Random Stuff

Just a couple of quick and varied things to talk about today:

1.  Stitches South 2010:   Any of you guys planning on going this year?  Want to meet up? 
Early bird sign up for classes ends Feb. 1st and a couple are already filled up, especially those that Lily Chen is teaching.  I signed up for one class, Basic Pattern Drafting with Melissa Leapman.  This is the first class that I have ever signed up for at Stitches South and it looks like fun. 

2.  I earned my first two $5 gift cards to Amazon over on Swagbucks just by doing searches on their search engine!  Free money, Woohoo!   If anyone is interested in trying it, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the button there.  It really is addictive fun.

3.  The Youngest's official birthday party is tomorrow afternoon and I'm already exhausted from cleaning the house.  I baked the cake at 7:00am this morning and I've got the frosting all colored and  in the fridge firming up.  I've been back and forth to school, to the library and to the grocery store today.   After we finally get the kids in bed I get to vacuum, sweep and mop floors then get started decorating the cake.  The Eldest is ticked off with me because I made him help out by cleaning the bathrooms and picking up the toy room.  He'll get over it.   It could be worse, he could have the rest of the To-Do list to deal with like I do.   :)

Have a Great Weekend!

My GrandMa Says...

I think my favorite ages of children are the years 3, 4 and 5.  They are loose cannons at this age and you never know what they'll say or do.  It's fun to watch them process information and come up with answers.  Unfortunately, before they can process the information, they have to as "Why?" over one hundred times a minute.  The Youngest has reached the "Why?" stage and it's driving me nuts.   Of course my standard reply to this, like most Moms reply, is with "because I said so."  He then looks up at me and says "How?"  At that point I usually grit my teeth and walk away before I commit violence.

He's also started quoting his GrandMa.  Except, most of these supposed quotes, never came out of her mouth!  Let me give you a couple of examples:

1.  Lately, if I raise my voice in anger, he'll look right at me and say, "My GrandMa says to Relax."
2.  If I tell him that he can't have something, like bubble gum he'll say, "My GrandMa says I can have bubble gum."

Evidently, the only conclusion is that GrandMa is the fount of all wisdom.

Today I mentioned that we might go to McDonald's.  Wanna know what unpredictable thing he said then?

"Then," he said very dramatically, "maybe McDonald's will turn into a Magic Vampire House!"  See?  Unpredictable with a capital U.

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I've put up a few new items (stitch markers and jewelry)  in the Etsy store and you can see a few of them if you scroll down and look on the right side of your screen.

I need more knitting time!

Have you ever noticed that there's just not enough knitting time?  I found a slew of patterns that I want to make asap and there's no way I can get to them quick enough.

Check these out:

Flower Sweater - Ravelry link; Japanese link   I love this one and the color too.
Flamingo - Ravelry download  This will be one of the ones that I make first.
Sleeveless Vest - Ravelry link; Japanese link   This would be perfect for summer.
Frill Pullover - Ravelry link; Japanese link  So delicate looking.
Rainy Nora Gaughan - Ravelry link   Very funky
Verbena Knitting - I found so many that I went ahead and subscribed to the magazine.  Just check out Rapunzel for an example: Ravelry link

I can't remember when I've seen so many patterns that I want to knit show up at once. 

Need.  More.  Knitting.  Time.  !!!

Unraveling Thrift Store Sweaters

I took a trip to the Goodwill today and came away with a few prizes.  I ended up with three huge men's sweaters to use for recycled yarn.    The colors were fabulous too: green, red and a dark charcoal.  This is how far I have gotten in unraveling the first sleeve of the green sweater:

It looks to me, without officially testing the gauge that it's somewhere between sock and sport weight. 

If you are interested in learning how to do this on your own, here is an excellent tutorial on the whole "unraveling a sweater process".  It is definitely a bit tricky to figure out, but after a while, you'll find your sweaters growing smaller and smaller and ...