To Knit, Perchance to Dream...

I'm turnin' out the lights...

2005-06-26T14:02:00.000-04:00

I love and appreciate how many of you very wonderful people come to visit my blog regularly. However...and this is the big however...I am about to delete this blog completely and swap over to the new one entirely. Please, please...if you want to continue to have me on your Bloglines, you need to go to the new blog and CLICK ON THE SUBSCRIBE BLOGLINES button for the new blog. There are two feeds...it doesn't matter which one you use.

Your job, dear knitting readers, should you choose to accept it, is to subscribe directly to the new blog and delete your subscription to this blog.

This blog will self destruct in four days. As of July 1st there will be no more Blogger account for this blog.

I'm hoping you'll follow me over to the new blog...I'll miss you if you don't...

Ciao....

There's a little CONTEST....

2005-06-21T11:19:00.000-04:00

....on my new blog. ------------------------> To the contest...

I'm outta here...almost...

2005-06-17T21:16:00.000-04:00

I've unpacked most of the boxes over at my new blog home. I'm looking into repainting some rooms and perhaps putting up a little wallpaper...maybe even contract for a new blog banner...Please stop on by and visit. I think that after I finish taking down the pictures and sweeping up over here at Blogger, I'm gonna sell the house...

Drop by for coffee and a little knit! Susie's new blog...

New site almost ready...

2005-06-14T09:20:00.000-04:00

Oh my dearest blogland friends...my days of dual blogging are almost over. Finally, I've managed to learn enough about the web world to customize my new site. Please come visit me and start changing over your Bloglines subs (and any others you might subscribe with) to:

To Knit, Perchance To Dream...

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be leaving the Blogger account up for, so if I disappear, you'll all know where to find me...

Blessings,
Susie

Shawl we dance...?

2005-06-14T08:40:00.000-04:00

So it was like 2:15am when I got finished (please do not ask what I was doing awake at that time. Neither shall we speak of the fact that Katy was there as well...) but finished I am. Ta da. I was at a Boy Scouts Committee meeting when I bound this baby off. Came home. Got a little dinner. Chatted for a bit. Congratulated myself on completing the shawl sooner than the day of the wedding (my usual M.O.) Realized that I had to fringe the danged thing...fringeing that would mean hours of bending awkwardly over the bed and pulling many pieces of assorted yarns through small holes. Yep. I sure love to fringe.

But I absolutely love the way a heavy fringe swings around. And this shawl is long...longer than mine, and I had more fringe-y stuff to use...so I got started around 11:30pm. Cut the yarn into appropriate lengths. Here's the setup...

No sooner had I begun the task when my able assistant showed up to ~~lighten the work~~ lay on the work so as to make things much easier for me. Thanks, Riley. There'll be a little extra in your food bowl on Friday...

And in the end (around 2:25am) out lovely spokes/shawl model gives us the picture on the finishedness.

Someone woke me up at 5:15am with a totally unwarranted phone call. Unable to sleep, I made coffee and took the shawl out to be photographed in natural light (and a soft drizzle. Great. God's doing my blocking now...thanks, Lord!) However, I wish this had turned out better. Even the outside light shot cannot convey the sparkle and fringe-ishness.

Shawl ala deck. The beauty shot.

And as if finishing the shawl wasn't enough, in beween knotting fringe I decided to show this silky combed top alpaca who's boss...and spun a whole bunch (I'm learning...)

I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite potted posies. I had quite a time trying to figure out what would work together from the motley assortment I purchased. I didn't want the traditional geraniums with spikes type of stuff. So here's something a little different...

Cosmos and wax begonias. I could start a trend, no?

Thanks for suffering through all this shawl strutting. There are so many accomplished knitters who casually pose their incredible gossamer lace works of art and pass them off as a little something they worked on while the kids took their piano lessons. Maybe so. For me, this shawl really is just a newbie thing; perhaps it'll be the gateway to greater, lacier things for me down the road. Thanks for letting me show off. I just love y'all!

So where's the knitting?

2005-06-13T11:19:00.000-04:00

It's been hot and sticky (icky) and occasionally stormy, and because it's June, this is the Time To Get Things Planted in northern Michigan. As much as I love the beauty of the woods and enjoy my horticultural accomplishments, on days like these I wish only to be in front of the a/c, knitting away.

Before I show you what (pitifully little) knitting I've been working on, I have to post an update on the front of the yard where we have Moved Large Amounts Of Dirt and Spread Grass Seed in Copious Quantities (which has yet to sprout) and where now, there are Plants.

Note the presence of Plants. All the stuff on the ground around the plants is grass seed...

These are the Plants...Celosia and Hostas (when she was young, Katy used to call them 'hostages'. It stuck. I was very embarrassed when I said that in front of the Home Depot kid/clerk. He just looked at me weirdly.)

And more...the Vincas, also known as Periwinkle, which I'm hoping will spread. (It's supposed to.)

All this rain and icky weather makes me miserable, but it seems to have a dramatically different effect on the plant world...here's the lupine last pictured 4 days ago (see last post for photo):

So. The knitting. Well, in my defence, I have to call your attention to the fact that my current UFOs are ensconsed in my recent FOs...Branching Out (now at a remarkable 9 repeats) is residing in the Button Bag.

The Fiesta Yarns shawl which is for the Lady Who Is Doing The Music For Katy's Wedding (it's begining to sound like a title...or a mantra...) is currently hanging out in Sophie. In 5 more rows and the fringeing, this will be an FO, and not a moment too soon. The wedding is in like, 26 days...

And there is some new stuff. Here's a pattern I've been looking at for quite some time. In typical Susie fashion, I do not have the correct yarn (not even something in the near-same yardage) yet I am attempting this tank.

Remember this? It's Cascade's Fun, an inappropriately named yarn if I ever saw one. It's not actually plied, rather it's 4 strands that sort of pull along together...most of the time. Not easy to knit with. Naturally, I'm gonna give it a shot.

The first round of the lace. As Stephanie says, it always looks like a wadded up mess until the magic of the blocking. I hope this is true.

And finally, here is what I've been spending all my time on. I am still totally incompetent. I cannot draft and spin together. Draft. Spin. Draft. Figure out what I did wrong. Join. Spin. Read the instructions. Draft. Toss down in frustration. Spin. Draft...you get the picture. I simply cannot wait until our local fiber fests in August so I can have someone show me how to do this properly.

Even so, note the presence of just a few yards of single spun yarn. It took a reaaallllly long time. I was totally irritated and frustrated.

And I'm hooked.

Rain, rain...and the happy results...but first, a rant.

2005-06-10T01:46:00.000-04:00

We live in the woods. (Did I mention that we closed on the 1.5 acres next to us on Saturday? If I did, forgive me. It just thrills me to know that no one can build within 270' of me on either side. Yay!) In our woods are small acreages which are own by...for lack of a better word...downstaters. These are people who come up during the summer to camp or fish or just get away from the city. This would certainly be okay save for the fact that these people are bent on burning down the woods (the place of my primary (and only) residence) by starting fires they have no control over. In fact, in the last 3 years we (my family, just neighbors, not volunteer firemen) have responded to 2 out-of-control fires wherein the firebug had no a) hose, b) bucket of water, or in one case, c) access to water to control said fire. Lunatics.

After a disturbing lack of snow this winter, and less rain this spring, we found ourselves short by over half of our annual accumulated snow/rain to date. And school's out. And the loonies are arriving in droves. This always makes me nervous because of their often cavalier attitudes. (I suppose it's easy to be cavalier when your own primary residence is not in jeopardy of torching.)

So it was with great delight that we welcomed the deluge yesterday afternoon. Beautiful rain, turning my brown grass greenish, making all the perennial beds smile (I'm sure of it!) and washing down the pine dust, leaving pools of yellow-ringed water everywhere. Dropping the temperature from an unseasonable 89 to 72F. Glorious. Or not.

And then the power went out. Four hours of 105% humidity. No coffee. No a/c. No computer.

Nick fired up the generator (you've gotta have one of these babies if you live out here) and I turned on a fan, made coffee, and settled in to knit, sweat, drink my coffee, sweat and wait for the power to, please, God, come back on. And sweat. Did I mention how well I handle heat and humidity? I'm almost 52. Heck, I make my own heat and humidity.

Happy for the rain, displeased about this powerless turn of events. Grateful that no one could burn down the woods in the rainstorm. Sweaty and miserable. Dichotomy. I'm told that no one has ever died from perspiration. I would like to contest this.

So today I went outside ~~to photograph God's bounty~~ be completely eaten by huge mosquitoes and black flies while taking pictures. Herewith, the place I live and what's blooming in my garden: a short pictograph.

This is what you see when you pull into my driveway. This is where Katy and I moved the huge pile of dirt. There's lots of grass seed there now, and hopefully there will be grass soon. I have some annuals to plant out here and a few perennials as well...just waiting until it's cool enough to breathe outside again...

As you pull up the drive this is what you can see to your right (I didn't snap the left side...more of the same...)

...and further up the drive (293', more or less...)

...standing on the driveway apron looking back into the yard. We have much more woods than yard, though when we moved in 6.5 years ago there was a 20'x50' strip of grass in front...and nothing else but weeds, sand, and woods. Now we have a yard.

Can you see why it makes me crazy when people come up here and are careless with fire? Scary!

This is a closeup of the front bed in the picture directly above. It started out as annuals. I became a perennial convert quickly when I realized that they came back every year. (Duh! Some green thumb, eh? ) The strawberry bed is visible in both pictures too. Berries love sand, so they're planted directly in the soil. Everything else has to be in a raised bed with imported dirt (real dirt...) and humus and manure. Quality stuff. This bed has monarda, foxglove, echinacea, heuchera (I don't remember everyone's formal name...) German Catchfly and Fleabane.

The bed directly across the front of the yard. The pretty blue flowers in the middle are Katy's Jacob's Ladder. I have aquilegia and lupine and dianthus, Spike Speedwell and yarrow in this bed too...

This bed is the newest and it's in the backyard. It gets lots more sun and I have not been really good about making sure the stuff I plant can take all that sun, ergo, I have repeatedly yanked frizzled, dried plant corpses and replanted something else in hopes of success. There's a lamium in here (pink), coreopsis, heuchera (white) and the thrift (see below.)There are also two huge daisy installations that come back each year in spite of the fact that the seed packet promised no more than one season.

I just figured out how to make pictures even smaller...this is cool...unless like me, you have to shove your glasses up on your forehead and press your nose up to the monitor to see them...

Lupine on the left, thrift on the right

Johnny jump-ups (violas) and the yellow lamium

One of six trees sporting hosta aprons, German catchfly

So now you sorta know where I live. Feel free to come visit.

My drop spindle arrived today and I am completely incompetent but totally enraptured. Knitting content tomorrow...promise.

I have a new friend...

2005-06-09T17:44:00.000-04:00

...her name is Rebecca, she's a newbie knitter and on her way to law school (doesn't it make you hopeful about the future of the legal profession to know that there will be a knitter among them?) Her blog is called Chronically Pink. She's a budding knitter/crocheter and an enjoyable read. Please drop on over and say 'Hi!' and tell her Susie sent you...help her feel welcome.

One of the issues she's encountered is that most of the knitters she chats/emails with are (like me) a whole lot older than she (she's 23.) Any of you out there that are closer to her and understand what life's like for the young and single and more college bound, especially, drop her a line, wouldja?

Thanks,
Susie

PS: Guess what? My multicolor felted baby hat cum yarmulke is going to Israel! Moze, of Mozemen's Blues will be recieving this lovely, unintentional kippah in the near future! How very cool! Who knew my Jewish roots could emerge, unplanned, in my knitting?

I felted, you felted, he, she, it felted, we felted...

2005-06-07T14:40:00.000-04:00

Herewith the last of the felting for a good long time. And with good reason.

Remember that pretty homedyed yarn I posted a while ago? I decided to make a little Dulaan hat. Turned out cute, eh? But for some reason it didn't sit quite right. I thought that felting it, while making it smaller (for a littler person) would make it look proper.

My bad. Felting cause this little hat to lose every single bit of its hatness. It is now a yarmulke for Shrek, as best as I can figure. Nick reluctantly allowed me to photograph him with it on. As a side note, this is the Knitpick's dyeityourself worsted. The orange handdyed purse Pammi made was also from Knitpicks. This yarn seems to take a very long time to felt. This project was an error in ~~knitting nonsense~~ judgment.

Here, on the other hand, is a happy project. This is the Sophie bag right after completion. Late. Very late. And I still had to felt it immediately.

Here it is in the morning sun, all felted and happy and almost dry. I had it in mind to use Norma's method of adding the beaded handles, but when I got to the handle knitting I thought it was so cool that I had to try it. I will knit this one again...maybe with beaded handles. This purple one is Patons and Cascade 220 pulled 2 strands at a time.

And lastly, a gratuitous dh and friend picture...

Nothin' much to say...

2005-06-06T21:30:00.000-04:00

Had to take a run to Traverse City today for Nick's dermatologist appointment. I had many things in mind to do, but only got around to a few as we had to be home early. No.yarn. I repeat: I bought NO yarn. A first, and probably a very good thing too, given my recent yarn-ho behavior.

That is not to say that I did not make it to Yarn Quest. But several sets of dpns and a 32" size 6 needle don't really count toward the yarn hoard...in fact, they help bust the stash (I hope.) Am finishing up the Sophie bag and will likely toss it in to felt before I sleep tonight. Before and after pictures tomorrow.

We did buy a few more scrapbooking things for Katy to make a 'curent friends and family' book to take with her when she leaves for Okinawa, and we bought a fabulous wedding scrapbook (JoAnn's had them all on 50% off, thank you very much.) I'm getting dragged into this scrapbooking thing. Trouble is, I am way too ADHD to be able to organize a page, and it requires Kate's help to even figure out which pictures go together. She says we have to finish this before she leaves or it will go back into the closet for another 10 years. I am sure she's right.

More on that as it happens. Photos tomorrow. Film at 11.

Yarn and other things...

2005-06-04T14:38:00.000-04:00

As promised, some yarnish photos from our travels of the past few days.

This is Katy and her Koigu sock. They are still asleep although it is almost 11am. Sleep Katy. Sleep sock.

Katy's sleepy sock...her very first. She loves Koigu and it's working up fast. Except when it's asleep.

The trip to JoAnn's in TC netted me enough Cotton Ease for a summer tank.

Later, we stopped by Yarn Quest.

Remember my beautiful Summer Tweed? I centerpull balled this skein and started to swatch it. I had trouble knitting with this stuff. It just seemed hard to work with. Am I the only one who feels this way? Any way, I returned it and with the credit I purchased....

..this! Three huge skeins of Interlacement's Oregon. I am so excited about working with this stuff that fall can't come soon enough for me.

An update on the Sophie bag. I am currently working on this because this was one of the felting things I started when Pammi was here. Everything else is on hold. But there will be no more felting for a while after this. I think.

On to the yarn I bought at Threadbear:

Some fabulous Lorna's Shepherd worsted. This color is like summer sky and clouds. (I don't think that's what they call it, but they should. In fact, I think they should hire me to think up new and whimsical yet appropriate names for their yarn colorways.)

The huge pile of Cascade's Fun, an odd name for this cotton/viscose blend yarn. (See above. I'm sure I could do better at naming this stuff.)

The start of the swatch. There's a tank pattern waiting for me to finish the Sophie bag.

And Laurie, (of the anonymous postings,) this is the alpaca top I purchased and wrote about. I could not resist, as it is softer than any yarn I have ever fondled. Yet when I started looking into drop spindle 101, I discovered that alpaca is too slippery a fiber for beginners. (I don't think I'll let that stop me, but I'll start out on the merino top that's coming with my new spindle...)

Finally. FINALLY! There are blossoms on our strawberry plants. Which leads me...out the door and away from my knitting, to work in the yard before the rain comes.

Have a lovely and blessed weekend!

Moving Day is Coming...Eventually...

2005-06-04T02:07:00.000-04:00

I'm moving blog hosts...slowly. I've only begun to comprehend what this new blog is capable of, and so, have only transferred a few recent posts over. I've got a coupla links from my Bl*gger sidebar, but I have so much more to learn.

Having said that, here's the link to my new home. Just as we took a month in two houses so we could clean and pack one before we left, and paint and prep the other before we moved in, that's what I'm doing right now...only I have to figure out where to get the paint and how to use the rollers and where the heck I put the dropcloths...if you catch my drift. I know that I can now host photos on my site instead of at PhotoB*cket, but I don't know how...yet. I know I can post the code for all the rings I belong to, but I can't figure out how...yet. And I may wind up changing (or even creating anew!) the skin of the site as Rox says it reminds her of the Partridge Family...any comments on that one? (I just liked the bright colors....)

It's very, very late and I need to sleep but I've been playing around with the new blog and want some feedback. The content isn't new, obviously, as I just carried old posts over to see if I could...but the look is...and without the Bl*gger issues.

Cya in the morning!

Late edit: Clicking on the link to my new blog will no longer take you to the Partridge Family scene. I changed the layout completely. Still have lots to do, but I think I like this one better...looks like I'll have a little more flexibility. Rox, thanks for being so kind while I came to the realization of how just plain wrong it was.

Home to ourselves again. Now without photos.

2005-06-03T21:35:00.000-04:00

On the heels of taking Pammi to the airport, my mother-in-law arrived to pick up her kitty and spend the night (we kittysit Velvet when Mom travels.)

Amazingly, they all let me sleep until 9am (!) this morning and when I awoke the house was all but empty and eerily quiet. I wandered around not knowing what to do until I hit the coffeepot (I always know what to do there.) Coffee and a little knit and then the day began in earnest with one of the cats informing me loudly and repeatedly that there was no food.

During her all-too-brief stay here, Pammi blessed us by teaching us scrapbooking. ::::le sigh. Another expensive hobby:::: Katy's new almost-mother-in-law spent a great deal of time and effort putting together a book about Mike's childhood, right up to a page announcing their engagement and wedding invites. She presented this work of art (as indeed it is worthy of being called...) to Katy, telling her to add pages about her childhood etc. Well, we had virtually nothing with which to do this, and a huge box of unsorted (and, gasp! undated) photos. Pammi spent a day (in between her knitting ) helping Katy organize, shop and pick out goodies for the book, and set up the pages. Thank you so much, Pam! It couldn't have been done without you.

Speaking of my sweet sister, go visit her new blog, Mommy, Mommy, MOMMY!!! and see what else I got her addicted to! Tell her I sent you. She's brand-y new at this, and you'll notice a distinct similarity to my blog in the first two posts, but she's already figured Bl*gger out and has pictures of her stuff, including her boys wearing her FOURTH FO (4 in just 7 days. How can I ever hope to keep up?) Please make her feel welcome! (Thanks guys...)

Don't have too much else to add except that our trip to Lansing to return Pammi to the airport was punctuated by the sound of a rapidly ringing cash register at Threadbear. I bought something I'm not ready for...some ready-to-spin, combed alpaca top. I know now that this is *not* for beginners (I'm not even a beginner yet) but I had to have this. I have an alpaca fetish, and this stuff is softer than any alpaca yarn I've ever fondled. I later did the wise thing, going online to order a drop spindle (the guys can't keep 'em in the store, they move so fast) and some merino top to try my hand at. (It can't get here soon enough!) Updates as they occur.

I am still awed at the RAOKs I have received. They are within admiring distance from me (except for the soap, which has made its debut in my soapdish where it is making my hands feel simply soft and wonderful.) Thank you ladies for your thoughfulness and generosity. I can't say it enough.

That's all the news that fits. Knitting content and photos tomorrow (including the Koigu sock I have persuaded Katy to start work on...which she's gaga about now...)

Hugs and happy thoughts to all....

I've been RAOK'd! TWICE!!!

2005-06-02T01:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was fun. We took Pammi to Traverse City (our largest, closest 'city') to go shopping. We hit JoAnn's, the local high-end resale shop, (having a sale!) my very favorite lys Yarn Quest, the mall...lots of wonderful shopping...ending with Border's for coffee and a perusal of their knitting books. On the way home I got a call from Nick (who had no desire to go shopping with the womenfolk) telling me that there were three packages for me in the mail and could he open them. I opined that there was probably nothing of interest to him in them and to ~~keep his grubby mitts off them~~ wait until I got home to open them.

When we got home from Traverse City I found that my books had arrived from Amazon: Instant Expert...a gift for Katy...A Handspindle Treasury and Spin It for me (note that I do *not* own a drop spindle...yet.) This was good enough happiness for me when I remembered that Nick had mentioned three packages. It took some doing to find the rest of the mail, but when I did, I was overwhelmed!

My very first RAOKs! (Not my very first...ummm...giftie...that honor goes to Rox who giftied me because I turned her on to Bloglines and was her first subscriber, so I got a 'first subscriber' giftie! Thanx Rox!)

In no particular order....this arrived from Atouria, some very special treats for relaxing (I'm not sure why people keep telling me I need to relax. Do I seem hyper? Do I? Well, do I?) Ahem. Sorry.

The wonderful and vegan Atouria sent me fabulous handmade (her hands!) vegan, cruelty free soaps (Who knew vegan smelled so good?) a clever and encouraging card, and this adorable and very useful (already used!) birch wood massager. My darling, you are so thoughtful and sweet! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Then on the same day, out of the blue I received this from Jenn, who raoked my world with this...a postcard from her corner of the world, wherein she proffered this lovely stuff...a handcarved wooden 'guardian angel' (Lord knows I need ~~one~~ many, many of those...) a skein of Knitpicks dyeityourself (this has devolved to one word in my dyeing world...) sock yarn (what color....colors?!?) and three of the loveliest and most innovative stitchmarkers I've ever seen. In fact, I've never seen any like this.

Take a closer look...see? Aren't they totally cool? Now I wanna know how she made em'! Bless you my dear, for your thoughtfulness. You brought joy into my day.

You ladies so totally made my day. The kindness and generosity of knitters never fails to amaze me. Thank you both so very much.

My sister Pammi has knitted me to a frazzle. The yarn I dyed? Here it is, pre-felted. She completed this in under 36 hours, learning to add carry-along yarns and make I-cord along the way.

She woke up this morning and was knitting on this before she even got coffee. Can we say obsessed? Note the copy of Instant Expert sitting beside her (the book I'm sending to Okinawa with Katy...) I'm beginning to wonder if she coulda written it.

And before we even got dressed, said bag was in the washer doing its felting thing. Nicely. Katy says this looks like something Seussian...a Cat in the Hat gone wrong. I disagree. This is the first time I've ever felted something I dyed and I think it's splendid. Not to mention the amazing (and fast!) job Pam did making it.

And lastly, in the 'day late/dollar short' category, Monday was Katy's 19th birthday. My family and Scott's family, neither of which can be counted on to acknowledge birthdays, true to form, sent no cards. There were no gifts to speak of. The only cards she got were from her soon-to-be mil and grandmil. In my defense, I did buy her a 4 cd Frank Sinatra collection, but she understands that there is a Wedding in 37 days and that's where all the money is headed.

She was very mature about the whole thing except for the part where we were riding home from TC and she turned to me and said, "This birthday s*cked. Mike's on the other side of the world, Dad's working downstate, none of my friends can come over, no one in my whole family bothered to send a card or call...not even Grandpa Joe. It s*cks."

I've known about stuff like that in my life too. I will say no more lest I become bitter...

...so that's why the RAOKs just blow me away.

Fortunately, we were able to pull together a quick, very late evening, impromptu gathering of her friends. When we got home from TC Annie (and hubby Ryan) and Bethy came over and made birthday fun and silliness until they were all exhausted and goofy. Annie, a natural blonde who seldom wears makeup, always raids my makeup stash when she comes over and this night was no different save for the fact that Beth-y wanted in on the deal too. she found some very, very red lip glaze and proceeded to 'anoint' everyone with her imprint. This photo shows her looking vixenish, something we all thought was out of character for her, but now are having second thoughts about...here's a shot of Katy and her posse, taken at about 11:45pm on Monday night.

These girls are three of the most beautiful, funny, brilliant young women I've ever had the privilege of knowing. Katy has been the delight of my heart since the moment I knew she was there inside me. Annie and Beth-y have caused me to shoot more liquids and foodstuffs through my nose than is probably healthy just because they are so incredibly delightfully (hysterically! frighteningly!) funny. They are beloved friends and sisters and I hope they will always remain so regardless of distance.

Happy Birthday, my Katy. How will I get through the next one with you so very far away? Let me hold you close while I still can.

Fun with felt ~or~ Pammi knits too fast for me...

2005-05-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

My sister Pam came to Michigan with the express intent of learning to knit. She had been contemplating this for quite some time. So when it came to teaching her the ways of the sticks, it was so easy I'm still not sure that she hadn't already been knitting for years.

After a brief stint with a pair of 10.5 straights and some leftover merino, we decided to attack our first project: a felted Keyhole Bag. I worked this pattern right along with Pam so that I could teach her each technique casting on, increases, decreases, binding off, etc.) as it came along.

Suffice it to say that I have never had to knit so fast. She positively flew through the pattern.

Here's Pam, hard at work binding off in preparation for weaving in the ends:

And here she is enjoying an alternative use for the project.

The bag, prefelting. Dimensions: 12" across, 8" to buttonhole opening. Followed the above directions (less than) to the letter. Used Lamb's Pride Bulky single strand (she was having too much trouble carrying both bulky strands) in purple, Cascade 220 doubled in pink, Lamb's Pride Worsted in blue. Size 15 Addis.

Fresh from felting. In need of a shave... Dimnensions: 9.5" by 5".

My prefelted offering. All Lamb's Pride Worsted, doubled.

Fresh from the bath. Apparently I bound off much more loosely than Pam as my bag is sort of...baggy at the top. Much tugging did not resolve this, so I will content myself that this is the way it should be. It is unique...just like every other bag.

In preparation for the next felting project, I offer you...Knitpicks dyeityourself aran weight in Pammi's choice of colors. She will be knitting this into some sort of felted bag. I think it looks (if memory serves) like a Tequila Sunrise. It's eyeblinkingly bright. She loves it and I love her and I am so glad she got to come visit. Her husband, my youngest brother Robin, is home dealing with all three boys and doing a wonderful job of it. (Or he's doing a wonderful job of covering up...either way, Pam is getting to relax and knit. What a guy!)

Shortly we'll be off to canoe down the AuSable River today. I wonder if I can take my knitting?

Have a blessed day!

Thanks, guys....

2005-05-29T13:50:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day.

Thanks to all the men and women who have given their time (and often, their lives) in the service of our country. Sometimes they were serving and fighting for the freedom of our nation...sometimes for the freedom of a nation on the other side of the world. Sometimes they had to serve in places and conflicts with which they were philosophically opposed. And during it all, we, in this nation, continued to have freedom to speak out against what they were doing.

May God forgive us for directing our issues against those who served instead of the conflict itself.

Thank a veteran or a service person today. I'm sure everyone reading this knows some or many. I personally want to thank:

Robin, my youngest brother...USMC
Darian, my nephew...USMC
Mike, my soon to be son-in-love...USAF
Michael, my nephew...USN

You are loved and appreciated. Happy Memorial Day. It's not about the beer.

Please redirect your browser to...

2005-05-28T00:54:00.000-04:00

...the most gut-bustingly amusing site I've read in a long, long time. I wanna write like these chickies when I grow up... Threadbared

Enjoy.

Threadbear, Bloggers and Me

2005-05-27T23:45:00.000-04:00

I got to meet up with some very cool people yesterday.

I had to go to Lansing to pick up my sister-in-love from the airport in Lansing. This road trip means only one thing...Threadbear! I love these guys. This is the yarn shop of a knitter's dream. I told Matt that I had this mad desire to knock all the Koigu onto the floor and roll around in it. He responded with, "Please reshelve it when you're done." You've gotta love a guy like that.

So anyway, we had this big online meetup planning going on with emails back and forth. In the end, I met up with Heather, the blogless Laurie, and Sharon, (bless you dear...you waited for me again!) and we had a very cool time with food and yarn and conversation and knitting and I actually spent 4.5 hours in a yarn store. My son was amazed. (He spent a good deal of the same time in my car watching a movie on the dvd player. Boring.)

Herewith, photographic evidence. I must tell you that late last night I received an email from Heather, who hates having her picture taken (she's so danged cute, I have no idea why...) She indicated to me that I was free to post the picture as long as I (and I'm quoting here,) "...crop my head off, then you can post them, K?" In lieu of cropping her head off (a horrifying prospect, I'll admit) I settled for the next best thing...

Heather has been Photoshopped. As an aside though, if you follow the link above to her blog (and do go visit her...) you will see the unedited version as she apparently did not think to Photoshop herself out.

Thanks ladies. It was a hoot!

And I get to go back next Thursday when I take Pam back to the airport. I don't know if my budget can stand it. I think it's probably a good thing I don't live any closer to Lansing.

Here's a little thing someone sent me ages ago. It was just languishing in the draft section of my Blogger...more ~~useless~~ deeply meaningful and important information about me...another one of *those* things.....

Three names you go by:

Snooze
Susie
Mom

Three screen names that you have had:

MamaSnooze
Snooze
Suzee

Three things you like about yourself:

I can work well beyond my apparent energy level.
I love to give to others without the need for reciprocity
The family I've helped create around me (it's part of me...really...)

Three things you don't like about yourself:

I have a very low tolerance for BS.
I procrastinate when I don't understand what it is I'm supposed to do, instead of asking someone.
I can be inconsistent.

Three parts of your heritage:

French
English
Czech

Three things that scare you:

My scale
Becoming unable to care for myself physically
The possibility of having to bury a child

Three of your everday essentials:

Prayer
Excellent morning coffee
Hugs and kisses from my family

Three things you are wearing right now:

Glasses
Shorts
Wedding ring

Three of your favorite bands or musical artists (@ the moment):

KJ52
Mendelsohn
The Mamas and The Papas

Three of your favorite songs:

Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Marrakech Express
Love Is Like Oxygen

Three new things you want to try in the next 12 months:

Cross country skiing
Spinning ~ drop and wheel
Building my new website

Three things I want in a relationship:

Foreverness
Friendship
Fun

Two truths and a lie:

My hair is turning silver
My baby girl is getting married
I am wearing a size 6 dress in her wedding. Eyuh.

Three physical things that attract you to the opposite sex:

Exquisite eyes
Eloquence
Charm

Three things you can't do without:

God's grace
The love of my family
Good yarn

Three of your favorite hobbies:

Gardening
Knitting...duh
Kvetching

Three places you want to go on vacation:

My backyard
Cayman Islands
Australia

Three things you just can't do:

Balance my checkbook
Eat calamari
Be on time

Three kids names:

Kathryn Clare
Nicholas Scott
Josiah Edward

Three things you want to do before you die:

Help deliver my grandchildren
Actually get my Creative Memories scrapbook done
Take in a Broadway play with my hubby

Three celeb crushes:

Sean Connery
Nic Cage
Jude Law

Where did I go last night? ~or~ The Night the Lights Went Out In Blogger...

2005-05-25T05:53:00.000-04:00

Blogger Status

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Due to a hardware error, a percentage of Blog*Spot users will run into ~~intermittent~~ constant, ongoing trouble when trying to access their blogs. We have people in the datacenter working on the problem and anticipate that this will be corrected during ~~the next two~~ some indeterminate number hours.

Posted by Jason at 13:30

Thanks, fellas....Still, it was nice to be home when I woke up this morning. Just where the heck was I last night anyway?

Moving Mountains, Pretty Plant Mini-Contest

2005-05-24T16:14:00.000-04:00

By now you would probably be almost as tired of the dirt thing as I am...well, maybe not quite as tired because you're not moving it and I am...but I wanted to show off today's accomplishment.

The pile after 1.5 hour's work, when Katy joined me.

See, it's smaller. ~~I've~~ we've been working hard. The area we're filling is approximately 35' x 30'. Roughly 4-6" deep.

Two hours and much pain and agony later...ta da! A surface ready for grass seed and plants! Currently I am sitting on a heating pad, having taken four ibuprofens and some lovely prescription pain relief and am waiting on same to make me feel like I can walk again. I'm sore, but happy it's done. Just days ago it looked exactly like the land immediately behind it. Now it's prettier.

In knitting news, I finally finished the lovely blue sweater and have attached the (too long) sleeves to it. At this point, I'm just gonna roll them up. I have procrastinated on this sweater for like forever. It's a simple project. And I have completed no less than 15 FO's since I started this. I think the prob was that I knit it in pieces instead of in the round (I wanted the 'experience' of seaming. Ha. Never again.) and that required purling every other row x 4 major size pieces (95-125 stitches on size 7s) x many, many rows. I'll admit it. I'm lazy. I don't mind purling, I'm just not as fast as with knitting. So anyway, here it is with all but the side seam sewn. Next time you see this sweater will be in the fall when it's cool enough to model it.

Sharon (and several others) mentioned to me how curious it was that the pink Branching Out scarf became the pale green Branching Out scarf with nary an explanation. It's magic. Suffice it to say. Seven repeats. I'm feeling optimistic about this lace thing.

I'm swatching for several things, but nothing's really caught my fancy. I had put this yarn away for the Sophie bag quite some time ago. I haven't done any felting in a while and this is nice, mindless knitting (I love it that you can make mistakes and no one ever knows...felting is cool like that.) I suspect this will work up quickly. Paton's Merino and Cascade's Quattro. I like a heavier felt...

And now, for something totally different....

This lovely flowering plant is native to northern Michigan. In fact, there is a lot of it on my property. In fact, I have had to pull some of it out during the course of moving all that dirt. Be the first to correctly identify it (email me) and I'll send you off the sock yarn I just dyed and a coupla pretty stitch markers I've been playing around with.

And that's all the news that fits today...

Saturday stuff

2005-05-21T20:49:00.000-04:00

New sock yarn dyed in black with green, orange and pink accents. I seem to dye in really bright colors, and it occurred to me that some people (guys, most likely) would not be up for wearing really bright, colorful stuff. I went and bought some black Rit dye. I like the way it came out and will be using more of it.

Three repeats of the Branching Out Scarf. Pinned it out so it would show. I'm pleased with it and will actually attempt to finish it.

The three amigas. Annie, Beth-y and Katy have known each other for almost seven years. Annie got married last June. Katy is getting married in July. Beth-y is graduating from high school shortly. They were all homeschooled for a long time and had lots of time to be best buddies. Both are in Katy's wedding. They went cruising to Traverse City today to get malled. I love to hear them laugh together. Even though things change, some things will remain: they love one another like sisters (which none has) and they manage to wind up laughing every time they get together. The wedding will be fun.

Scott put the big window a/c in the living room today, a concession that it may actually become summer. We just blew by spring...

Have a lovely, lazy, blessed Sunday!

Dishing' dirt...

2005-05-21T00:11:00.000-04:00

This is about the front of my yard. The dirt road goes on for 1.6 miles before joining a paved road. We live in the woods. Literally. I love it.

But like many women, I eventually tire of the current condition of my surroundings and desire to effect some 'prettying up' changes. In the case of the yard, this requires huge amounts of imported dirt (where we live all the dirt is actually sand. To grow anything requires the addition of real growing medium.) So recently, after having the 40+ yards of limestone laid down for the drive, we decided to do a little redecorating out by the mailbox.

Before he broke his hand, Nick took a huge pile of landscape timber and boxed the area in for me. Impressively, he mitered all the angles. The plan was to fill and cover the existing vegetation. Mainly this area is just scrub underbrush, bracken (springing up in the next several weeks or so...) choke cherry bushes and pine needles. I want grass and flowers. This is more of a major undertaking than I originally anticipated. Enter, 10 yards of sifted topsoil.

Now, I know about moving topsoil. In the past two years we reclaimed a half acre of woods up by the house and it's now lawn, bushes and flowers. Beautiful end result, but hard, backbreaking work. I moved 25 yards of dirt...twice...mostly by myself. And because of Nick's broken hand, I find myself in that same place this year. Katy did come help for a while but got sidetracked by the rest of her life. This is the second half of the pile...

Some of our handiwork...before the mosquitoes chased us in...

And my helper. This is Riley. He rolled in the dirt a lot. He's just beginning to discover the great out-of-doors and every little skittering leaf causes him to jump. He's lots of fun to watch, but not so much fun to work with, as he kept getting right in the way of the dirt I was tossing with my shovel.

Tonight there will be some knitting pictures. I figured out that my prob with the Branching Out Scarf was the yarn I was using. I switched over to Lana Gatto wool in a pale green and have completed three repeats without a hitch. Curious. And it looks more realistic in green than pink...

Off to see the Wizard...later!

Is this really a knitting blog?

2005-05-19T10:57:00.000-04:00

It has ~~come to~~ ~~been brought to my attention~~ been rudely pointed out that there has been no actual knitting content in this blog for some indeterminate amount of time.

I ought to apologize. Sorry.

So, do I have actual knitting content? Well, ummm....sure! Picture time.

Here's a lovely little swatch of Knitpick's new Shine. I have no idea what sort of summer lovely I will make out of this stuff, but it's sure nice to work with. It's pima cotton and modal (tencel.) The modal seems to make the cotton yarn lighter in weight without losing any of its softness. The color is Candy but it comes in a vast array of single and multicolors.

Here is where I am finally learning to make toe-up socks. After several starts, I finally figured out how to do it. I'm hooked. I love this toe. I am, however, anxious about making heels...backwards. Don't know how that works, but I'm following the pattern. This is sock 1.

This is more than 1/2 of the shawl I'm making for the lady who's doing the music for Katy's wedding. It's Fiesta's LaBoheme in Rainforest. This stuff is wonderful to work with except for the difference in stretch between the rayon strand and the mohair strand. Sometimes the rayon gets waaaay ahead of the mohair, which has less stretch. Even so, I love it. Poised above are several sparkly yarns which will become part of the fringe (I'm big on heavy fringe.) This is the only one of my projects that has a time limit on it, so it should get priority. As if.

Here is the Knitpick's dyeityourself Aran weight yarn. I'm making a hat. I love this mindless circular knitting. This is what I took to the hospital with me on Tuesday night when I had to go to the Emergency Room with Nick (who broke his hand and I promised to not tell the whole world the stupid way he did it.)

Here is try #2 at the Branching Out Scarf. This is only my second attempt at lace. I love it, but I think I have to be in a sealed room with no distractions as I tend to get lost easily. Twenty five stitches. How hard could that be? Well, I've ripped it out four times. I will master this. I hope. It's being knit in pink because I gave up on the laceweight alpaca/silk yarn and this was the only sockweight yarn I had in a solid color. Weird, huh? Pink leaves...

Katy requested that I notify the blogging world of her accomplishments as well. She has been working on baby hats in Baby Cashmerino (a particular fetish of hers, as you can see below.) She's also making excellent progress on her own sweater, knit in Knitpick's Elegance in the color 'Grass'.

And that's about it, sportsfans. I've actually been out moving 10 yards of dirt (a yard of this dirt weighs 2600# for the curious...) and I hurt too much to even knit at this point. But there has been knitting and will again be...

And then, there's my new website...

Books R Me ~or~ Flash Your (Book) Stash

2005-05-18T13:30:00.000-04:00

I promised you more gratuitous bookshelf photos than is likely safe for consumption at one sitting. In the interest of...well...interest, I did not include the 900+ boxed books in the garage, anything that is stored in closets, on garage workbenches, in the bathroom, in vehicles, boxed for the garagesale next month, on coffee/end tables, or stashed behind my knitting chair. Keep in mind that I live in the north, in a poorly insulated manufactured house, and books make darn fine insulation.

Here, for your gawking pleasure, I present, in no particular order:

Scott's shelf, next to his side of the bed. Contains lots and lots of WWII books, especially firsthand and autobiographical accounts, computer and work related stuff, and lots of books about Jeeps...old Jeeps.

This is the shelf in the hall. It contains much of the resource material we have collected over 15 years of homeschooling. It's recently undergone a purge (hence the open spots) where those books have migrated to the garagesale box in the garage. Also contains an unreasonably large collection of Baby Blues comic anthologies, courtesy of Katy, who thinks it's the most amusing stuff, and that I remind her of Wanda. A lot.

The current curriculum shelf. Contains all of Nick's school work as well as the GED stuff for the volunteer tutoring I do with the girls at KenQuest House. The boxes on the bottom contain all manner of craft stuff, kept now only for the occasional small, bored visitor. The basket on top holds markers, glue sticks, calculators, pencils, scissors, pens, drafting tools, hole punch, and a few unidentifiable things that I'd rather toss than touch.

This is Nick's desk shelf. Current reading, old passions (horses) and Scout stuff.

The shelf on my side of the bed. This is my most personal library (things I don't lend) and all of my knitting books and magazines. The knitting stuff is taking over the shelves. Note in immediate proximity, the tower of stash. (The bookshelf is 5' tall.) This extends further than the photo shows and almost all the way to the end of my beloved's patience as it's threatening to take over the bedroom. (He's still fairly good humored about it.) I say, build me an addition. More room, more yarn!

My third bedroom shelf. Contains all my gardening books, homeopathic/herbal/naturopathic books. The Bible on tape and CD. DK travelogues. Assorted other books on tape/CD. On top, all my gardening catalogs, crosstitch projects and boombox.

Katy's bookshelf. She tends to read in series, evidently.

The cookbook shelf, purged two years ago, gave away over 90 cookbooks. Now also holds various phonebooks, none of which seem to be there when we need them. Curious.

The shelf immediately outside my bedroom door. Semi-blocks the door. A fire marshall's nightmare. Contains (one) encyclopedia (donated the other three sets to the library) and a host of the classics as well as my gradschool texts and undergrad major texts. My second favorite shelf.

So that's the tour. Now, the meme:

How many books in my house? Nary a clue. You could count. Don't forget the ones in the garage and elsewhere as noted.

The last book I bought? Ummm...I'm sure it was a knitting book, as I tend to theme buy and that's the current theme. I did pick up two old Kaffe Fassett books at the thrift shop...

The last books I read? My Bible. Last thing I read: All about HTML. Gripping reading.

Five books that I reread often or that mean a lot to me? My Bible. Madeleine L'Engle's Many Waters. Gene Edwards' Divine Romance. Balch's Prescription for Nutritional Healing. My Bible.

Who am I going to pass this along to? I'm not. Pick up the ball and run with it if you feel like it. I'm usually the last in line with these memes, so there's probably no one left in the whole bloggiverse who hasn't done this.

Tomorrow: A faltering start on my own domain.

Baldfaced plug for a new blog...

2005-05-17T09:48:00.000-04:00

Go visit Amy at frottez! She's one of my Michigan girls, a Master Knitter with a relatively new blog (1.5 months, approximately) and patterns published in Knitty, and she's gonna be dynamite in the bloggiverse (if she can find her computer ~ see her post of Sunday, May 15th.) Tell her that Snooze sent you...

No, really...click the link already and go visit her! Be sure to leave a comment! It'll only take a minute...remember, you were once a new blogger too...(wait...I am a new blogger still...) Aw, just go visit. She's one of us now.

Of Trucks and Limestone and Sheep

2005-05-17T01:10:00.000-04:00

I have lots of nieces and nephews. Almost all of them are in the south, mainly in Florida. Two of these (nephews) are little buddies who don't know their Aunt Snooze because I just don't get down there very much, and they're still really young to remember me anyway.

This is Trevor:

And this is Cristian:

They, being guys, love trucks.

Anyhow, yesterday was the day the guys finally came to lay down the limestone mix for our driveway. Said driveway is in nowise a traditional drive. Starting from the garage, it's about 50' wide, moving at that width for about 45' until it adds 15' more in width for a piece, then finally narrows down to about 12' and acts like a regular driveway. (293' from the house to the mailbox, for the detail-oriented.) This, it may be noted, is one heckuva lotta limestone mix. Forty+ yards, to be precise.

So while this is going on, I happen to be talking to my brother Robin, father of the two young lads (and Tyler, their big bro, who isn't nearly as thrilled about big trucks and such because he's, like...old and stuff) while there was the noise of trucks in the background, grading and preparing to dump a lot of limestone/gravel mix for the drive. Robin said to me that it would be way cool for the boys to see the big truck pushing all the rocks around my driveway.

Chris, Trev, this one's for you:

So. My nephews. Too stinkin' cute.

I found this t'other day. Took the quiz. Somehow it makes me feel like a fence-sitter...plus, this is probably the only sheep I'm likely to ever get. That makes me sad.

You are a - Neutral Sheep!
Congrats - you do what you like! You make your own rules, not follow the flock!

Which flock do you follow?

this quiz was made by alanna

Tomorrow: photos of every bookshelf in my house and the meme that won't go away. Riveting stuff. Stay tuned.

Hey! I'm dyeing ovah heah!

2005-05-15T15:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had a dyeing party. Although this involved beauteous colors, unlike what most of you have come to expect, the medium I used was...uhhh...slightly different.

My son Nick...

His friend Mac... (the pink is slightly photographically altered as the light was fading the color out and I think he was getting tired of me taking pictures of him...)

And the usual suspect...Knitpick's dye-it-yourself (and I do, I DO!)

And rolled into a little yarn muffie....

My domain is still propagating (I thought this was something you did with plants, but apparently...)

Dh just came in here and snapped this photo of me. He says that this is what the organized blogger looks like...

Here's a little peek into my corner of the blogging world. I could spend most of my life here if it wouldn't lead to me becoming a pile of jello...That little basket holds all my current knitting...note the presence of the caffeine...the Sunday paper is on the floor by my purse...Life is good...

Have a happy day off!

I did something really scary tonight...

2005-05-14T00:58:00.000-04:00

...I signed up and paid for my own domain. I am moving!

I know this is going to take a little while for me to figure out as I'm not the least bit tech-y, but I'm so excited about leaving Blogger after all the struggles I've had with it. Oh, we've had some good times, and it was my first, after all, :::blushes::: but it's time to move on.

It's not functional yet, but I will soon be at www dot toknitperchancetodream dot net (actual link to follow when it's up and running.)

Big shout out to Anne at Kniterati for making the move to a new host first. This link takes you to her brand-y new blog! Bookmark it...it's a keeper. Thanks, Anne. It was all the motivation I needed to finally take the leap. Now, can I bug you with technical questions?

Off to learn more about this new obsession....

"...put another dime in the jukebox, baby..."

2005-05-13T04:34:00.000-04:00

Dd Katy posted this quiz on her live journal. I had to laugh. She's grown up on classical and Veggie Tales and Christian music, so her score was around 34%...a "Rock Wannabe." What stranged me out was how well I scored. Until recently, when I started listening to the oldies stations again, I hadn't listened to much other than classical or Christian since about 1981, when I became a Christian. Not at all curiously, I can remember all the lyrics and NONE of the group names. Go click on the link and check it out...

The Veteran
You scored 84%!

You've picked up the majority of the classic rock basics. You probably have a classic rock collection and can sing along with most of the songs on your local radio station. This is not the highest score, but it is arguably the best: that subtle combination of impressive knowledge and not being a pretentious geek.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 33% on notes

Link: The BASIC classic rock Test written by allmydays on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Extra points if you can tell me the name of the song and the group that sang it from my post title....

In other, further from home news, we hit Saginaw yesterday. Katy had to meet with Greg Largent, the music pastor, to pick out the processional, etc. Here are a coupla photos of what the church/organ looks like. This pipe organ has a replacement value of $1.48M USD. BIG bucks. I got to play it ....momentarily. Chopsticks sounds strange on a pipe organ. Eerie...ethereal. Chopsticks. Go figure.

Proof that I was there...that's my purse atop the very expensive pipe organ.

And there are the pipes...but only a few actually show. Greg , the man who plays this magnificent instrument, (amazingly well, I must add,) climbed up a ladder and opened the door behind these pipes to show us the rest of the pipes: 3500+ in total, all hand made. This makes me wonder how they got it so cheaply...

This is the altar of the church where Mike (dfsil) (dear FUTURE son-in-law) was raised, First Presbyterian of Saginaw. This is where, in just a few short weeks, Katy and Mike will be taking their vows and sharing their first kiss as man and wife. I'm getting teary just thinking about it. Any knit bloggers out there who'd like to come to the wedding and think you'd actually make it, send me your snail mail addy and I'll send you an invite. Really. I'd like not to be the only one knitting during the wedding.

And in other news, Katy has done the happy FO dance! Here, in the requisite no-head photo, she is modeling the sweater she made for Mike (who is substantially larger than she, obviously.) This is from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting and she used WoolEase Chunky on size 13 circs. Amazing how fast it worked up. And she did a fabulous job. She says that she hopes Mike likes it, but that it's comfy enough that she would be willing to roll up the cuffs and wear it herself.

I'd like to leave you with a photo that epitomizes the day we've had around here:

It almost seems like Saturday.

Five more things meme...

2005-05-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

I have a very curious tale to tell today, one of a post returned from (the apparent) dead. This is the post that got weird, the one that half disappeared and the other half turned up in German..yeah, that one.

In the spirit of sharing, before I posted, I hit 'select all', 'copy' and then pasted the meme into an email to the ladies I tagged. Then I hit 'publish' and that's when it all went caterwonky.

Today I got an email back from Jan who's new to the blogging thing. She (shyly) asked me how these meme things work. Well, my email is ill just now, and I could not find the place where I had passed a meme to her, anywhere in my blog. Thinking I was losing my mind, I was finally able to find the email she sent me, and there (God bless this woman!) was every word I had written. Formatted. She had hit 'reply' and sent my post back to me.

That's more blog drama and mystery and heroic tale than I can manage. It's bigger than the dang post, fer cryin'in dah mud! I think the post is actually anticlimactic, but I'm posting it anyway 'cuz I've gotta go to Saginaw and my laptop is NOT coming with me.

See y'all tonight....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the excitement of the past few days, I need to post something calm. Easy. As Stephanie says, I need to have a little lie down.

Toward that end, here is something from Atouria, over at Yarn Yoga. I've been meme'd back. (I sent her a meme a few days ago. I thought I said, "No backsies!" but apparently I wasn't exactly clear on what constitutes a backsie. I've left her answers in because they're probably a lot more interesting and exciting than mine will likely be. I'm old, after all, and she is not.

"I’m going to start a new question that I hope gets passed around a bit. Please list 5 things that you may or may not have done before that you would like to learn or try again. This may just get you to try them or give you some renewed interest!

Here are her answers:
1. Photography. I want to break out my LOMO again and shoot from the hip! I also want to get back in practice of doing some black and white stuff.
2. Piano. I’ve never tried it, but I’d love to find some lessons and give it a go.
3. Pottery. If I could find a class, I would jump on it! I want to make a decorative vase or something simple and beautiful.
4. Write a book. I’d love to write a book ~ any book would do. A children’s book would be fun. I’d also like to write something like a novel. Something about me, but that has some insight.
5. I’d like to travel more. I’ve been to Germany, Canada, and Mexico. I’ve snowboarded on the Swiss border. I want to see

And here are mine:

Motherhood. I'm not really ready for my little birdies to leave the nest. In spite of this, they're heading out. Katy's getting married and moving to Okinawa. Nick's finishing his senior year at the local highschool. I wanna nurse a baby again. (I realize this sound awful. I'm sure most of you could not possibly imagine going through all this again. I miss it...but I'm sure it will pass. Transition is the toughest phase of anything and that's where I'm stuck just now.)
College. I want to go finish my master's degree. Problem is, I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. My BA is in Economics, minors in PolySci and Business. I have 1/2 an MBA, scoodles of post-bac education classes. I don't think I want to do anything that involves any of those fields. I want to teach fiber arts like Rams (of the comments) does, I think. That probably requires me starting all over again in another field. Where is the intersection between the elasticity of taxation and Koigu? Yeah, I didn't think you'd know. I could probably figure it out, but I'd rather KNIT with the Koigu. College...maybe.
Skydiving. Or possibly parasailing. Something exciting and skeery. Really.
Entrelac, intarsia, and Estonian knitting, spinning. These are all in my 'learn to do' file. This is the one item on this list that I am absolutely sure I will get to.
Go completely off the grid. I've wanted to live self-sufficiently for many years. We have a fair start on it (after all, the house is so well insulated with books and yarn) with our heating (all wood) and gardening. Our present location doesn't allow us to have livestock-type animals (not even chickens!) so we'd have to move. I would love to build a log cabin and use solar/wind power...this is a maybe.

So that's my list. It actually made me think. Now I'm tired. So I'm gonna pass this along to Stacy and Jan. Tell all, ladies!

The sun is shining and I want to go out to work in the yard. And knit. At the same time. This is going to take some doing. (Maybe I should add it to the list above...)

Have a spectacular day.

A Lesson Learned...

2005-05-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty careful about the words I use when I post. I mean, this is a G-rated blog for the most part. So just moments ago I'm looking at my blog stats (much more fun to do since the Stephanie link...although the traffic is getting back to its normal, much slower/lower self) when I notice several referrers which I have never seen before. So, I do the normal thing...

I click on them.

Oooops. Pardon me. I had NO intention of ever seeing some of those things! And I wonder to myself, "Why on earth did these people come to visit my blog?"

Dd Katy knew.

At the very bottom of the May 7th post I left a teaser about the next day's post-to-be and it included...right, kiddies...it included the word P*RN. All of a sudden I have people visiting who are a) sadly disappointed at what they're viewing and b) links that refer me to some rather sordid stuff.

I'm concerned that I may lose my G-rating if it happens again. I went back and changed the word.

And that is my lesson for the day.

WTH happened to yesterday's post?

2005-05-11T10:32:00.000-04:00

So I had this great post completely done and I punched the 'publish' button and several weird things happened.

First, I have to mention that the last time I had weird Blogger things happen I went looking into changing hosts. Naturally, Blogger straightened right up and worked well. For several weeks.

So I have this great post (and let me assure you that it was great!) (Okay...it was better than average...) and I hit the button to send it. I open my blog in another tab. What awaits me? Well, part of my post was there...in what looked like GERMAN (complete with the umlauts and stuff) but most of it was missing. And half the sidebar was gone too. How on earth did this happen? I think I have some idea about the missing sidebar (which was actually still in my template, so I just hit reload and it appeared,) but the weird language change and missing half of the post?

I wound up deleting the whole thing in disgust. Reflecting on the matter, I probably should have left it up just as a point of interest/curiousity. I'm sure I would have gotten some verryy interesting comments...

A propos of nothing, here's what I was doing at 11:30pm the other night:

This is none other than Knitpick's Dye It Yourself worsted weight. Two hundred twenty yards of softness that accept dye like a bank accepts deposits. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with this yet, but at $2.99USD/hank, I could afford to just admire it! I used the Wilton Food colors with this one. I have lots of colors in the Wilton, and I wanted a rose, which I don't have in the Gaywool dyes.

The beauty shot: in natural light:

Here's another thing I dyed the yarn for. The pattern is the Beanie from S'n'B Nation. The yarn is Lamb's Pride Worsted in Natural, dyed with Gaywool dyes. This is for Annie...see, sweetie! I finished it just in time for summer!

I'm going to go see if I can recover yesterday's post (the one you lost could always have been a Pulitzer Prize winner, right?) which hopefully will not have morphed into Swahili or something else....

Later.

I've been RAOK'd!

2005-05-09T20:23:00.000-04:00

In the middle of all this excitement, I arrived home to find a box stuffed into my mailbox. (I think it's probably a fortuitous thing that I live way back on a dirt road, because the box was left protruding from the open mailbox. It wouldn't have still been there if the mailbox was out by the main road, like some folks' are.)

The box contained some wonderful things: Do-it-yourself socks (yarn and needles!) and an amazingly adorable and useful notecard (under that picture is the pattern for the poncho the little girl is wearing!) This lovely giftie is from none other than the most wonderful Rox of Fearless Knitter fame. I had to keep her bookmarked and click off to her blog every day to see if she had posted (and that's so unnecessary when there's Bloglines out there...our time is precious, right? We want our posting updates in one place so we have more time for knitting and less time spent linking, right? Right.) So I subscribed to her blog. But she wasn't subscribed herself. I sent her over there and she put a button on her blog, and voila, people came! She has fifteen subscribers! So go, subscribe to her blog and tell her Susie sent you.

And just why is she Fearless? Well, she's hosting the Secret Pal 5! Perhaps fearless is not the word she would use. Thank you so much, Rox. I'm gonna learn how to knit toe-up socks with this. I will post progress (assuming I am able to figure it out...) Blessings to you!

Famous by association?

2005-05-09T19:38:00.000-04:00

I am overwhelmed by the traffic that a mention on Stephanie's blog has generated on this blog. If for only one shining moment I bask in the shadow of her glory, I am delirious.

And ya know, you can come back here again...

(Edited in later:) Thank you for visiting, to everyone who linked over here from The Harlot's blog. I have totally flipped out at the stats. It's kind of like being recommended by Oprah, eh? I've had emails and comments from so many people. I have NO idea how (or IF) Stephanie answers all her commentors individually (Wait...I think she may...I've had a response or two from her.) I cannot comprehend the immensity of that task!

Ergo, I want to thank you all, if a bit impersonally, for making this one of the more exciting days of my (blogging) career. I feel like I've had my 15 minutes of fame and I am content.

Please, please feel free to come back! Add me to your Bloglines! I feel the love!

And most of all, thank you, Stephanie, for sharing a little bit of your fame with a small-time blogger from the woods of northern Michigan. (Was that humble enough? I mean it!)

"Finish what you start.. Say it with me: 'Finish what you start...'"

2005-05-08T13:52:00.000-04:00

I am rapidly approaching SABLE. I never thought this could happen to me. After all, I.am.a.finisher. Really. Honestly. I have the pictures to prove it.

So why is it getting harder and harder for me to finish things? All I seem to want to do is ~~cast on for new projects~~ acquire new yarn.

Potential answers. Pick any two or more:

I have had access to more disposable income recently, ergo, more yarn purchases.
Yarn is coming into the house faster than I can humanly knit.
I have moved up the scale of yarnlust from simple wool for felting to silks and cashmeres.
My earlier projects were smaller and more easily finished. Recent projects require seaming or worse.
I am constantly in eye contact with this stash of yarn and the pattern books beside it. Familiarity breeds contempt (or boredom.) (or the need for more...)
I'm reading too many blogs wherein people have started/finished projects that cause me to lust in my heart.
~~I'm lazy.~~ I have so much to do that I never seem to have time to finish anything. (Blatant lie. Forgive me, Lord.)
I'm ADHD. I'm easily bored.
I'm running out of excuses.........

So, do you want to see my latest acquisitions? (Oooooh! Shiny thing!) I ~~suspect~~ ~~hope~~ am planning that some of these things ~~may~~ will find themselves migrating into my SP5's stash...

Purchased at Threadbear in Lansing. Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Nick's HS colors for School Spirit Day, Opal in a fabu colorway, some shiny things to go in the fringe of the shawl I'm making for the lady who's doing the music for Katy's wedding, and some Koigu, KPPPM, in a colorway I already owned, different dyelot, therefore different color...how is it I keep picking the same color? It's a sickness, I tell ya. (See? I didn't spend a thousand dollars, although there were people there who were encouraging me to.)

On the way home we took a different route, driving up 131. We found ourselves in Grand Rapids (well, Wyoming, technically...) at Threadbenders. Wonderful store. I bought some more KPPPM and some incredible mill-end rayon...$4.50 for 420 yards.

Yeah, you read that right....here's a closeup:

Here's a little bit of what was waiting for me when I got home...Knitpicks' Dye-it-yourself worsted weight and two colors of their new cotton-blend sock yarn.

And from Elann, 20 skeins of Austermann's Peru...an alpaca blend, and, yes...more sock yarn.

I realize that I have been obsessive in my purchasing recently (though this is coming to a quick halt with the advent of a (now necessary) budget since dh is on a salary.) However, there is a LOT more yarn that could find its way into my stash. Here at the end of this post, I want to leave you with some perspective. This is ONE RACK of yarn at Threadbear. One. Rack. There are about thirty more in the store.

So the problem isn't actually too much yarn. It's just that the time I spend acquiring yarn, fondling yarn, blogging about yarn, is time that could be spent knitting it up. There. That's the real issue.

Do not say I have too much yarn. I do not believe there is such a thing.

So here are the photos already. LOTS of photos. Dialup connections, prepare to stall.

2005-05-07T22:47:00.000-04:00

Before I made it to Kalamazoo, I met Sharon at Threadbear in Lansing. What a lovely, gracious woman! I got lost (get a sign out by the street, guys!) riding up and down the same street before I finally stopped and asked a local. Sharon kindly waited for more than an hour after I said I'd be there. Not everybody would do that for someone they'd never met. You're wonderful, Sharon! And what a cool thing to finally meet another knitblogger!

I took almost twenty photos of the yarn in the shop, and not one was a duplicate. There's just that much yarn in there. Dd Kate says that they should advertise as "The Mecca of the Knitting World." Rob told me that I absolutely could not take his photo, but I snapped him anyway. I won't post it though, as I really do want to be welcome there again.

This is a sample that Sharon knit up. She helped the guys when they first arrived and is a regular. How wonderful...kinda like Cheers...Threadbear...where everybody knows your name...and favorite yarn.

One more pic of the shop before we move on. If you've never been here, it's a must. Any trip to Michigan would be a waste without a visit to this yarn shop. Here's Kate sittin' and knittin' while I wandered the store, yarnstruck. I will only add that my purchases did not climb into the 3-digit range...that is all.

So we arrived in Kalamazoo, checked in at our hotel, had only enough time to get changed and ran out. As soon as we walked in the door of the Athena Book Shop, I started snapping pictures. Here's 1/2 of the crowd.

Here's the other half. I don't know who this woman is, but why isn't she smiling? She's in the front row! (Edit 5/8: she doesn't like having her picture taken. I'm sorry, dear lady. Had I known, I would've edited you out. Please accept my apology.)

The lady with the green yarn around her neck is Amy of Jehovah Jireh Farms, Someday she will teach me to spin. I don't know her but I like her already. Go visit...she sells exotics and rovings and handspun.

Here's whatcha really came to see...Stephanie. And Susan Ramsey, aka Rams (of the comments). Susan teaches fiber arts at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art and also works at the Athena Book Shop. And she's a FOS (friend of Stephanie.) Awesome woman. I wanna be like her when I grow up.

I lifted my camera to snap this picture as she was snapping a picture of the crowd. Her comment: "How cool! We're blogging each other!"

Later, I told her that I was gonna beat her to the blog because I had wifi in my hotel room (see last post for how that worked out..not.) She told me that was unlikely as she had her laptop set up in the back room at the book store and she was going to have a go at it immediately. Go look. As of this moment she has not posted. OTOH, she's at the Maryland Sheepy-Festivalish Thingie having fun with knitters, bloggers, livestock and yarn and stuff.

When Stephanie was done speaking, everybody lined up to have their books signed. I don't do lines very well, so I found a seat and waited to be last. Whilst I was sitting there knitting, I noticed the stuff that people in the line were working on. So I took pictures.

This is Toni. She's working on a baby blanket/knit quilt, using triangles. Yes, this looks like fabric quilting, but I assure you, it's knitted. This is more amazing than the picture conveys. She designed this and I think she's very talented.

This is Elizabeth. She's knitting socks for (Civil War? Ren Faire?) re-enactments. I love the knitting pouch she's wearing. Another handy and talented knitter. And she attempted to aid and abet me in my stash acquisition by giving me the names and addresses of every yarn shop in western Michigan. I was duly appreciative...my MasterCard was not. C'est la vie. Thanks, Elizabeth!

This is Carina. Yes, she knitted that sweater. Gorgeous, eh? And she's opening a yarn shop in Battle Creek very soon. Email her regarding opening (riverwalkyarns@charter.net), then go visit (and buy!) when you're in the area.
She helped me to not get lost going back to my hotel. She's really smart and she knows a lot. I wish her great success in her woolish endeavor.

This is Tracy and that is her booga bag. She, a responsible knitter, followed the pattern. It turned out beautifully. I, on the other hand (to add to the list of my inconsistencies and assorted peccadilloes) have a problem following patterns. My booga bag does NOT look like that. I'll post it some day when the blog is once again about my knitting.

This is Megan, and her honey, Guy. Guy is a really brave man who gets my award for being the most wonderful husband in the world. What's that on his head? Why, a Knitting Fryup, of course!

Erin, Cara, and Stephanie. Cara won (no actual prize, but a great deal of astonishment...) for being the person who travelled furthest. She came all the way from Iowa.

Lynne, (and...who is this she's with? I should know, though I don't think we were introduced...) with whom I met up at Threadbear...unexpectedly! We were planning to meet for dinner in K'zoo, but that fell through because I was...late. As usual. I think I probably need to blog about ADHD and time perception some day...

Here is the lovely Janella. Although the picture is fuzzy, you can make out that she is holding a) an exquisite felted bag of her own making and b) a fair isled sock with a fantastic heel. Awesome work.

I actually took this picture of Nancy before everything started but I just found it. She was wearing an amazing scarf with beads...no, they looked like jewels! on the fringes. A kit, she said. Magic, more likely, I think. She was making more magic with her needles too, knitting lace.

And finally, the benefit of being last...I got to sit and chat (albeit for but a moment) with the one and only Yarn Harlot. She was tired. This is new stuff to her, leaving home, bouncing from state to state (country to country!) not knowing what time zone she's in, still a little unsure of all the adulation. She's real people.

Stephanie, this picture makes you look neither drunk nor angry. Really, you photograph better than you think. Honest. And those pants...just like SJP. Honest.

And then she was off to the Maryland thingie where so many people did not get to go and are sad and bitter and disillusioned and...and...

Thanks for coming to Michigan, Stephanie. Thanks for setting it up, Rams...and to all the people I took pictures of whom I didn't credit...forgive me. I'm just one, lone knitblogger.

Tomorrow: what I brought home with me ~and~ what was waiting for me when I got home. Yarn p*rn of the worst sort.

Beaten to the blog...or not...

2005-05-07T09:50:00.000-04:00

So last night was awesome and when we got back to the room we attempted to find the wifi connection. I won't give you the details, but it took one (reasonably) intelligent mother and one (very tech-savvy) daughter until 15 minutes before we are to leave to go home to figure out how to connect to the wifi.

In photo-taking, I got a picture of Stephanie taking a picture of the crowd, which I will post when I get home...and since we were the last ones there, we got a few minutes to chat with The Harlot and Rams...and I learned that there was NO WAY I was going to beat Stephanie to the blog because she had hers open and waiting in the back room of The Athena Book Shop. Baaah...

Stephanie, have a wonderful time in Maryland, and thanks for coming to Michigan. Rob and Matt at Threadbear insist that you oughta do bookbookbook2 book tour in Lansing. Think about it, eh?

And to all those wonderful women I met last night, especially those whose pictures I took...I'll be back in a while to post 'em all..

Knit on!

Ultratech and the Harlot and Me

2005-05-06T09:05:00.000-04:00

Dh Scott was apparently thinking about my pilgrimage to Kalamazoo to see The Harlot this evening (dd and I get to spend the night there too, so we can go out with others for coffee etc. afterward!) Here's a snippet of our conversation:

Dh: "So you're going to this shindig down in K'zoo. (He said shindig! LOL) Are you taking your (new) laptop? There'll be wifi that you can hook up to and you'll be able to blog tonight right afterwards."

Me: "Mmmmfffph." (I was still asleep. Why did he wake me up at 6:30am? I'd only been asleep for about 3 hours. Oh. Right. The laptop. The laptop???)

Dh: "You know, I can rig the camera card reader to the USB port in the laptop and you can put the pictures on your blog tonight too."

Me: "Mmmmmmfffffph." (I was STILL asleep. He apparently was getting into this whole idea of blogging immediately afterwards.)

Dh: "Ya know, you can take this to the bookshop with you and blog live...and I'll send some blank disks so you can copy photos for everyone before they leave and...and..." (I need to wake up. This is going too far.)

Me: "Coffee. Coffee." (Blog on site? Live? As Stephanie is speaking? Fer cryin' out loud...I can blog or I can knit...and I'm going to see a (now) world famous knitter! Whadda you think I'm gonna be doing?)

Me: "Thanks, honey."

So I'm packing...my laptop and all the assorted cables and doohickeys and stuff and I guess the next installment of this blog will be from my hotel room. I am NOT wasting listening/knitting time by having a computer in my lap.

There's enough time for that later.

Thursday Meme Tag

2005-05-05T09:47:00.000-04:00

I swiped this from Lisa at Plath's Adventures in Knitting who snagged it from Michelle at Beknitted who got it from Cara at Earthmother who got it from The Flying Pig (and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on...)

Pick five and fill in the blank then pass it on to three (or more!) ~~victims~~ friends (and no backsies!):

If I could be a scientist…
If I could be a farmer…
If I could be a musician…
If I could be a doctor…
If I could be a painter…
If I could be a gardener…
If I could be a missionary…
If I could be a chef…
If I could be an architect…
If I could be a linguist…
If I could be a psychologist…
If I could be a librarian…
If I could be an athlete…
If I could be a lawyer…
If I could be an inn-keeper…
If I could be a professor…
If I could be a writer…
If I could be a llama-rider…
If I could be a bonnie pirate…
If I could be an astronaut…
If I could be a world famous blogger…
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world…
If I could be married to any current famous political figure…

If I could be a linguist…I would find some way to help people understand one another. I mean, that's not necessarily what linguists do, but I think they should. Miscommunication probably causes 90% of all the problems in the world. We can say the same thing and have diametrically opposite meanings. This is never more true than when there are two genders involved. Yup. Solve communication problems. Nobel Prize, here I come!

If I could be a doctor…I would be a part of Doctors Without Borders and spend my life in the service of others. I can think of no better way to be a blessing in this world than to minister to people who will never be able to return the favor...

If I could be a psychologist…I would not stop researching until I understood what makes the male brain tick. 'Nuff said.

If I could be a librarian…I'd work at the New York City Public Library's Reference Desk. That place fields some of the most obscure and arcane information requests, from all over the world. And even since the advent of the PC and Google, they still have an enormous demand for information every day. Hmmm...I might like to be the one who takes all the online information requests...all day in the book stacks and online? Heaven!

~~If I could be a justice on any one court in the world…never mind...see "If I could be a linguist...~~

If I could be a professor…I'd be doing exactly what I started out to do before I had children. I'd be teaching Economics in a community college (no 'publish or perish' for me!) where I could make a difference in the lives of some kids who academically weren't ready for university. In reality, this is what I hope to be doing once I'm an empty nester.

So who else's deepest vocational desires are we wanting to know about? How about Sharon, who I may get to meet at Threadbear tomorrow, and Michelle, who has me pegged for a yarnho (it may be true. I wonder if counselling would help?) and Michael, who had such a fab photo session with the Harlot. These are people that inquiring minds want to know more about...okay, I want to know more about...so sue me.

The sun is out and it's getting warmer and I may actually be able to plant some things here soon...the great out-of-doors beckons...

See ya!

May 3rd and I awoke to...

2005-05-03T11:25:00.000-04:00

...snow. Now, I love the stuff as much as anyone else who's voluntarily living in northern Michigan, but there seems to be something off kilter this year. What the heck is going on? Three of the last three mornings we have awakened to snow on the ground. Some folks will tell you that it's normal, but the old-timers around here will tell you "it jest ain't right." I wonder if this guy has some answers (and is not simply unnecessarily paranoid...) This stuff fascinates me (when I'm not knitting.)

In knitting news, we're planning our trip to Kalamazoo to see Stephanie on Friday. What to wear. What to take. What to knit. What to take as a giftie. How long it'll take to get there. How many lys' can we hit along the way (and how early do we need to start out in order to do that and still be on time...?)

So here's what's knittin' today...Annie's new hat (fer cryin' in da mud! It's still winter out here!) Annie saw the sock yarn I dyed and loved the color, so, having some Lamb's Pride in Natural, she and I followed protocol and made the yarn bright with Gaywool dyes. She, a committed non-hat wearer, has promised to wear this hat when it's cold (even in May?)

Here is the fabulous silk I now own. See the lovely pattern in the bag with it? Discerning eyes will know that I went to Bonne Marie's site and bought me the Scoop du Jour. It's a perfect fit and I can't wait to start it.

And here, in an effort to persuade myself that I will never need to purchase any more sock yarn ever again throughout all eternity, a photo of (most) of my sock yarn stash. I am embarrassed and (secretly) thrilled to have so much sock yarn. I mean, you never know when they'll stop making it...

I've been trying to round up as many of the Michigan knitbloggers as I can to see if we can meet up for a tour of Threadbear on the way down, or possibly some dinner first. If you read this and are interested in either or both, drop me a line (see sidebar for email addy) or leave me a comment here...especially if you're someone who actually knows your way around Lansing and/or K'zoo. I've never been either place, so this should be amusing. (I hope the Onstar people are equally amused when I get desperately lost...)

Stay warm...

Edited in later:

Note to self and anyone else I may have confused: The Yarn Harlot will be in Kalamazoo on Friday, May 6th. Friday. Friday. Remember that. Friday.

The 1st of May and counting....

2005-05-01T10:37:00.000-04:00

...the days until Stephanie of Harlot fame makes her way to the State of Michigan and we get to gloat like those NY knitters did. (I don't know that the Athena Bookstore in K'Zoo is gonna treat us with hors d'oeuvres and wine like Lord and Taylor did though...)

So I go off to her blog and click on the Harlot on Tour button for our area and this is what it says:

May 6th - Kalamazoo, MI - Athena Bookshop - 7:00 The Athena bookshop (and Rams) respectfully requests that you email or call to let them know if you are coming. It will help them have chairs for all parties concerned (way easier to knit in a chair) and they will put your name on a list to reserve you a spot.

Simple enough, eh? So I fire off an email to let them know that I will be coming, along with dd Katy. Here is my email:

Hi! This is just to let you know that my daughter Katy and I will be coming to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and are anxious to check out all your wonderful yarns.

Thanks,
Susie Grougan, Grayling MI

Did you notice something about the content of this email? I didn't, until I hit the send button. Then panic set in. I promptly sent another email:

Sorry about that first email. Of course you're a bookstore! Well that's okay, that's our other bad obsession. See you on the 6th...

Thanks again,
Susie Grougan, Grayling, MI

Here's the response:

That was the best laugh we've had all day! Thanks! See you on the 6th...
Athena BOOKSTORE

I'm humiliated. I'm not telling *anyone* there my name or where I'm from. OTOH, it could have been much worse. I could have made mention of coming down there to fondle yarn...

Off to church to repent of my foolishness...
'Later!

Yarn: Fascination, Obsession, or Sickness...?

2005-04-29T20:42:00.000-04:00

So what is it about yarn?

I love the look of it, the smell of it (even wet!) the touch of it. I spend hours considering my next purchase. I peruse all my catalogues trying to decide what next. Look through the back of every issue of IK to see if there's some shop I've overlooked. Hours, even in the wee ones of the night, I spend cruising online looking for my next catch. I visit yarn. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about...visiting yarn even when you have no intention/need/~~desire~~ to purchase.

I have yarn guilt too. I'm sure there are things I need far more than yarn, especially when I have so much more than I can knit in any given lifetime. Yarn I own just to fondle. Yarn I own just to say I own it. Yarn I own for the delight of gazing upon it. Yarn I actually make up into something.

I've visited this subject very recently, as recently as the last "Flash Your Stash" meme. And yet I feel compelled to talk about this issue, this thing, this captivation. And here's why:

I have been buying yarn faster and more frequently than I change my oil/change my sheets/brush my teeth....

Take today, f'rinstance. I woke up late, not an unusual thing given my bedtime of 3:15am, and went to the kitchen to make coffee. On the way to the kitchen I fired up my laptop. And before I finished stirring my coffee, I had spent $67.43 on yarn and books from Knitpicks. This would not be so bad but I had just (the evening prior) received my order from KnitHappens, and am already anxiously awaiting some yarn (Silk!) I purchased at a stashbusting sale ~and~ an order from Elann. Why, oh why am I so driven?

Okay, the truth is that every single thing I bought already has a pattern and a plan to it. I only bought one small skein just for lust's sake. And I feel justified in spending ~~a few dollars~~ an enormous amount of money on yarn, books and patterns because we have just sold the business and because dh is now on a salary which means that soon we will have to adhere to a much stricter budget (have I justified/rationalized/excused myself sufficiently here?)

Here's the latest, my goodies from KnitHappens (notice the bag next to the yarn...I love it! It makes me feel so special! So cosmopolitan!)

New books:

Scottie's sweater-to-be:

Socks for me...Lorna's Laces in 'Bittersweet'

Obsession? Fascination? or Sickness? Only my Mastercard knows for sure. And honestly, who really cares?

So bring it on! I can't wait for the next yarn to show up!

Questions for Marianne...

2005-04-28T21:43:00.000-04:00

Dearest Marianne,

Grrrrrl, you gotta get yourself a Bloglines button so people can find you! I just subscribed to your blog and noticed that I am only the second person to do so. Do you have any idea how many people would be interested in what you have to say? Well, you'll never find out until you get yourself a Bloglines button. Bloglines dot com. Do it. Do it NOW!

Now that I've said my piece (I really like your blog and I think others should have easy access to it too...) will you still answer the questions? Please?

You are quite an accomplished knitter from what I can see. What's the most favorite thing you've ever knit? The yarn you like the most? Bamboo, birch or metal?
I noticed that you like to dye yarn too. You have some beauties on your blog.. But I also noticed that some of the yarn that you dyed and knitted up, you actually sheared the sheep yourself. Would you care to elaborate on that?
You dream of yarn. Does this lead to anything other than disappointment upon waking? I mean, do you find yourself online surfing the yarn shops even before you have your coffee? (I think this is what happened to me the other day. In fact I'm sure of it. Really.)
You seem to have a Noro addiction. True or false? Did you ever remake the Noro fingerless gloves?
If I pleaded and whimpered and begged and offered to pay you, would you make me a dpn roll like the one you made for yourself? I am so impressed!
Number 5 wasn't exactly a question, so here's one more: You have absolutely no real bio about yourself, and other than what I've been able to glean from your blog, (going all the way back to your first post), I know almost nothing about you. Are you a knitterly fugitive from justice, or just a particularly private person?

I look forward to seeing your answers (especially to number 5) (that was really selfish, right? Sorry.) and your new "Subscribe/Bloglines" button!

"Raindrops on roses and..."

2005-04-28T00:29:00.000-04:00

I wandered over to see what my new blogging friend Rox had to say today. She apparently had a little bit of The Sound of Music on her mind, and it got her to thinking about a few of her favorite things, and she went ahead and made a list and then challenged anyone who read the post to make a list of their top ten fave things. (I'm feeling run-on-sentence-y today. Grammar avengers please avert your eyes.)

So anyway, I thought this might make for a good 'tag, you're it' meme because it's about the things in our lives that make us happy, and happy should lead to gratitude, and gratitude leads to contentment with life. Well, my life, in any event. Let's see what I can come up with.

My family. I have a fabulous husband who rubs my feet (this should actually qualify by itself) and two kids who have never given me the sort of heartache I gave my parents. (Sorry, Dad...)
Maggie, my dog. I was never a dog person before her, and may never have another once she's gone, but she is my favorite non-human being. Unqualified love is not to be taken lightly.
Yarn. Everything yarn related. I am enamoured of every sort of yarn.
When I hit the send button and don't experience any choking fear that I may have just insulted someone, hurt someone's feelings, opened myself up to a libel suit...(we ADHD people seem to *live* with our feet in our mouths. I lack an internal censor most of the time. I just apologize a lot.)
Shultz's Pretzel Factory Double-Baked Pretzel Balls. The bomb. Best snack food ever made. Or maybe wasabi peas. I can't pick.
Fresh coffee exactly the way I like it made in my favorite mug.
Logging on and finding comments at the bottom of my posts. (I think this is a universal favorite thing...am I right?)
Mendelsohn's Italian Symphony in C. It got me through every exam I ever took in college.
Fresh cut flowers appearing on the counter, brought by my thoughtful honey. His timing is impeccable usually.
My relationship with my God. More than the first half of my life was spent as an atheist. Reason and logic led to faith. This should actually be at the top of the list, now that I think about it, because it informs everything else in my life, and all the other things on the list

So, how about it? Anyone else have a few favorite things they'd like to share? I think I'm gonna sent this off to Marguerite because I've just "met" her and would like to know more about her; to Vicki who always has something nice to say to me, and to Atouria who has become so dear to me. I think if I could be indulged to have a number 11. it would be all the new and interesting people I've come to know here in the knitblogging world.

That's all the news that fits this morning, folks...

Five questions and lovely sock yarn

2005-04-27T21:16:00.000-04:00

First, the yarn. I love a good yarn. And this dyed up so nicely. I might be getting better at this...

...and the swatch from a little bit I drew off at the end of winding just for this purpose. I think it'll make some very bright socks, eh? So, Heather, send me an address and there will be bright hand-dyed socks on your end of the state! (Okay, there prolly already are, but I'm trying to take credit and make a point here...duh.) I will be ordering more of this yarn now that I've gotten a clue.

And now,

Questions for Annie:

1. Just exactly how many mini pretzel sticks can you shove into your mouth at one time (without chewing...you know what I mean...)

2. When you left for college you were planning on majoring in some esoteric field..I don't remember exactly, but it was something like medical bioengineering or biomedical engineering or some such. Then you got married. Now I hear talk of lawyerdom. Here's the question: (just hang on a sec! You knew I would get around to it!) Just exactly (or inexactly, as you wish) what is the correlation between the change in major and marriage? And will it change again with a change in location? Or a change of season? Or pocket change?

3. What is airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

4. You have been known to be a bit (ha!) of a daredevil. Name the daring sports-like things you have done in your life. What daring sport have you never participated in but plan to at some future time? Motherhood does not count.

5. Books. Anything you want to say on the subject.

And remember that you have to email your answers to me as well as post them on your LiveJournal, because some of us do not have access to it...but I love you anyway.

Katy, you'll just have to wait in line. Sorry. Because I'd be asking stuff like:

1. Have you emptied the dishwasher yet?
2. et cetera

and we all know the answer to that.

Kayla, I have something for you...I'll be sending it your way imminently. Be on the lookout.

Dyeing sock yarn: Take #2

2005-04-26T23:20:00.000-04:00

I spent the day working on the aforementioned baby sweater and hat (now with booties!) and finally the acrylic became more than I could handle.

Therefore, I spent an incredible amount of money buying yarn online to compensate. Elann has my number...my MasterCard number, that is. And I happened to be one of the few, the privileged, the first, even, to be a test orderer online with KnitHappens, which will be up and open extremely soon! (It went flawlessly, for those who need to know. And once the yarn arrives, I will be so completely assured of its perfection that I may need to order more. And more! Mwwwwwwahahahah!)

In case that wasn't enough, I grabbed the other skein of KnitPicks yarn and dyed it...I think this one came out a little better. It's laid out here on the washer (the only place in the house I can use a flash without waking someone...) in all its damp glory. The colors, while digitally rectified, are almost spot on. I have offered this to Heather of the exotic yarn buying habits (go see...it's true!) to whom I have also given the right to decline gracefully and without hurting my feelings (but this will make some killer socks, I'm bettin'!) We'll see who makes the socks. Please stand by.

And now, although I actually asked, nay, volunteered to be interviewed, then had the audacity to dilly-dally around about it, I have finally ceased my procrastination and will thus answer the questions posed to me by Nancy (and as she says, y'all know the rules) (but here they are because one of the rules is that you hafta post the rules):

Here are the rules:

Leave a comment saying "Interview Me". I will do ~~the first two people~~ anyone who asks.
I will list your questions on THIS blog.
You will give answers on YOUR blog.
You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
You should ask 5 questions.

1. When did you first learn to knit, and who taught you? Once upon a time, long, long ago, in a land, far, far away...no wait, that's Cinderella...umm...left-handed, impatient mom, no talent for knitting. I picked it up by myself in November 2003 when I saw someone wearing a pair of socks made out of self-striping yarn and found out that I couldn't buy the socks, but I could buy the yarn and make them. And it's been expensive ever since. And they lived happily everafter.

2. How many kids do you have and how old are they? Kids? Kids? I have kids?!? (just kidding!) Katy's almost 19 and getting married in July to the man of her dreams (see previous post wherein she's wearing a glorious, tres cher white gown which she deserves to because she has waited. Actually. Really. Thank God.) Nick is 16 and an Eagle Scout (ditto previous posts.) They've always been homeschooled. They're wonderful. I could not have been more blessed.

3. I know you are a Born Again Christian, do you find knitting to be a spiritual practice for you? Ummm, I'm not sure how to answer this one. I mean, there are times I'm knitting for someone and I find myself praying for that person. Sometimes I sit and listen to Scripture on cd while I knit. And sometimes it's so relaxing that it just takes me to that pink place in my head...

4. If you could take a vacation anywhere, where would it be? By yourself, with the kids, a girlfriend or just your husband? This is harder than the last one! Well, I live in the woods, in an area where people come to vacation, so I think that the thing I'd most like to do is take a 50 state LYS crawl with anyone who had enough stamina and/or money. Okay...that was the fantasy answer. In reality, I think I'd like to take my family to Manhattan. I used to work in the garment district. I love New York City. It is the antithesis of my current existence yet it's still in my blood. And there are some rockin' yarn shops there too...

5. What made you decide to branch out into dying your yarn? Do you spin? Curiousity. Plain and simple. Fascination with handpainted, hand-dyed yarns has led me to experiment. See all over the blog...I'm plain eat up with dyeing yarn.

I do spin...in circles. Honest.

Once the kids are gone and there is a room for my burgeoning yarn habit to move to, there will be a spinning wheel and lessons. Curiously, my DO has a small farm on which he has beefalo, and this summer he is driving clear to Minnesota for a yak. We have already discussed the question of yak fiber and its potential profitability (but I get my cut off the top...pun intended.) I think he should leave doctoring and farm llamas and alpacas. I could be his fiber agent...

Thanks once again for stopping by and putting up with my ramblings. If you have any intention of having me interview you, speak now or forever hold your peace. I can come up with some deep, searching questions...or not. We'll see.

Ta!

Dyeing Yarn and April Snow

2005-04-25T22:35:00.000-04:00

Like every other Michigan knitblogger, here I am posting photos of the snow...the first is from last night, my deck in back. Snow looks so cool when you photograph it.

And this morning when I let the dog out (poor Maggie. She hates the cold. It aggravates her arthritis.) Note the thermometer...18F. Toasty.

This is not angel hair pasta. This is the Dye Your Own sock yarn from Knitpicks that I mentioned yesterday.

I photographed every step of the process and I will not bore you with it. Let's just cut to the chase:

Lots of skinny yarn drying in the hall bathroom shower. We're getting ready to ball it up and I will post that as an edit once it's done.

Stay warm and cozy...

Edited in later: two little yarn muffins of sock yarn. This was a learning experience. I actually swatched up a little bit on size 3s and it looks interesting...in a faded chambray shirt sort of way (Note to self: it needed more time in the microwave.) Katy loves it though, and even offered me the Koigu back in exchange for it. No dice. She gets the Koigu too. I wanna see her make socks before she leaves for Okinawa!

I have another skein waiting for another try. I learned some things from this and will do it a little differently next time...

'Night, all.

Saturday Stuff

2005-04-23T11:28:00.000-04:00

I will be posting this post on my new HPPavilion assuming I can get it out of dh's hands (note that it is his lap on which it currently rests...the wallpaper he took from one of my stash photos. Clever guy.) In all fairness, I have to say that he is making this machine do things I didn't know a computer could do...or that I even wanted it to do! We have security cameras around the property (we live in the woods, but our company designs and installs security, and we have info that needs protecting. Plus, it's really cool to spy on the kids when they're playing basketball) and I can now view all of the cameras from here. My laptop can access files in every other computer in the house, print on the printer in the office, play music, dust and do dishes (wishful thinking)...stuff I'd never think of having it do, but will probably wonder how I did without before long.

In other news, here's the first swatch of yarn dyed with my new Gaywool dyes. They're bright, easy to use, but drop even one tiny crystal and there's color everywhere! Today I dyed a skein of Knitpick's Color Your Own sock yarn in some very interesting colors. I'd love to say that it was a smashing success, but I've still got a lot to learn. Photos will be posted soon. I hope.

So here's what we woke up to. You can't actually see it because light snow doesn't photograph well when it's in the air, but indeed, it is snowing. And cold. There's a fire in the woodstove and the daffodils, which are just budding, are in danger of freezing. Boo. Hiss. Michigan in April. This is normal.

And because it's cold again, I am finishing up my lovely blue sweater. All I have left is 8 rows on the sleeves and I can put it together. I have already done a 3-needle bind-off on the shoulders (this was a neat trick too, given that I was using bound-off stitches. I picked up stitches just outside of the bindoff and put them on needles, and...well, it worked.) With any luck it'll stay cold long enough for me to finish and take the requisite headless photo without severe sweating.

It showed up by UPS yesterday...the Summer Tweed patterns! Royal Yarns had it for less than anyone else, and they shipped it express for not too much money. Here and I'm thinkin' I've got summer knitting to do...hah! Summer will have to wait. There's snow today.

This is the odds-on favorite for a summer top. There are several other terrific ones and because I have so much yarn (I did get greedy) there is enough to make a skinny tank for Katy. She's thrilled...I'm just glad she likes the color.

In the meantime, there are numerous baby showers, and this is what I'm doing for my friend Kellie. See, Kellie has 3 boys. And she lost a pregnancy at 5 months that almost killed her (no, really. Put her in a coma for about a week. Very scary.) And by God's grace, she is almost ready to have another baby, this time for sure a girl. Here is my knitting contribution, a raglan sweater and hat (both in process) with a little bit of fun fur, in pink pink pink.

Katy, meanwhile, is on her way to a shower for her friend Christin with this crocheted blankie she finished very late the other night (seen here ready for a bath) and the hat and socks (shown in a previous post.)

I have questions awaiting me on Nancy's blog but they'll wait until tomorrow, as this post has gotten quite long and if you're still with me you're probably hoping I'll shut up soon. So I will. Until tomorrow then....

But can it do this...?

2005-04-22T22:51:00.000-04:00

For reasons I cannot comprehend, Blogger has suddenly decided to right itself and point my address back to my blog instead of to the dashboard. So now, it works with and without the www. part. Go figure.

Dh went shopping for milk and came home with a mondo laptop for me. In case there weren't enough computers in this house. No, really. There is a server, two desktops, an Ipaq and three laptops. Obviously, we're short one, because that leaves one of the four people and four animals without some way of getting online. Really.

I am simply blown away. And in the dark, mainly because I have to learn how to use a new machine. The old one really is old (simpler, I guess I should say) and this one has functions the old one couldn't even imagine. Thank you, my Scottie. I love it.

It has a new logo. Another button...that makes two! See here:

I feel so rich. And now it needs a name.

Thanks to everybody who responded to my plea for new bloghost info. (Did you notice that the word bloghost has the word ghost in it? All the problems and issues are beginning to become clear to me.) As soon as I can get my head around the enormity of the task, I will be moving. I will leave a forwarding address. I hope.

So now I'm gonna go play with my new laptop and customize all the cool stuff on it. You'll be hearing more from me now that it's easier to do (and now that Blogger is being agreeable again...)

Thanks again, sweetie. I can't believe you gave me this!

Am I losing my mind? or simply my posts?

2005-04-21T07:42:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to express my extraordinary frustration at what may be some ugly synergy between Blogger and...Netscape? For reasons I can't account for, when I try to open my blog, it immediately redirects me to the Dashboard part of the site. I've tried viewing other Blogger accounts and some of them load just fine...others :::redirect me back to my own Dashboard:::: This is weird beyond words and annoying beyond comprehension.

Here's one other little piece of weirdness: if I input the address as http://www.toknitperchancetodream.blogspot.com, it brings up the current page with no problem. If I attempt to reload the page, it sends me back to square one, the Blogger Dashboard. Whaaaat's goin' on? Anyone?

I've been toying with the idea of moving my blog and this about cements it for me. What I'd like to ask from anyone who reads this and doesn't use Blogger: (and please send your answers to my email as I can't get into the comments at this point. Oh...did I mention that...?)

What do you use?
What does it cost/year (I've steeled myself to the fact that it'll cost me. Ya get whatcha pay for...)
Are you happy with it?
What is the ease of use?
What features does it have that you like most?
If you were in my position, would you choose your blog host again? Or would you move?
If you'd move, why? And where would you go?

As you can tell, I'm ready. I haven't said any bad words yet, but it's getting close, so I'd like to move before I say anythnig I'll have to repent of...

Thanks in advance to all who respond. Please email your answers to: sgrougan at alarmguy dot net

Wedding dress picture...Mike, don't look!

2005-04-21T02:55:00.000-04:00

This is my beautiful first child and her betrothed, mid-December, just a day or so after he proposed and put a diamond on her left hand. Shortly after Christmas he left for Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa, from whence he shall return just in time for the wedding in July. Katy is chronically lonely and sad, but makes the most of it, spending as much time as she humanly can online talking with Mike. (He's pretty cute, eh?) They are about perfect for one another and I am praying for a long, blessed and happy life together. (And yes, those curls are all natural. She fights with them every day...lol!)

As promised, here is a shot of the wedding dress. If you could look closer you'd see all the pins up the side where they have to alter it. Nonetheless, she looks (and feels!) like a fairy princess in it. There almost were no pictures as I managed to forget the digital camera and wound up screaming across the highway to WalM*rt to buy a tossable camera. The photo quality as transferred onto a cd at the local RiteAid is lousy...but at least I could show dh what he is paying for...

Long day, time to rest. Knitting content tomorrow.
Blessings, to all...

Yarn Ho!

2005-04-19T08:10:00.000-04:00

So we spent Monday in Traverse City doing the stuff that requires a real city/town to do...see doctors, shop at major stores (Target, Sam's Club) and buy yarn in vast amounts.

Yep. Imagine that. I bought yarn. Who'd'a thunk?

We have this wonderful store called Yarn Quest (Abby, if you're coming to TC and have never been there, allow me to highly recommend this lys...) After searching diligently for baby yarn (dd found what she needed...I didn't get to photograph it b/c it's already on the needles) I came across Rowan's Summer Tweed. Now, I'm not really a Rowanette, but I am a sucker for silk, and this silk/cotton blend (the color is called Summer Berries) is wonderful to the touch and fabulous to look at. I'm waiting on a book of Rowan patterns for it now, but I may wind up making it up into something else entirely (heretical? I think not. Back, back! all you snarling Rowanettes! It's MY yarn now...) The photo color isn't quite true, but the size of the pile is...1180 yards of deliciousness, just waiting for me to finish the lovely blue sweater (I know...I've been saying that for 3 months, but actually, I'm only 8 short rows from finishing the sleeves, the shoulders are already sewn...I'm getting there just in time for the 80F weather we're having. Alpaca and wool are nice in the summer...not.)

I also snagged some of the brightest hot pink sock yarn I've ever seen. I will never lose my feet in this...I think. And thanks to the wizardry of Photoshop, the color is actually true, at least on my monitor. Hot pink. Yup. Boy howdy!

So in case that wasn't enough, I arrived home to find a package from Patternworks in the mail. This purchase was one of those "...we won't send you any more catalogues unless you make a purchase soon," types of buys. So I bought this lovely Koigu for dd's first pair of adult-sized socks (she likes making socks for babies b/c they go so quickly, but I wanted her to make a full sized pair before she leaves for Okinawa, when I won't be readily available to help...and she'd been stalling, so the Koigu's luciousness convinced her...) The photo is blurry because I was feeling that way by then. Sorry. Colorway #122.

Along with the yarn was this patternbook that holds several I'd been wanting to try.

In fact, I may actually use the Rowan Summer Tweed for this:

And this pattern is definitely in my radar. It's simple, but I love the detailing on the front and the sleeves.

So there you have it, yarnfans. My day in TC was made almost complete (complete would have included ~~stops~~ purchases at Baa, Baa Black Sheep and Lost Arts Yarns, too...) by the acquisition of large amounts of beautiful yarn. And buttons. I forgot the buttons. Translucent little hearts for the baby raglan sweater I'm making for a friend's shower (pictures will follow when I'm done. Shower's too close for knitting comfort...)

Yarn Ho!

"Where, oh where has my internet gone...?"

2005-04-18T09:53:00.000-04:00

For a multitude of reasons, including, but not limited to: Blogger, Bloglines and the sudden loss of my highspeed internet, I am at a loss to post much. Hopefully those things will all right themselves soon and I can blather more quickly out into space.

I am, however, off to the post office where I will be sending Abby Melanie Falick's Knitting in America as a token of my appreciation for her creativity in producing me a real, live, brandy-new (go look at the top of the sidebar!) button for my blog! Emy out in Singapore (go say "Hi, Emy!" to her this morning ...ummm...it's night there, but, well...just stop by, 'k?) has the Bernat book coming, and some stitchmarkers she never showed up to claim from before. And y'all must have wanted Vicki to have the rest of the books, so off they go to her (congrats on smelling so sweet, Miss Vic!)

Before I attempt to make Blogger actually post this I want to leave you with a photo of what we were doing yesterday:

This is my son Nick, one of over 65 boys in the Lake Huron Area Council Eagle Scout graduating class of 2004, who, at the regional Court of Honor, was one of only 4 Scouts chosen to speak on the program. And his topic, fittingly, was "A Tribute to My Parents." I was not only proud and moved, I was amused, as he was the only one in the entire two hours to make everyone laugh! Great job, Nick! Your parents love you so much and are very, very proud.

Giveaway: vintage knitting books....

2005-04-15T17:14:00.000-04:00

...Now that I have your attention, see, you have to actually read the post to find these things out...

Scroll down a day or two and you'll see the post wherein I listed the things I found and would be delighted to send out to people who would use and appreciate them. So far I've heard from Vicki. She's gonna get them all unless I hear from a few other interested parties by Sunday evening. I hope to mail them out on Monday morning.

Do drop me an email (see sidebar for addy) if you're wanting one of the books. Otherwise, Vicki gets 'em all. And since she's now 4+ weeks non-smoking, maybe she deserves them all...

You decide. I await your requests.

INGTMSAWFBIANB

2005-04-15T01:14:00.000-04:00

I am usually only vaguely aware of events that happen outside of my immediate environment because something forces me to be aware. That goes double for something further afield of my line of vision. The event in question is The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Although I have spotted the mounting excitement on the blogs of other knitters, I really have no idea what all the shouting is about. And given that I am in Michigan and it is very unlikely that I will make it to Maryland any time in the (near or distant) future, I've pretty much ignored all the brouhaha.

Now as I was perusing all the updates in Blogger, I came across one of my faves, The Knitlette , who spoke briefly but movingly about the festival in question. In fact, she went so far as to make a button up to indicate that although she would not be there, she is not in any way, envious of those who will be going (see the button in the sidebar --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->) The button tickled my fancy with all those letters (an unpronounceable acronym if ever I saw one) that stand for I'm Not Going To Maryland Sheep And Wool Festival But I Am NOT Bitter. I'm with her...I'm not bitter either. Perhaps if I actually knew what was going on I would be very bitter. But I'm not. And neither is she. Just go ask her. Go on...see for yourself.

That's all I had to say tonight. Tomorrow I'll tell you the tale of the wedding dress fitting and why there were almost.no.pictures. But I'm not going to humiliate myself about it tonight, for I am not bitter about anything. Almost. But I am tired.

'Night...

I'm so over it...

2005-04-13T12:34:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who has of late been distressed and confounded by Blogger? I realize that this is a free service, and for that I am appreciative. But frequent incidents over the course of the past few weeks have been infuriating. I have wasted more time trying to post/edit/etc. than any one person of good sense oughta. Perhaps this is a ploy by Blogger to get us to purchase upgraded service? (Does Blogger offer a paid upgrade? I dunno...) On the other hand (and there's always an other hand...) I have learned more about html than I ever had any intention of learning. In fact, through a little bit of intelligent source viewing, I managed to recover my lost archives! (But where did they go for so long? How and why did they disappear? Anyone?)

So anyway, I was running errands in town w/dd when I spotted the local thrift shop. I commented to Katy, "Ya never know when you just might score some great yarn in there!" She cynically replied, "Mom, this is Grayling. No one here knits with anything but Red Heart, present company excluded." Even so, I decided to stop. And to my great delight there was....

...no yarn. But there were some fabulous books! This represents 4/6ths of the total. Two books are on my shelf: Melanie Falick's Knitting in America and another one of the Vogue books that has 30+ patterns with cables, which are my present passion.

This first one was printed in 1954 and has Stitchy McYarnpants' name on it, if she wants it and sends me her addy to mail it. I've emailed her, and if I don't hear back, or she declines, it'll be up for grabs.

Here are three books which I would like to see given, free, to good homes...

This is a page spread shot out of the Design Knitting book:

This is a page spread out of the Vogue book:

And this is out of the Fashion Knitting for Children book:

Send me your request (email addy on the sidebar) and mailing address. One per customer, unless I only have one customer, then you get the whole lot. And if there are multiple requests for the same book, I'll random draw it. These are surprisingly cool books...dated, but then, everything old is new again, eh?

And one more photo for the fans (that's you, Mike): dd Katy, sitting in front of the woodstove (in which there, yes, is a fire currently) working diligently on the previously mentioned fiance sweater. Those sleeves are coming along just fine, thanks for asking. (I wish mine were as quick to knit. Bah.) She goes today to have her wedding gown fitted...photos tomorrow. (Mike, this is the last post you can read until April archives. Really.)

I'd like to get the books mailed out no later than the 20th of April, so if you'd like one, please let me know.

And now I'm heading back to raking the woods.....

Whoo hoo!

2005-04-12T13:15:00.000-04:00

The new IK just arrived in the mail. I'm gonna go make a cuppa coffee and see what looks good!

It's a beeyooteefull day in the neighborhood...

2005-04-12T11:59:00.000-04:00

...and I was awakened at the crack of dawn by...no, not shafts of light beaming through the slats in the window shade...no, not the delightful chirping of birdies returning to this part of the world...no, not even by the barking of my fearless and intrepid watchdog Maggie (see previous posts for evidence of her watchful guarddog-like abilities.)

Instead, I was awakened by the sound of many huge dumptrucks passing through this quiet part of the woods. WTH? (That's "what the heck" for those of us who try not to use profanity. This is a G-rated blog...) More downstaters building huge "cottages" here in the woods. No clue that some of us actually like the bucolic nature of underdeveloped areas. Ah well...wish me luck in purchasing the property immediately next door...that way I can put a few more acres between me and civilization.

See, here's a little photo clip of what it looked like outside my window this morning.

Yep, folks, I realize that many of you may find it hard to believe, but it's only 31F here in the woods at 9am, April 12th. We're hoping for spring, any day now. Here's a peek through my kitchen window:

And I walked outside to take a photo of a little piece of my front yard. The sun streaming through the trees almost made up for the rude dump truck awakening.

In knitting news, I have none. I have been too busy (too busy to knit? That's almost blasphemy!) doing the rest of life to participate in my second favorite indoor sport. However, dd has been needling up a storm. Herewith, a picture of the hat and socks (her first! ) she made for a friend who's due shortly.

And yes, Mike (Katy's Mike, not the unhappy brother Mike referred to in an earlier post) here is your sweater in progress. The pattern comes from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting and she's sped through it. No matter that Mike is stationed in Okinawa where he may not actually get to wear this for the duration of his time there (I am sure, for Katy's sake he will wear it, even if he has to stay in the a/c.) Katy assures me that it actually gets down to 45F in the winter there (I don't wear sweaters until it's in the 20sF...) and that he will indeed wear it outside. Or she will.

Before I go any further, I need to wish some people a very happy birthday: Atouria turned 26 yesterday (I left b'day greetings in her comments, noting duly that she is almost exactly half as old as I and should never feel old because some of us really are older than her and are still alive.) If you haven't already done so, go wish her a belated happy birthday...

And today marks the 20th birthday of the ~~child~~ woman who should actually have been born to me because she's so much like me, my beloved Annibellini! Happy birthday, sweetie! :::sounds of loud singing to you:::

I am frustrated with this Blogger thing. And my highspeed has issues with G**gle and anything even remotely associated with it. I have been trying to put this post together for over 4 hours (can you believe that I have squandered this much time? I should have been knitting!) (Now I know why I haven't gotten any knitting done...duh!)

And now it's too late. More to do besides knit. Wedding stuff. Transcripts. Scout stuff. Gardening stuff. Stuff stuff.

I need a nap.

Sunny Sundays Send Spirits Soaring....

2005-04-10T21:35:00.000-04:00

How's that for alliteration for you!?

Thanks for suffering me kindly through Friday's sadness. The problem has not only not resolved, but escalated as Michael has seen fit to email dh with some of the most awful invective, full of untruths and painful lying accusations. I think the boy has some real issues. We've decided that the best way to deal is to simply love him with the love of the Lord and ignore the ugliness spewing forth from him, as we know the source.

This afternoon we spent doing wedding invites. Whew! If anyone had ever given me the 411 on what this takes I would have hired a bunch of teenaged girls to help! So many pieces to pull together. And since most of the people coming have no idea where they're going I had to pull together a map. Duh. Dd had already addressed and sealed a dozen. So I made maps and she sealed them again. We will not be able to have a shower for her due to many issues (we're planning a housewarming shower when they get back from Okinawa in 3 years...) so we had to put the stuff in for the places where she has registered.

New envelopes, all around. Again. Glad I ordered extras.

She goes to get fitted for her dress on Thursday. I will likely post a photo as it is simply lovely (and I'm sure y'all want to see, riiight...) and she feels like a fairy princess in it. For the price, I think she oughta feel like Queen Elizabeth (just kidding...she's decades younger than Queen Liz.) Hopefully this will only take one or two fittings. She keeps going outside in the (still very weak, northern) sun to try to get some color. There'll be pictures. I promise. Her fiance doesn't read this. I don't think.

In outdoor news, I have crocuses (crocii?) I took pictures earlier when they were opened, but I guess I got too close because they were blurry. So herewith, nighttime posies. I planted these babies in a perennial garden bed three years ago and have had only greenery until this year, when I have been favored with flowers. I am tickled!

The other fun thing that's happening is that my strawberry patch is greening up again. Last year we had concrete replaced and they tore out more than half of my 5 year old patch. But these guys are one of the few plants that really like the sandy soil up here. They thrive. We have berries all summer, except if we get beaten to them by the chipmunks.

Knitting. Ah, yes, knitting. I remember it well. I have sat down no less than 9 times this weekend to knit and never got further than 1 or 2 rows before something else demanded my attention. Once I hit 'publish' on this post I'm gonna go knit and not let anything else disrupt me. I hope.

Atouria, dear, thanks for the encouragement! I have knit a bit on the sleeves...they actually are on size 8s also, it's just that there are 95 stitches on each sleeve with a cable in the middle of each, so each row tales a looong time, especially when I'm purling back. But there is progress, see? Sleevage.

Really.

I'm off to knit some more. Thanks to each and all who stood with me in prayer for my brother. I'm so blessed to know that there are people who are generous enough to ~~put themselves out~~ lay down their lives for someone they don't know.

Feeling outta sorts...family and stuff

2005-04-08T21:59:00.000-04:00

***Christian content*** (If this offends you, please pass on this post tonight...thanks.)

Can we talk? I mean, not knitting, or yarn, or anything like that...just for an evening?

I got an ugly email from one of my brothers today. I have four of them...brothers, I mean...I have two sisters, too. And if I may digress, it was kinda nice growing up in a large family (most of the time) because you could be at odds with three people and still have three friends. As we've grown older and established in our lives (I am the oldest at 51; the youngest is 40) many of us have chosen to remain close, to be friends. Some have moved (geographically) far away, some have stayed nearby. Some are loving, some combative. It's this last that brings me to this post tonight.

See, it seems like there's always got to be one in the family who feels like the red-headed stepchild. (No offence to redheads...I was one for a while...purple too, as I recall.) And that's what's got me feeling ~~sad~~ melancholy. This sibling has spent so much of his adulthood angrily lashing out at other family members. And while I don't pretend to understand the 'psychology' of it all, I really think it stems from a lack of self worth. He exhibits deep envy toward his own twin, because she's well-off and a real class act. He attempts to flog the Christians in the family by misusing Scripture against us. He has not spoken to our father in almost four months for a totally unacceptable reason.

He's hurting desperately and he wants the rest of us to hurt too, so he's made it his mission to wreak pain into the family. I feel so sorry for him and all I can do is pray. His name is Michael, and if you pray, please remember him to the Lord. Thanks.

In other news, there is very little knitting news other than to say that I yanked out the sock I had started and got down to the business of finishing the sleeves of the lovely blue sweater, at least, that is, until the computer died, Blogger crashed, the laundry mountains tripped me every time I walked through the kitchen, and the sunshine drew me inexorably into the yard to see what little thing has erupted through the frozen tundra I call grass. I am going to post this and then I will knit sleeves until my eyelids drift south. And then, I will sleep.

This is the only photo I could find on my harddrive tonight that really represented to me what I want my heart to feel like: rested and at peace. Boy, this dog isn't spoiled...much.

Michael, I love you. I pray that someday you'll realize that, and that I'm not the only one who does.

Thanks for listening, friends. We'll talk knitting tomorrow...and about the cute new labels I ordered for dd for her knitting FO's.

Blessings,
Snooze

Spring...and a confession...

2005-04-08T12:31:00.000-04:00

This is what spring time looks like out in the woods of northern Michigan. These are tulips, (really!) photo taken at 7:25pm this evening. Yesterday there was ice surrounding the buds. These are tough little fellas. By mid-May they'll have beautiful red flowers on them. I hope. Assuming the gophers or the deer don't see them.

Yesterday Atouria told me that it'd be our little secret if I decided to knit a little bit of the new Knitpicks yarn I received, even though I vowed to finish the sleeves of the lovely blue sweater before I started one more thing. She swore no one would know.

Notice the sleeves, all 13.5" of them (I need 18.5" to finish) sitting and waiting patiently...and sadly. I have only knit three measly rows in two days.

I have a confession to make...I couldn't keep my hands off the sock yarn. But socks don't really count, right? I'm sure that they don't. I mean, Stephanie always has a pair or three going at any given time. (I fail to take into account that she probably knits at a rate triple or more of mine and can accomplish more in a day than I do in weeks...still...it it works for the Harlot, it might pass as an excuse for me...)

Herewith, the evidence of my failure. K1P1 ribbing on 2.5mm dpns. I am happy. These will be fun to wear this spring. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

Hello. My name is Susie and I have a problem...

2005-04-06T16:56:00.000-04:00

What a gray, overcast day this started out to be. Threats of thundershowers. All the kids off doing their own thing. Dh miles away on the road, coming home from an out-of-town job. Nothing but laundry and housecleaning facing me.

Maggie started barking. This could mean almost anything because she barks at wind, birds, rustling leaves, cars passing by...but this time my highly efficient and alert canine spotted the presence of the UPS truck bringing me this:

My very first Knitpicks order! And what an order it is. Most of what I bought was for the 'trying out' of the new yarns. But see that gorgeous blue and white stripe-y stuff in the corner of the box? That's a ~~Flower Basket Shawl~~ whole passel of Shimmer, the laceweight baby alpaca/silk blend. Gorgeous. I also bought a little bit of many different yarns so I could try them out for future projects.

I'm itching to put some needles to this stuff, but, in case you haven't been following the saga of my lovely blue sweater which had only 12" of sleeves left to be done and which I firmly stated would be done last Friday and which is sitting next to my chair with only 6" left to sleeve...welll...I can't rightly start anything else until I'm Done. Capital D Done. I.will.ignore.the.new.yarn.until.I'm.DONE. (Through gritted teeth, that one.)

On the other hand, here's something that you couldn't see pictured in the box above because it was hiding under yarn (and I have NO such compunction about dyeing as I do about starting new knitting projects before finishing the one I've dragged out forever much longer than I should have):

Ain't no guessin' what's gonna be happenin' here, eh?

My name is Susie and I have a problem...but I'm not looking for help!

I'm usually late...(flashing)...and two exciting things...

2005-04-04T23:46:00.000-04:00

First, an addendum and apology (these usually come at the end of something, but we're dealing with Blogger and Bloglines here and, well, you know how it is...)

See, Blogger and photos sometime have issues...even though importing photos into a post can be accomplished several ways. But last night after over an hour of annoyance with the easier and more reasonable Photobucket, and being largely unsuccessful, I returned to the tedious method of import/post/cut/paste/delete/publish that Picasa/Hello/Blogger entails.

And what do you suppose happened riiiight in the middle of my performing this act? Well, you've seen it if you read this through Bloglines. Yep. Bloglines updated whilst I had these raw photos post after post...which of course, have since been deleted, but Bloglines will NEVER let me forget. So, please pay no attention to the yarn behind that curtain. Skip through all the single photos with their 'Hello' logo attached. This is the post I intended to write. It's long. It has lots of pictures. Thank you.

Second, the exciting things:

Exciting thing 1. This afternoon after almost a year of negotiating and extraordinary expense, not to mention lots of ladders and what looks like a George Forman 'Lean Mean Grillin' Machine' on my roof, high speed internet has arrived in my neck of the (literal) woods. We had to take a tower up about 45' but I can download with the best of 'em now! So there will be more photos. Today.

Exciting thing 2. Finally. I am thrilled and in stitches (the laughing kind...)

Third, the always late part...between ADHD and fibromyalgia (and the fact that I'm almost 52 with two teenaged kids...), I have absolutely NO sense of time and I just offer blanket (albeit) sincere apologies before most events, knowing that I will be screamin' through the door later than I really wanna be. I have never seemed to to be able to gain control over it. (I do not speed, however. I have learned that this can actually make you later than you might already have been.) (Don't ask me how I know.) (I promised him I wouldn't tell on him.)

So this is my four-days-late flash your stash exposure. Though I tried, everybody here seemed to want dinner and would not let me take everything out and catalogue my stash (some of the stash flashes were so organized. Why can't I be like that?) (Oh yeah...I remember now.) They only let me open the drawers and show the top layers of what's in there. So, FWIW....

This is as much of my knitting library as I could fit into one photo. I am book obsessive (last count my personal library exceeded 4200 volumes, and the only fiction was either classic, or Christian s/f (yes, there is a genre!)

In drawer #1 we have Lamb's Pride. There's actually enough in here for the Marketsquares bag and several pairs of felted slippers. That's a little bit of Paton's wool peeking out from the back.

Drawer #2 contains assorted wools and wool blends. There's Lorna's Laces in sockweight, Mission Falls for another pair of working fingerless gloves ala the UPS guy's RAOK pair, Wool Gatto in several pale colors, Mountain colors (Flathead Cherry for those of you who know your Mountain Colors) and 3 or 4 skeins of aran weight Cashmerino in the back. The black stuff in the front is the remains of a hank of exquisite Prime Alpaca in black from which I made dh's Natalyas and cabled hat.

Drawer #3 seems to contain a lot of sock yarn. The lovely muffin on top is Mountain Colors Bearfoot sockweight in 'Indian Corn'. Lamb's Pride Wildefoote, Sockotta, Opal, and hidden under all this, Fortissima Colori, Kroy's sock yarn (2 other colors) some Sidar Denim and...hmm, I'm not sure what else. They kept nagging at me for dinner. (My family...not the yarn...)

Drawer #4 contains assorted wool/blends. There are 5 skeins of Plymouth Baby Brush Alpaca that was an impulse buy (what the heck am I gonna make with 5 skeins? Of course, that's all they had...so I bought it all. Suggestions?) Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in more colors than are showing, a bag holding Paton's, Cascade 220 and Lamb's Pride awaiting being made into a MagKnits/Sophie purse, along with Norma's fabulous directions on how to do the beaded handles. And other stuff. Again with the nagging about being hungry. Duh, guys...go order take out. This is yarn!

Drawer #5 contains an assortment of stuff. Four skeins of Fantasy Naturale in incredible blue. Mango Moon ribbon. That pretty fluff up front is Classic Elite's Dazzle (I think.) I think it should be named 'Tinkerbelle' because it's that light and sparkly. And then there are things I'd love to give you names for except that dh is sleeping now and I dare not turn the light on. See Stephanie's book, page 41. This applies to almost everything yarn related as well.

I bought this yarn last summer. There are 3 yarn muffins of the bamboo and some horribly huge amount of the Melody (a very skinny railroad-type of yarn) that I swatched together with the intent of making a tank top of some sort, when, after spending scads of money on it I got distracted by some shiney thing. Oops. I'm trying to regain my focus as this will be simply gorgeous knit up. The swatch told me so.

This week I hit (insert obscenely high dollar amount) worth of yarn purchases at my lys, entitling me to a 25% discount on the order of my choice. I purchased the book Lavish Lace because it's so well written and walks you through the process and even though I've knit lace before I like the comprehensiveness of the book and the yarn and patterns as well. In addition, I needed to find something to make as a gift for the woman who will be doing the music at dd's wedding. The price she gave us was below what she charges family (!) because Katy used to babysit for her. We will be paying for her and her dh to spend the night at the hotel where the reception is so they don't have to drive back...but I wanted to do something special for her. She's wonderful. Hence, this lovely Fiesta Yarn's La Boheme. I love the shawl I made for myself and will be doing something for her out of it in this colorway.

For reasons I cannot explain, (this actually means I don't remember...) I wound up pulling both the black and white yarns out of the drawers and giving them their own little containers. Probably my favorite thing in the whole bunch is the French angora puff in white. I cannot bring myself to purchase enough to actually do something with (the skein has 33 yards in it and cost me $8) and the angora fluff attaches itself to everything it comes near. Still, I pet it often and consider it a little gem.

In spite of my distaste for most things acrylic, I purchased this Peter Pan yarn for making baby accessories for a dear friend who will be having her fourth child...a girl! after 3 boys. There's a hank of Lion Brand Fun Fur there too, and I'm not sure whether I'm actually going to use it. I know it can't go on the blankie, but I'm thinking it'd be cute around the top of a hat and booties... The thing that makes this stuff nicer than most acrylic yarn is that it has nylon in it and it is SOFT!

...and Maggie & Riley approve the baby blankie yarn.

Bowing to the more experienced knitters I've read, I decided to purchase some Noro Kureyon. As you can see from the very cool stitch pattern, I'm making "My so-called scarf." I am undecided about how I feel about this. (The yarn, not the pattern.) I had to frog several rows because I wasn't paying close enough attention, and I wound up having to cut a section out because it simply would NOT let go of itself. It tore and snagged...even so, It sure is pretty. Jury's still out for me. I realize that Noro makes many other yarns. AND dd will be living in Okinawa, just a hop, skip and proverbial jump from Japan. (She has become a knitting addict as well, and has promised to search out all the yarn shops and send me the good stuff....)

Finally, a little bit of colorful stuff. I've been playing around with food coloring and yarn, and taking what I've dyed and swatching it all together. As you can see in this photo, there are some fun things you can do with it, and this is only a sample of what I've done. Before I finish this post though, I want to show you something that proves a truism.

Stephanie's bookbookbook is written in a very amusing yet thought-provoking tone. She begins each entry with a quote, relates her anecdote, and ends with a word for the (knitting)wise.

On page 14 she quotes Nevil Shute, one of my favorite authors when I was in my 20s. The quote reads thus:

"No, it wasn't an accident. I didn't say that. It was carefully planned, down to the tiniest mechanical and emotional detail. But it was a mistake."

As I am learning about the process of dyeing wool, I am learning to plan out the details of my dyeing, to pull everything together beforehand, to prepare. But, as Nevil Shute said, it wasn't an accident...but it was a mistake:

'Nuff said.

The new Knitpicks catalogue just arrived...

2005-04-02T18:12:00.000-05:00

...and if it isn't enough that they have all that fabulous new yarn at extraordinary prices, it turns out that on the top of page 34 is (...get ready for it...) bookbookbook! The ad for the YarnHarlot's book, right there in living color!

Here's the link to the online catalogue page: At Knit's End
This makes me deliriously happy for Stephanie!

It's been sunny and 50F here and it's nice enough to be outside, so no knitting until it's dark!

Welcome spring! And don't forget to set your clocks ahead tonight...

Dy(e)ing the right way...

2005-04-01T20:19:00.000-05:00

Me, muttering to self: "Gee, I hope my books on dyeing get here soon so I can learn to do it the right way."

Dd, very concerned, overhearing from the other room: "Mom? Are you all right? Is everything okay?"

Me: "With an 'e', Katy, with an 'e". That's dyeing with an 'e'."

:::sounds of relief emanating from the other room:::

4pm postscript: The UPS lady arrived with a bounty of books on dyeing. Oh frabjous day! caloo callay! I am filthy rich with new books. This new (bad/) habit is extending itself. Next thing you know I'm gonna be craving to learn how to spin.....well....not yet, at any rate. I've got a wedding to plan and execute first. BUT...after the wedding there will be a spare bedroom.....

Yarns to Dye For by Kathleen Taylor

ColorWorks by Deb Menz

Lavish Lace by Carol R. Noble & Cheryl Potter

Hands on Dyeing by Betsy Blumenthal & Kathryn Kreider

I have resources! I can dye properly now...it's all good, Katy...

It's on its way!

2005-03-30T15:43:00.000-05:00

I just got an email from Amazon dot com that bookbookbook, At Knit's End, by the fabulous Harlot herself, has been shipped! Shouts of Huzzah! (and all that...)

I can't wait!

Prizes and obligatory (but cute) pet photos

2005-03-30T13:11:00.000-05:00

Here are two boxes all taped and prettied up for a trip to the post office:

This is what's in the little box: Nancy's yarn and stitch markers, awarded for so graciously contributing to my very first contest...which she won. The Cascade 220 is wool, but it's still chilly up north....note the white stuff in the background. Yup. That's snow. On my lawn. Still.

This is Ashley's scarf (in the bigger box...it took up more room) knit up from some black mircofibre and something I found at Yarn Quest in Traverse City, called "Funny" by SandnesGarn (I'm guessing somewhere Norway-ish?) on size 13s. Ash doesn't knit yet, because she is a college student who will be modelling this summer, and is majoring in ?biology? I think, and does research, and is at the top of her class and has about 18 minutes in her day to actually sleep....but someday there could be knitting.... Ashley was dd's very best buddy when they were 5.

I am still waiting on the other entrants, Colleen, Marianne and Emy, to get in touch with me so I can send them their stitch markers as well. I'm prompt about sending stuff out, really I am. Give me an addy and I'll send you the stitch markers!

And now for something completely different:

The reason(s) I own a Dyson 'Animal' vacuum cleaner and use it every day...

I got up early today (6am. I have fibromyalgia and am awake until 2 or 3am most nights, so for me to be up at this time of morning is miraculous. Or insane. Or both.) It was chilly in the house and I found all four animals huddled in the living room just feet away from the woodstove, probably praying for someone to come make a fire. They all looked so cute I figured I'd take pictures and introduce them to my blog.

Blog, meet my animals. Pets, meet my blog. (Remember, I didn't get much sleep...sorry.)

This is Maggie. She is my third child. She was dumped (can you imagine anyone dumping puppies!?) in the woods near our home. Dh brought her home. I said she could stay until the shelter opened again on Monday. That was in April 1999.

Turns out the same people dumped 4 puppies in various spots around our township and all eventually found homes and were taken to the local vet, so we found out from him that she is 1/2 Basenji (barkless South African hound) and 1/2 Golden Lab. She's about 45 pounds of majorly spoiled puppy. She does bark (the Lab side) but when you wrestle with her, or when she's forbidden to bark, she yodels. Yep. Yodels. Sounds just like it. I was a cat person until Maggie came into my life. Once she's gone, there may never be another dog. But until that time, I am completely owned by this pooch.

This is Puff, short for Puffalump. She was named by a 5yo (dd) and is now almost 14 years old. She is not dead, contrary to the way the photo looks. Katy picked her out of a box in front of a Meijer's grocery store in 1991. Apparently the kittens had been abused. Dd was the only one who could touch her for many years. She hid under the bed for about 3 years. She was always strictly an indoor cat. Several years ago she began really pushing to go outside. Turns out she's a major mouser and has cleared the property of field mice, gophers, moles, shrews and all the other things that eat my gardens and wander through my kitchen drawers in the winter. For reasons we may never know, around about the same time she started to be affectionate. Perhaps there is a connection. Living in the country and running around outside has been very good for her. She's healthy and strong for her age.

(This next bit is PG-13 rated...a warning.)

When she was about 3 years old, and we had not yet had her spayed (I know....but she was an indoor cat) she was going through an almost constant heat. One day a friend came over to borrow some tools and saw Puff yowling and rubbing her fanny up against the wall. "What's up with her?" he inquired. I replied, "She needs a man!" Turned out he had a papered Himalayan, roughly 8 months old. We left them alone for an afternoon and came home to find them lying on one of the beds smoking a cigarette.(Just kidding....) Nine weeks later Puff had three of the largest kittens I have ever seen.

And this is one of them.

This is Timothy, now 9 years old. Timmy is the most ill-tempered animal I have ever had the displeasure to know. He costs me a fortune as he requires professional grooming every 8 weeks. He hates almost everyone. He weighs about 20 pounds and does NOT like to be picked up. He's actually ds's cat and spends his days sleeping on Nick's bed. When he decides to be lovey, there's no cat so delightful. So here he remains. There's more to his story, but for some other time.

Riley is the baby of the family, just 2 years old this month.

We acquired him to be given as a gift to a young friend who had recently lost her cat. This was a hush-hush sort of thing, where she knew we were going to 'surprise' her with a kitten, and assured us that her parents were perfectly okay with her having another cat. They were not. We were NOT well received and we and the kitten were summarily dismissed.

Katy decided that she needed a ginger cat, so I was conned into welcoming yet another animal in my very small house.

Curiously, Riley has wound up being dh's cat. He waits for Scott to come home from work and greets him at the door. He 'helps' him take a shower, pawing at the shower door trying to help dh 'escape' from the evil water. He talks! Lots...and loudly. He rises with the sun and wants everyone to be up with him (he's the real reason I wound up getting up at 6am today.)

There's my four-footed family. I was a condo dweller for years and never planned on having children or pets. Surprise!

And now I am going to finish the sleeves on my lovely blue sweater. While it's currently 61F here, we are anticipating snow flurries by Friday morning. This *is* northern Michigan, and it *is* only March, after all. And if I hurry, I will be wearing it by Friday. Actually. I hope.

...and the winner is...ummm...winners are....

2005-03-28T09:25:00.000-05:00

"Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole.

This, apparently, was a clear mandate of the people as so many more than one suggested it. However, there can be but one grand prize winner, and that would be the one who suggested it first: Nancy! Email me with your snail mail addy and let me know a) Do you want the lovely ball of incredibly green and yellow Cascade 220? and b) How would you like your stitch markers? (That is NOT an improper question/suggestion! The small ones fit up to a size 6 needle, the medium ones fit up to a size 10 needle, and the large ones fit up to a size 17 needle.) Pick six...any six. Email me and I'll ship 'em off immediately!

Coming in second is dd's friend Ashley, a non-knitter (imagine!) to whom will be winging this lovely scarf (as soon as it's finished) and yes, thanks, that is a hand-rolled center-pull ball. Changed my life (pre-ball winder) when I learned how to do that!

Third, with the same wonderful, unforgettable suggestion, was Colleen. Pick six and give me an address!

Not to be un-prized, Marianne, who came up with the bride's favorite song in the whole world (dh and she could only agree on one...this was second...) "My Girl"...pick six, dear, and give me an address!

And Emy, who suggested "Sway" which I have never heard, but after her description of it I will simply have to go download it...pick six...give me an addy.

Small contest, prizes for all!

Kimber, here are the Dulaan hats lined up and awaiting a box (or perhaps, for more to join them before they leave.) Everybody go visit Kimber's new blog! (please? And leave comments. It'll make her really happy!)

This has been fun. I've heard from a lot of people and gotten waaay more traffic than I might originally have (I'll admit it. It's discouraging to blog your heart out and then have no one read or comment. It's been such an up to hear from people whose blogs I've been reading for a long time.)

It's sunny here today and if the temp will rise above 40F it might melt some of the 18" of snow still all over the property (back in the woods there will likely be snow in some spots until May. It's actually waist-deep in places.)

Have a blessed day!

The contest continues...and we have some great entries!

2005-03-26T22:21:00.000-05:00

Just returned from Traverse City (60 miles away, where we go to do our "big" shopping since we have only a tiny grocery and no WalM*rt or anything here) where we bought lots of wedding stuff. Candles, wedding favor stuff, ribbon, silk flowers for the tossing bouquet, the bride's SHOES! Many and varied things and nothing from Border's except strong coffee for the ride home. The Harlot's book HAS NOT arrived there yet.

Lots to post, no time tonight, but I wanted to add something to the little father/daughter dance song contest cache (say that three times fast) I've been accumulating and can't wait to give out! Here, needing no introduction is: Cascade 220. Betcha never saw it in this color, eh? That's because I dyed it all by myself. Washed it in Eucalan so it smells sweet and stays colorfast. This will be the grand prize in addition to the stitch markers, unless of course, you actually hate this, which possibility exists...it's kinda retro, isn't it... I really wanna see someone do something fun with this. I have been having a blast dyeing wool...not as much fun as knitting, and much damper, but a blast nonetheless.

I'll post the winner on Monday morning and you can send me your snail mail addy so I can send off the goods.

The bride is consulting with the groom about all the music, so I need to get off the computer. He has just returned from a week of military exercises wherein he was essentially incommunicado, so they have a lot to say to each other and at great length (and schmooziness...)

Have a blessed Resurrection Day!

A good day for up...

2005-03-23T22:49:00.000-05:00

Good evening fellow knitters. You're probably all wondering why I've asked you here...

Just kidding! (I've always wanted to say that). Now that everyone is thoroughly confused, let me introduce myself. I'm Snooze's dd, Kate (a.k.a. Bridezilla, bride-to-be, Kiki, and hosts of other nicknames) Tonight, I have taken over mom's blog.

I'm a fairly new knitter, but I've already come to love it and be addicted to it (I swore I wouldn't be! But it can't be helped; I'm a third generation knitter. It's in my blood, so I finally caved to my yarn hoarding, sock knitting, knitting blog reading desires...who am I to argue with genetics??). My first official FO (Dulaan hats don't count; they were more for practice) is a pair of baby socks for my friend, Christin. They are the most darling things and have been known to (on occasion) cause me to squeal with delight. The only thing that will make them better is when I see them on the baby's tiny feet. I'm sure that when this moment comes, it will involve more squealing.

My current project is a lovely gray sweater for my fiancé, Mike. I've heard all of the boyfriend horror stories, but I think we're gonna be fine. Mike isn't the heart-breaking, sweater stealing type. He's the kind of guy who picks me wild flowers, allows me to tell him (in great detail) about anything and everything that is on my mind or heart, patiently tells me the names of the star-constellations again and again because I simply cannot remember them, and lets me walk through haunted houses behind him with my arms around his waist, and my face buried in the back of his shirt, so I will feel safe and not-so scared. He's just that wonderful =) Okay...now that everyone is gagging, I think my work here is done.

I'm really excited about hearing everyone's ideas for the father/daughter dance song! Dad and I have been arguing about this for two months now. My darling brother, Nick-o, has been wonderful with suggestions, but as I have tried to gently tell him, 'Baby Got Back' and 'Pimp Juice' just aren't quite what I'm looking for. I am following the comments on the post; for those of you who are bashful about leaving comments, mom has graciously supplied her e-mail =) sgrougan at gtlakes dot com.

I'll be stopping in for another random post sometime in the near future,
but until then keep knitting; keep smiling; and remember, there is always room for Jell-O =D
~Kate~

Tonight's posting has been brought to you by!....

You're The Dictionary!

by Merriam-Webster

You're one of those know-it-all types, with an amazing amount of knowledge at your command. People really enjoy spending time with you in very short spurts, but hanging out with you for a long time tends to bore them. When folks really need an authority to refer to, however, you're the one they seek. You're an exceptional speller and very well organized.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

(I forced mom into taking this quiz...oddly enough this was the result. She was less than amused, though I'm pretty sure she's knows just about every word in it (This is to her credit =) *giggles* I love you mom. Thanks for giving me free reign of the blog for tonight *hugs*)

Contest! Knitting photos! Contest! ...and a new bad habit...

2005-03-22T15:02:00.000-05:00

As promised, there will be photos today...as soon as I figure out how to work this stupid program. And a contest.

The contest first: As mentioned before, dd is getting married in July. ~~Most~~ Many of the details of the wedding are under control. One thing that hasn't been decided is this: After the bride and groom have their first dance, what song shall the bride and her father dance to?

Songs already rejected include but are not necessarily limited to: Molly Hatchet's "Flirtin' with Disaster", "The Macarena", "The Chicken Dance", anything by Cher or Boy George, "Butterfly Kisses," all country/western music... As a possible hint, the bride-to-be's taste runs toward early Frank Sinatra, anything swing, The Temptations and some Elvis. The reception will be at 8pm, and is NOT a sit-down dinner, at the behest of the bride. There will be dancing and waiter-served hors d'oeuvres and desserts, including the requisite chocolate fountain. It's all very '40s night-clubbish (sans alcohol.) The father of the bride has suggested "Can't Touch This," but the bride declined, indicating that the groom might be slightly intimidated.

The prize: This is where I talk about my new bad habit. See, I needed some of those stylish little stitch markers that look so trendy on the finest knitting needles in the finest blogs. I needed them. And so I bought them. Dh asked me why the heck I was buying these when I had on hand some of the very materials that these appear to be made from. "Why yes!" I thought to myself. There are indeed beads somewhere in this house, beads that I used in some earlier craftish incarnation. So I rushed right out to Michael's and ~~spent a lot of money~~ cautiously chose the few materials I needed to make stitch markers.

This brings us to the prize: a set of six markers (two of each size, several made by the bride herself) for the person who can come up with something bridezilla is willing to dance to.

So this contest will run until Sunday, March 28th, because on Monday the 29th, the bride meets with the music people to begin putting together the music for the whole shebang.

Realizing that this is a new blog and that my readership is still quite small, there could be other small prizes for anyone who has even the semblance of a good/acceptable suggestion...

Okay, that's the contest and the bad habit (which is actually a lot of fun...today the kids helped me and we called it 'Arts & Crafts') and...oh yeah...the pictures. I still haven't figured out the easy way to do it. I know it's not tough, but I just haven't gotten the hang of photo*bucket. However, here are a few things that've been finished for a while and I had no photos....so, herewith...

Photo #1: more playing with food coloring. Paton's wool, once white now...berry-ish.

Photo #2: Koigu wristers (my own adapted pattern) shown on the hands of the lovely bride-to-be (catch a glimpse of her rock in this one)

Photo #3: The gloriously beautiful shawl made of Fiesta's La Boheme

And that's all I can manage for tonight. Keep those cards and letters coming, folks, and help this poor bride avoid having dancing to something she despises, or Barenaked Ladies.

Hurry! Time's running out! ....Thanks!

I'm so excited...I just can't hide it.....

2005-03-21T22:11:00.000-05:00

After anguishing and driving poor Julie absolutely nuts about the problems I was having getting my code together (and no, that's not a euphemism, but now that I think about it, it could be ) and after twenty four hours of our ISP being down, gone, unuseable, incommunicado, I returned online this morning to find that I had been officially inducted into what I consider the best online soro/fraternity in the knitting world: the Knitting Bloggers ring! Call me silly, but I danced around the house for long enough that even the cats thought I had taken leave of my senses and steered clear of me for hours.

We're in the process of selling our business. Dh has gone to work for the company that's buying the assets of our company. No one's sleeping around here much as we're trying to pull 6 years of info and contracts together to be turned over this week. Additionally, dh has been working 10 hour days in the field and then coming home to pore over the desk for another 6 or 7 hours. Compound that with the stress of the temporary death of the computer and you can understand why we've been hoping for Xanax (or accountants and secretaries) to fall from the sky and land in our living room. I remind myself that this too shall pass...and then the bills will be paid and there will be peace (and more yarn.)

In knitting news, I spent two hours with three 12yo Girl Scouts and their leader this evening, teaching them the basics of the craft. From jump street. We even made the needles ourselves. They did well...at least it seemed that way. We'll see next week. Meantime, I emailed them all the website info I had on learning how to knit. They all appeared to be motivated, but in that way kids have, were horribly disappointed when they couldn't start making a scarf tonight. We're still working on casting on and knit stitch. And I'm still chuckling at the horrified looks they displayed when I told them to pull all the stitches off and cast on again. I think they were expecting the thing to morph into a sweater in their hands. All in times, ladies...

The lovely blue sweater has a finished front and back and 7" of two (count 'em! 2!) sleeves.

Predictably, it was not finished for the homeschool conference (during which I was sick as the proverbial dog but managed to sell 90% of my used curriculum, thereby putting yarn money in my pocket.) I'm hustling on it now as it was 40F here today. Can spring be far behind? (We had 5" of snow Saturday. Who am I kidding?)

Dd has started a sweater for her fiance. Although I know the bf sweater story, I can't bring myself to believe that there will be trouble here. She has a sizeable diamond on her finger and the groom is champing at the bit to get married. I think it'll be okay. The wedding's only 3.5 months away.Here's the fun button she made...

It will be okay, right...? I'm really proud of her. She's become a knitting addict, just like her dear old mum.

Tomorrow I will find time to figure out how to use a program that my kids use for posting photos to their online journals, and there will be pictures of many things...things I haven't even ever mentioned here...things I knitted before I knew there was blog! Things I wanna see on my computer screen! Beautiful knitty things! I promise!

Happy Spring!

Fifteen (or so) minutes of fame(ishness)...

2005-03-16T21:03:00.000-05:00

I am so all about excited tonight! I just got an email telling me that I am the next contestant on ~~"The Price is Right"~~ JenLa's Interview! " C'mon down!" My 15 minutes of fame! (I suppose this depends on how well I can hold your interest in the answers to these questions... :::sigh::: I'm still very excited! Thanks, ladies!

So here's how it goes down:

Copied this directly off the (in)famous JenLa blog:

***The other day Domestigirl was doing this cool interactive thing with her readership. See, those of us who were interested in participating had to follow the few simple rules stated below, answer the individualized questions in our blog that she left for us on hers and then we pass it on. Makes sense? Anyhow, this is a way to get out of boring the hell out of all of you by taking 12 paragraphs to say 16 more rows on DSS and 4 painstaking inches on Mariah!, (oh, lookie there, I just did).

First, here are the simple rules to follow if you’d like to participate:
1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than the ones below.
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.***

So here are the questions they posted for me (for me! Imagine!)

Snooze
1. What got you interested in blogging?
I did a simple search for 'knitting' and came up with several knit blogs. Never heard of such a thing. Spent a little time cruising around and after reading a wonderful post, I decided to leave a comment for someone. Turns out that Blogger (as you've so aptly and recently noted) is not very good with the comments thing. In fact, it turned out that they required me to register and essentially create a blog before I could post a comment! (This seems like some sort of coerciveness that goes beyond propriety...) Nevertheless, I wound up with a post, and the vanity of seeing myself in print online was so overwhelming that it just kinda kept rolling. (You can actually google 'Susie Grougan' and pull up some homeschooling articles I've written in the waaay past that wound up archived online, but that doesn't count as much as this...)

2. Can you tell me a little more about yourself? More about your family (feel free to used pseudonyms, we do); your pets; career; life; home, etc?
I'm almost 52. I am married to Scott whom everyone calls Steve for some cosmic reason which we remain ignorant of at this point. We've been married for 20 years last Christmas Eve. I can honestly say that it's better with every year that passes. Schmoozey, I suppose, but really true. We've been self-employed for too many years. When our health insurance topped $11,000.00/year, we rethought the whole self-employment thing. Today he became gainfully employed. Next week the assets of the business get sold and we will hopefully inch closer to solvency than we've been in many years.

I have an almost 19yo daughter who is marrying her soul-mate (who unfortunately for me is stationed in Okinawa and has selfishly decided to move her there to be with him for about 2.5 years. :::sob:::) in July. She was homeschooled until her senior year of high school when she announced that she wanted to find out what school was like. Bored her to tears, forced her to get up way too early. She graduated 7th in her class (and boy, did *I* feel vindicated!) I call her Kiki, but her name is actually Kate-the-Great.

I have a 16 year old son, Nick, who knows everything. (Gosh, I wish I was still 16 sometimes. There's so much I'd like to know/remember! ) He's been homeschooled all his life. He's an Eagle Scout, body builder, and spends every free moment working on the sound system in his vehicle which will never be finished because there is not enough money in the world to do what he wants to do...or so he says... He will be heading off to public school for his senior year next fall, It's all about the sports, 'cuz he's already got enough credits to graduate...

There are three cats and one dog-who-thinks-she's-a-cat in the very small space we call home. I'm sure they will make guest appearances (obligatory animal photos) as Riley did the other day...

We live out in the woods (literally...1.6 miles back off a dirt road, backing up to 2000 acres of hardwood state land.) There will be pictures of deer and turkey and bears and other exciting wildlife as they appear...or not.

This could be more info than you might ever have wanted to know about me and it doesn't even scratch the suface. Be very glad I'm not itching...

3. What is the single best piece of advice you could give to your first-born’s new spouse?
She is pre-verbal for about 30 minutes upon rising. Bring her coffee and her knitting and kiss her on the forehead. Then leave her alone until you actually hear her voice. Otherwise there will be mayhem.

4. What’s your favorite kind of project to knit?
Kind? Okay..kind...ummm...an entire genre qualifies as 'kind', right? Okay...anything that requires a set of doublepoint needles. That would include, but not be limited to: socks, gloves, mittens, wristers, leg warmers, hats, sweaters knitted in the round.... But if I had to pick one, I'd say socks.

5. I see you’re a sci-fi geek like me! If you were to write a sci-fi screen play, could you give me a quick overview of what it would be about?
Wow. That's tough. I think it'd have to be something that combined the essential elements of Farscape, Doug Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and several old Twilight Zone episodes. :::mentally composing opening paragraph:::

So there it is. No photos but fun to think about. And if there are any folk out there who would be interested in carrying this meme on, I'd be more than thrilled to come up with 5 questions for you too!

Jen, La, on the eve of being moved out of the queue and into the knitter's blog ring, I thank you. I feel so accepted! (Okay, even if I'm not really, I feel that way and that's what really counts.)

Off to continue knitting on the lovely blue sweater whose cabled front is only 8 rows from done and whose sleeves are already cast on in tandem. I really wanna wear this on Saturday. It simply will not happen. But I'm gonna give it my best try...

'night!

Dyeing for oranges...

2005-03-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

I actually had a yen to dye yarn somewhere around 11:30 last night. Doesn't this happen to everybody? Believe it or not, I used McCormick food coloring (the kind in the expensive little squeeze bottles that you pay $3.29 for 4 little .25oz bottles? You know the ones....) and since I had no vinegar in the house for mordant, but I *did* have ascorbic acid (vitamin C!) I put some of that in some water, threw some wool/mohair blend (Lana Gatto??? I don't remember) and started drizzling color mixed with a little water that I had put in one of those little medicine cups (the kind that come on top of a bottle of Robitussin, y'know...) and then I threw it into the microwave for about 4 minutes until it boiled. Let it sit until it was cool, then rinsed it out. Very scientific. It's gorgeous. I couldn't make this happen again if I worked day and night at it.

Orange you glad...?

Bookbookbook....sniffle, gulp....where are you?

2005-03-13T18:18:00.000-05:00

~~I am~~ We are all waiting anxiously for Stephanie's bookbookbook to ship. Seems like Amazon's just not as on the ball about it as they said they'd be (they keep saying it'll ship between 5March and 11March...and it's not shipped yet.) So while I was there, I had a little fun looking through the knitting books. I have a rather extensive collection...extensive enough that I donated a bunch of them to the local library. That does not, however, keep me from desiring more...and more...

So I made a Wishlist while I was there. It seems to come up under dh's name (Scott) but that did not in any way deter me from making the list, in spite of the fact that he wants more knitting books about as much as he'd like to have gum surgery. No matter. Those who love me know how obsessive I can be when something captures my fancy. And lest you think that this is a passing fancy, allow me to remind you that I am well into my second year as a serious knitter, and have half a dozen projects on the needles currently, as well as over 40 completed projects in the past year.

Enough. I'm more than half done up the front of my lovely blue sweater. I'd love to have it done before Friday. Unfortunately, I have some 125 books that have to be prepped, tagged and catalogued for check-in at the Homeschool Bookfair I'm heading downstate to attend this weekend. Lotsa luck, eh?

Off to knit fast.

Friday Morning Tag

2005-03-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

This was interesting for me to complete as it forced me to think through a few things I hadn't given much consideration.

Do you knit using the English or Continental Method? I learned to knit using a modified English method. In reality, I've never seen anyone knit quite as I do. And then I read Annie Modesitt's book Confessions of a Knitting Heretic and discovered that I am actually mostly knitting in a Combined Method. Isn't it nice to be able to put a name to something? And to be able to tell people, "No, it's okay...it really works out for me, the way I knit. Look at the product, not the process!" And then I decided to teach myself traditional English and Continental so I could strand for fair isle. Confused? You bet I am.

How long ago did you learn to knit? My left-handed mama tried to teach me from the time I was about 8. She had little patience and being exceedingly left-dominant, hadn't the ability to see from my perspective to try to help me understand. I finally got the hang of it when I was 32, but only knit for a short while until I learned how to crochet. Something about the increased speed of production with crocheting caused me to put down my knitting for over 18 years. In November 2003, I spied a pair of handmade socks knit with Fortissima Colori. I was so entranced with the striping that I immediately went out and bought needles, pattern and yarn. I have not crocheted since.

Who taught you how? I taught myself, using some now-long-forgotten book.

What was your first FO? The first thing I made when I first learned to knit was a raglan top-down sweater for dh. No half-stepping for me! He still has it, but it's way too small. Prolly was back when I made it, too, but he was too kind to say so. In November 2003 my first FO was that pair of socks which still grace feet in this house.

Favorite yarn? Alpaca. Without question, alpaca. And in the #2 spot, Baby Cashmerino from Debbie Bliss. #3 would be Koigu. And then everything else soft and wooly. But not mohair. I have a real problem with mohair. Haven't yet found one soft enough to wrap around my neck without feeling as though I could scratch myself to death. I love the look, but the feel...I itch just thinking about it.

Favorite pattern you’ve knit so far? Anything socks, anything with cables. I love cables!

Favorite pattern source? No one source in particular. But Melissa Leapman's patterns seem to keep spinning off my needles, so perhaps...

Favorite needles? Circular—Addis in every size, and Brittany dpns.

Nicest thing you’ve ever knit: The alpaca Natalyas. No, the Baby Cashmerino layette set. No, the Natura pullover. No, the Koigu wristers. No.....

Most hated project: Can't remember b/c as soon as it becomes apparent that there's hate involved...even the tiniest bit of distaste for a pattern or yarn or combination thereof, off the needles it slips, into the frog pond. And often the yarn quickly finds a new home with someone who will love it. Not enough room to keep cantankerous yarn hanging around!

And this meme ends here because I think I may very well be the last knitblogger on the planet to have received it. Of course, I didn't have a blog until just a few weeks ago....but even so! Hrrrrumph.

Lots of photos and a hard lesson learned...

2005-03-10T19:58:00.000-05:00

This is Riley and the Norma Dulaan hat in progress. Riley believes that any time yarn of any sort hits a horizontal surface, he is obligated to lay his furry body atop it, adding to its warmth and furry-ness. I, on the other hand believe that this will be taking a Eucalan bath before it leaves my possession.

This is the Dulaan in progress without Riley. Much easier to knit when he's somewhere else.

This is the completed hat. Made from double stranded Lamb's Pride worsted, it was fun and quick to make. Now viewing: side 1: is this the outside, or the inside?

Now viewing: side 2: other outside? or the other inside? I can't tell. Either way, it's cute!

Dd Kate wanted in on the Dulaan-ing, and so contributed: Baby Dulaan, a multicolored Encore baby-sized hat...

...aaaaand the stripe-y Dulaan hat, made from Lamb's Pride worsted and Mountain Colors and very warm and toasty.

After reading what Norma had to say about cold today, and having awakened to an outside temp of -18F myself, I purpose to knit more, and make sure the things I knit for this project are super cozy and warm. I cannot imagine being without warmth when I need/want it, can't imagine what it must be like to have to walk or work in that kind of cold all winter long. Warm. Thankful.

And the hard lesson? Well, I actually had this post totally composed and ready to roll yesterday, when I did something simple and stupid...hit the backspace...and the post wasn't saved. More than an hour of my time wasted. Aaaargh. I'm beginning to have a new appreciation for the frustration people have when they mention disappearing posts. I hereby promise myself to save the blasted thing in draft mode before exiting the page. Now let's hope I remember.

Hump Day Meme

2005-03-09T07:15:00.000-05:00

Found this in my email today. I don't usually do these things b/c I haven't the patience to do the cut'n'paste answer thingie. Dunno why it caught my fancy today except that I'm up after only 3.5 hours sleep and on my way to the hospital to have an ECG, and it seemed like the thing to do.

What time did you get up this morning ? 6:25am
Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds all the way!
What was the last film you saw? The Hulk...on TV as I walked through the room
What is your favorite TV show? TLC's "A Makeover Story"
What did you have for breakfast? Coffee and Armour Thyroid
Beach or mountains? Beach
What is your favorite cuisine? Junk...I mean...Thai
What foods do you dislike? Junk...I mean...yeah...junk
What are your favorite Potato chips? Lay's Salt & Vinegar...
What is your favorite CD at the moment? Souljahz
What kind of car do you drive? 2003 Buick Rendezvous
Favorite sandwich? BLT on toast
What characteristics do you despise? Insincerity, false humility
What is your favorite item of clothing? Long-sleeved gray cotton t-shirt
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Paris
What color is your bathroom? Lavender
Favorite brand of clothing? Anything I knit
Where would you like to retire to? My house in the woods – with no mortgage
Favorite time of day? 1:45am
Where were you born? Newark, NJ
Favorite sport to watch? Figure skating
What fabric detergent do you use? The kind in a huge 40# bucket from Sam's
Coke or Pepsi? Neither...don't drink any sodas
Are you a morning person or night owl? Morning...right before I go to sleep..lol
What is your shoe size? 8.5
Do you have any pets? Maggie (my ~~other child~~ sweet Basenji/Golden Lab mix), Timothy, Puffalump and Riley, the 3 most ADHD kitties in the world
Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with your family and friends? The same exciting news I always share: Jesus Christ is Lord!
What did you want to be when you grew up? A mom...really
Do you have a favorite quote? "My Grace is sufficient for thee"
What's your favorite color? Gray
What's your favorite sport to play? Basketball
What's your favorite non-alcoholic beverage? Water...really
Favorite Teacher? Tony Freda...Sparta HS
What's your sign? No parking
What's your Birthday? Something I don't get to celebrate since I gave birth to a child on the very same day!
Red or White Wine? No alcohol since 1984
Favorite genre of music? Classical (Mendelsohn), Christian Rap (KJ52, John Reuben)
Favorite alcoholic beverage? No alcohol since 1984
Do you EBay? You betcha
Do you own a digital camera? Yep
Silver or Gold? Gold
Black or White? Black
Ever go skinny dipping? Nope. Even if I did, I'd hafta make 2 trips...lol
Ever go sky diving? Not yet!
How long have you lived in your current home? 6.5 years
What's the most important quality a friend has to have? Saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ...I want my friends with me for eternity!
Do you cook? After 3 meals x 3 times/day x 20+ years, I avoid it as often as I can! (Kids can cook now too...)
Coffee or Tea? Coffee
How do you take your coffee? ...strong, light and sweet
What time is it now? 7:35am. My heart has not started beating yet...
Country or City? Out in the woods!

Hey...does this qualify as 51 of 100 things about me? (I hope not...there's so much more to me than my favorite piece of clothing...duh.)

In knitting news, I finished my first Dulaan hat last night (great photos to follow after the doc appt today...I think I've got it figured out how to do this) following Norma's pattern. Curiously,there is, in my possession, a very old hat knitted by my mama (she's been gone since 1993) made in mohair, huge and pulled out of shape, but made in exactly the same way! DS has been asking me to make another like it to fit him, and I told him I'd need to think about a pattern. Voila...thanks, Norma! All I need to do is make it a few stitches larger to fit his big teenaged head!

...will I ever get the hang of this?

2005-03-07T23:24:00.000-05:00

I wonder if I will ever understand the curious world of html. It ~~doesn't hurt~~ frustrates me terribly that I have so many computer literate (read: geniuses) in my family (read: people who actually make a living doing this stuff.) And though my sweet little brother spent at least 20 minutes trying to explain image hosting to me...I just can't grasp the concept... he, naturally, is in Florida, whilst I am in Michigan.

I need to see it done! I need to see a hands-on demonstration! I am a total ditz about this!

I'm going back to knitting Dulaan hats. Yarn is so much kinder.

Could computers be more frustrating?

2005-03-04T10:55:00.000-05:00

I've been holding off on posting for several days trying to get all the computer programs back in place so that I can start posting photos. Naturally, when we lost all the information from 12/28 forward, everything I had taken pictures of all disappeared as well. Some of those items have found their way to their new homes and will be photographically lost to me forever, most likely. Ah, computerland.

Additionally, the program that I use to transfer pictures from my camera to the computer has gone missing, so all the new pics I managed to take are languishing on a little chip waiting to be transferred to the computer...someday.

Now see, I don't mind reading someone's blog that has miles and miles of writing (assuming it holds my interest) without too many pictures, but a) not too many people are as weird as I, and b) I am simply not that compelling a writer. So photos it must be. I've downloaded Picasa (a fabu program, if you haven't looked into it yet) and its Blogger interface, Hello. So why aren't the pictures imminently forthcoming? Well, it seems that Hello sends a confirming email to you before it'll let you play. I've been waiting ~~45 minutes~~ almost two hours now for that email. I've tried it ~~twice~~ ~~three~~ five times. ~~Double~~ Triplechecked the email addy. Where the **** is my verifying email???

Okay, so when this alleged email shows up, I will begin inserting pictures...I hope.

Edited in later: found the photo thingie and finished the UPS guy's RAOK gloves...here's proof:

UPS guy gloves

Whoo Hoo!!!!

Corrupted computer files = no clue where anything is...

2005-02-27T22:58:00.000-05:00

...and due to our (lack of) diligence in making good on last year's resolution to backup all computer data at least once a week (eyuh) we are now attempting to reconfigure two months worth of our business. All documents and photos and everything else wound up totally corrupted. Scattered indiscriminately about the entire harddrive. Dead motherboard. Died a sudden but painless death and without a will, leaving its heirs in a state of total discombobulation. Not to mention, having destroyed all the photos of my knitting which I had planned to bring into this blog.

Ah well, once dh's blood pressure returns to near normal and he finishes the herculean task of reloading everything that was contained in our 80gig of hard drive, perhaps he'll get the photo programs back up and running and I can rephotograph everything that hasn't been sent off to new homes...

OTOH, I am feeling accomplished today as I have figured out a little more about this blog and how to make thing work. In spite of the ease of Blogger, I still struggle with the more technical stuff, but there are new little icons and links on here tonight and I did it. I'm proud! I also finished the back to my beautiful blue pullover and have started on the front as well as cast on for the sleeves (I'm doing them on the same needle at the same time.) I'm pleased to note that the front is, as I expected, going more quickly, broken up as it is, by the presence of the plait. I saw a similar pattern in a book I was browsing through, and I think the braid will be sizeable enough to be significant without looking out of place...I hope!

DH is working downstate tomorrow and left out of here early this evening so as to avoid the possibility of the 8-12" of snow the weathershaman is predicting. I'm never sure what to believe. I do think that when ds goes off to college I may go back and get certified in broadcast meteorology so that I can get a job being wrong most of the time and still get paid. Fer cryin' in the mud, do these guys ever look out the door?

Last night I chaperoned a semiformal dance at the high school. This is always an interesting time for me as my kids are homeschooled...but go to the dances...so I get tapped to help. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's waaaay more drama than my poor post-menopausal heart can stand. Last night was one of those. Breaking up, making up, fights threatened. Thank You Lord that I'm not 16 anymore. On the other hand, I guess they do have more resilience...I hope.

Off to knit my lovely blue sweater. I'm shooting for early March, before it warms up too much.

"Goin' to the Chapel and we're...gonna get maaaaaarried..."

2005-02-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

Wedding planning continues apace. An overnight trip to Saginaw netted a look-see at the very old (1832AD) church where the wedding will be held, a meeting with His Most Reverend Doctor Pastor Holy Moley (this is how he actually introduced himself. I'm not sure this is a legal title/job description...), a reception site, catering, flowers, photography, tuxedos, music and leads on limo, cake and all the rest. Eventful. I got to meet the soon-to-be sil's mom and grandparents (adopt me, Marta and Lee!) A good time was had by all despite the fact that my checkbook hemorrhaged profusely all day.

Today we attempted to order wedding invites now that we have a place to invite folks to. No more wedding stuff for tonight. I'm pooped.

Here's a little something I ran across in my wanderings today and I wanted to put it in here so I could find it when I got around to actually doing it. I love the idea of Self Portrait Day. This is clearly one of the more inventive memes online.

I hope to join once I get the courage to actually launch this blog (and when we actually have the return of the big 'puter which has now been ailing for almost a week.) The computer doctor has not been entirely truthful with us about what's wrong, what caused the problems or when we might expect resolution (only to say that he's found information but it doesn't seem to be in the folders it once was. Just wonderful. This is our entire business we're talkin' about here...) Lord, please fix it!...please?

Still too much sickness at the house. I'm on day 7 of the antibiotics and don't feel one bit better. Ick. OTOH, we had almost 9" of new snow and it feels more like winter which always cheers me. I'm one of those crazy Northern Michiganders who actually believes that winter here was meant to be cold and snowy...

Almost finished with the boring back to my sweater. I love knitting with the Natura yarn even though it has some acrylic in it (it's 30% wool, 30% alpaca, 37% acrylic and 3% little colorful viscose slubs.) It's really inexpensive, soft, doesn't split easily. Who could complain about this yarn? ...except that I promised myself I'd knit it in pieces according to the pattern and actually seam it instead of warping the pattern into the round like I usually do. Just want to see what it's like, y'know...seaming...so I'm bored knitting across, then purling across. The upside of this is that my purling speed has doubled, easily, and my tension has evened out. A tossup, I s'pose. I did decide that I needed to add a single cable up the front for some contrast (or to alleviate the excruciating boredom I experienced whilst knitting the back...) so I factored in a 12 stitch plait. I was concerned for how the cabling would affect the fit if I threw more than one in. I did some math and wound up increasing by 9 extra stitches after the garter edging. This should compensate for the pulling together of the plait. Once I reach the top I will knit one or two rows plain and do the decrease right under the garter neck edging. Or not...we'll see how it works out, I suppose.

Enough tonight. I think I'll go snuggle a puppy for a while...

Where have I been...? Where am I now...? Why am I asking this...?

2005-02-21T12:06:00.000-05:00

"I 'bin ev'rywhere, man, I 'bin ev'rywhere..." Found this interesting meme at one of the sites I have Bloglined, (can I use that as a verb?) a sweet site called The Bookish Girl

Bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Progress continues slowly on the wedding thing (did I mention that? That dd is getting married in July and that we've gotten almost nothing done about the reception yet? Did I? I was hoping to ignore it...) but now requires that I step away from the laptop and actually go to Saginaw to meet with cake bakers, flower makers and picture takers to pull some details together. Got a hot prospect on the reception site. Now all I need is a small fortune and it'll happen. Perhaps The Donald and his new bride could spare some of the used, discarded centerpieces from their Mar-a-Lago reception...?

In knitting news, no photos yet as the big 'puter is in the shop. Once fixed, I think I have a handle on inputting them here, so there will be yarn shots!

I said, I DON'T knit scarves!

2005-02-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

Photos don't usually lie. But I am a serious knitter...really I am!

...and here I am again...against my will, of course...

2005-02-07T17:39:00.000-05:00

I have developed a serious blog problem. Not the" I have a blog" sort of problem. That might be easier. No, I am spending precious knitting time reading blogs. And one leads into another and another until I have read at least half of the knitting bloggiverse and there is no time left to knit or to sleep or clean or...well, you get the idea. I suppose it'd be easier if I could knit whilst I read, but current wip requires following a pattern yet-to-be-committed to memory. I need a simple sock, I suppose. A foofy scarf (I avoid these like the plague after hemorrhaging them last fall.) A simple stockinette stitch sweater knit in the round. But no...

I did finish a few things recently and might actually figure out how to post their pics when I get off the laptop and onto the big 'puter where all said pics are stored. I have a lovely shawl in Fiesta Yarn's La Boheme in the Sapphire colorway with Rowan's Lurex Shimmer in Navy and Amethyst added to the very heavy fringe. I am enamoured of this shawl! I don't even wear this sort of thing and I adore it. I feel like a princess in it.

Using Prime Alpaca in black, 3 stranded, I completed the beanie in S'n'B Nation for dh, along with a pair of Natalyas out of the same. Added a suede mitten palm patch as these are for work. Yeah, alpaca for work...this is Northern Michigan where it can be -30F in the morning some days, when he's working in an unheated area on sensitive electronics and needs his fingers free to work (and free of frostbite.) These babies are just the ticket. I am putting the link to the pattern in here as these have found a place in my heart and everyone should have access to this fabulous pattern!

Natalyas and beanie

On the heels of this screaming success I managed to ignore the other wips languishing in the basket and cast on for a pair of fingerless gloves (wristers, wristlets, wrist warmers...whatever) for myself. There were two of the most luscious little yarn muffins (don't they look like muffins? I think so...) of balled Koigu KPPPM color 118A sitting atop my bookshelf, defying me to figure out what they should become. And indeed, they are now a pair of self-designed, cabled wristers for moi. I love how something that has such goth overtones can be so cute and useful on me.

And just minutes after I finished washing, blocking and drying them, the UPS guy showed up (no, not with yarn...sadly) and gushed over my accomplishment! (What good taste. He obviously knows knitting and knitters.) He showed me his self-designed wristers too...old work gloves with the fingers ripped off. I decided then and there that he should have a freshly knitted pair. Headed off to the LYS and found that Mission Falls 1824 makes a color that should be called UPS brown. Washable. And easier to knit on size 6 dpns than the size 2 that the Koigu demanded. Glove #1 almost done...glove #2 cast on and ribbing in size 4s. (I was recovering from surgery just before Christmas and forgot to tip the guy...I hope these make up for it a bit...)

Made a foofy scarf (okay, I lied before) for a sweet young thing/friend of ds whom I'm teaching to knit. Used Lion Fun Fur in Rainbow along with their Glitterspun in Black. Just a simple thing...c/o 9 stitches on size 13s, knit 4 rows,* knit 1, y/o* next row, knit across dropping all y/os next row, knit 4 rows...etc. She said it made her feel beeyooteefull! Okay, I guess that sort of response is worth it...

So there's a whole bunch of information logged into cyberspace. I truly have no idea why I'm doing this (I suppose that this is as easy a way to keep a knitting journal as any other) other than the original reason I wound up here, but fwiw, here I am, here it is...

How the heck did I get here?

2005-01-25T18:24:00.000-05:00

I'm quite certain that all I was attempting to do was leave a comment on a knitter's blog, when I got whisked to a page which insisted that I offer it some information which it then transformed into this...blog thing. So here I am. And I still haven't left a comment on the nice lady's blog.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing here, so I will have to research a little bit before I carry this any further, ie., introducing myself, babbling on about who I am and what I do and the universe and such. From the name of the blog I'm sure you can gather that I'm an obsessive knitter...and I don't sleep nearly enough. And there's more...at some later date.

Now I'm off to see if I can finally leave the nice bloglady a comment.