idea for an essay for the "Cast-on" podcast that I'm working on (which I would submit in audio format).

Didn't get as much knitting done this week as I would have liked; I'm working on a couple of chemo caps for a friend of mine (well, I'm actually working on just one at the moment -- the plan is to knit her two). I began the decrease too soon, so I had to frog it back about 3 inches -- blah!

My nephew's birthday was this week -- he was one year old! He is too cute for words!


I had knit him a sweater that was supposed to be for Christmas, but he's growing so fast, I went ahead and gave it to him for his birthday -- so he'll get to wear it as least a few times! Knitting for growing babies is a tricky proposition at best!

Well, the evening waxes late -- until next time.

That annoying teenager ;]

My mother has no idea im updating her blog but i am :] hehe, sneaky little teenager I am. I just wanted to drop by and say hello to my most favortiest(she's really taught me well on spelling huh?) mommy ever :]. Have a lovely day & keep smiling<3

love,
the teenager!&*

..in the most loving way possible

Howdy! It has been a good week (well, up until now when the most annoying teenage daughter decided to be, well, persnickety and annoying and even though she means it in "the most loving way possible"....)

It has been a very good week. I was productive, both at home and at work and at church! I finally got my Advent team stuff finished -- not only that, but I actually did the follow up stuff the very next day! (that, like, never happens!)

I finished the first of my Lorna's laces sock -- I am doing one of the patterns from Socks Socks Socks: 70 Winning Patterns From Knitter's Magazine Sock Contest - I don't remember right off hand which one, it's one of the lace patterns. I'm also almost finished with the "Singles & Pairs" from the Spring Knitters.

I also cast-on the sweater that I wanted to knit for my mother for Christmas -- it's a Plymouth Yarn pattern with a curvey lace rib at the bottom that I really liked -- well, I hate it now! I cast-on (116 stitches) and worked about 5 rows -- it was off - badly. So I frogged it and started over. Same thing. Frogged it again. Started yet again. Same thing. I ripped that freaking thing 5 times before I released that there was an error in the 3 row of the four row repeat. ARGHHH!

So, I figured out how make it work -- and I still couldn't get the &%#@ thing to work! So, I frogged (yet AGAIN) and went to my Barbara Walker treasury and found a pattern that was fairly similar and used it. It works. But now I don't even want work on it!

So, I did what any self-respecting knitter does -- I cast on something else. A sweater for my nephew -- and it's going GREAT!

And today? Today I have done enough housework to make a difference, really done laundry (including the folding and putting away), been to the grocery store, fixed lunch for the church luncheon tomorrow (including one of Paula Deens "Gooey Butter Cakes") and gotten dinner started for tonight! Woo hoo!

So, now I can knit with a completely clear conscious.

Oh, and that annoying daughter? She's really the sweetest thing ever!

Phew...

Did you know that if you don't eat and instead of dinner you have a significant share of two bottles of pretty good red zinfandel you will be unable to knit? Well, you will pretty much be unable to do much of anything, including knitting. (well, I've heard that that's the case, anyway.....)

I did manage to get much of the sweater I'm knitting from the summer issue of Knitters completed (before the aforementioned lack of dinner). All that I have left is to block the pieces, and then you join the shoulders and then knit the cowl neck, then finish joining and do a quick armhole edging. This has been a really fast knit, and since I have only done two other sweaters, one being a baby sweater, this has set my field on fire for knitting sweaters.

We had a really good service in church this morning. We received our first female minister recently, and she has been exceptionally good. She set up the worship area in the round and we had a hymn sing and dramatic reading of the scripture and all and all I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well, dh is in need of the computer and I am working a cabled scarf for a Christmas gift at the moment.

a day well spent?

Okay, so I didn't get up first thing this morning and start knitting. So there. Although that might be construed as a good thing, I'm not sure. Of course knitting is always a Good Thing -- it's just that knitting sometimes leads one to the not-getting-all-your-other-stuff-done--stage, and well, that's not always a good thing.

So, did I get all any of those other things done (including the aforementioned Advent team planning)? Well, duh, of course not. What I did manage to do was to spend several hours attempting to learn how to edit my blog template -- to learn what the heck Html formatting is all about.

Well, I did change a couple of things, but I have a l-l0000-ng way to go before I know what the dickens I am doing.

So, I'm thinking that I might just go knit now.

The day that was

Well, I've joined the multitudes of others who are in cyberspace, gleefully sharing their joys and sorrows with who knows who all else. I don't know how consistent I will be in posting, but journaling is something that I have done (sporacically) most of my life, so....

So, today was a fairly uneventful one. Didn't go to work, didn't do much housework, didn't do the Advent Team planning that I needed to do, didn't finish the grout work on the tile. I did do two loads of laundry (well, if you consider that two loads of laundry got washed, that is. I'm not saying I washed, dried, folded and put up two loads of laundry).

But, I did finish the hat that I started knitting on Wednesday for my daughter's friend's birthday (which was yesterday, btw). It was going great, until I started the decreasing and somehow I dropped a stitch. No big deal, right? Well, this was the first time I had knitted anything in Plymouth's Royal Bamboo -- it feels fabulous-- both in the skein and in a completed object. But, it is somewhat of a *itch to knit with. It shreds/splits if you look at it wrong, and is slipperly as a greased eel. So, a dropped stitch ran like a snagged pantyhose. So, I frogged it nearly halfway back and started over. But I finished it!!!

Tomorrow the grandson is coming over, so I don't know how much I will get done tomorrow. I simply have to get my Advent team stuff done -- I will not start knitting first thing in the a.m., I will not start knitting first thing in the a.m., I will not start.....

sigh. I probably will.