Need new WIPs

Can you believe it? I currently have absolutely nothing on the needles. For some unknown reason, both of my WIPs managed to get finished at the same time. I'm getting edgy already. My fingers need something to do.

So what did I do? I made the mistake of looking at the yarn sale board over at the Knitty Coffeeshop. I now have some yummy Colrain yarn coming my way to make the Minimalist Cardigan from Fall 2007 IK. The subtle color of the Grey/Olive yarn will be perfect for this cardi.

Here's the Grey/Olive yarn:

Minimalist Cardigan

AND I need a shawl for this one summer dress that I have. I bought the yarn for that on Monday.

So, now I need to get to work. I need to cast on and make my Dad some socks as well.

Duct tape can fix anything

Well, our luck (my hubby says there's no such thing as luck, but I think he' full of crap) turned for the better on the weekend. Eldest had a wonderful birthday weekend. There were presents, family, a moonwalk and fireworks galore and no major disasters (barring one incident with a face scratching cat, of course - Eldest was safe, youngest, not so much.)

I'm afraid the moonwalk was not all that we hoped for and once blown up was not like the picture that I posted previously. There were a gazillion small holes in it. The previous owner did not take good care of it. I need to buy a lot of official patch kits for it. But! There's a reason that my Dad says that duct tape can fix everything (he also says the same about kerosene, but that's another post.) I now present to you, The Official Redneck Moonwalk!

Check out that duct tape!

Eldest loved it anyway and had a wonderful time.

My dad took this wonderfully unflattering pic of me eating a celery stick.

My knitting totally sucked this weekend. I made the mistake of picking up an old ball of acrylic yarn to take and knit with while I was at my folks house. It made my hands ache so bad I pitched the whole thing. Note to self - ditch all synthetic yarn! Not only does it squeak when you knit with it, it doesn't glide on the needles. That's reason enough for me to become a yarn snob. Even if it does cost a few pennies more!

Free Breast Augmentations!

That's it. I'm moving to Australia and joining the military!
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22424066-2,00.html

Little black rainclouds

I'm starting to think there's a little black rain cloud following me around. It's not like we're not already having financial troubles or anything and stressing over that.

Well, I got a phone call yesterday around 2pm from the eldest's school. It seems some older, bigger kid came running around a corner and mowed the eldest down. When he fell, his wire rimmed glasses tore a nice gash on his forehead. I got him, practically threw the youngest out the car door at his grandmother's and headed for the doctor.

I wanted to go straight to Scottish Rite hospital but the hubby said to call the doctor first and see if they could take care of it. I called the doc on the phone and they said "We can't do stitches, you'll have to take him to Urgent Care" and they gave me the phone number. I then drove to the Urgent Care place. Once there I heard "I'm sorry, but we don't take your insurance." So, I called the insurance people as I got back in the car and was told to go to the next location. Got there finally, and was told "We can't do this, you'll have to head to Scottish Rite hospital."

By this time, I was absolutely fuming. All I wanted was to at least get the Eldest some kind of pain meds and then stitches. Of course it was 4:30ish. I had to go and fight afternoon Atlanta traffic (rush hour starts at 3:30) to go to the hospital. I should have done what I wanted to do all along and head straight there.

We finally got someone to look at him. It turns out the gash on the forehead was almost down to the bone. Poor baby. He was a real trooper the whole time. He got 10 stitches in his forehead. He was absolutely starving during all this and they wouldn't let him eat or drink the whole time we were there (which was a while). He hadn't eaten since 11:30 that morning. We didn't get home until after 8:30pm and he was losing it emotionally thanks to low blood sugar, exhaustion and the trauma of it all. And to top it off, I forgot to grab my knitting out the door. Although, I did get to watch the doctor do some stitching on the kid and that was so cool!


Here's the eldest in all his stitchly glory:



That was yesterday. But wait! It gets better.

Today around 5pm I walked into the garage and it was flooded. Turns out, the hot water heater busted and water was everywhere. We flew into action and started throwing towels and blankets down and moving boxes around. Our garage is packed with boxes and junk. not good. You know things are bad when the emergency plumber comes over and says "Holy Moly!"

I am trying to contain the kids inside now and stay out of hubby's way. He's not the happiest nicest person right now. Stress pretty much brings out his evil side.

Do we have cash to pay for the past two days? No. But we do have a credit card! yeah for credit cards!

On the bright side, we get a nice shiny new hot water heater! Maybe, just maybe, I will be able in the future to take a shower and not get scalded or have my body painfully soaked with cold water when someone flushes the toilet. Got to love the bright side!

Annie Modesitt Silk Corset Top

Well, I had a choice yesterday. I could blog or I could knit. Knitting won. But only because I was so freakin' close to finishing the Annie Modesitt Silk Corset Top. Except mine is done in bamboo, not silk and was worked size 7 needles, not size 6 as called for in the pattern. I have to do the single crochet around the neckline today and I still need buttons, which I plan on getting this afternoon. I also plan on getting some grosgrain ribbon to sew in behind the button band to stabilize the opening and keep it from gaping. I may end up sewing the two sides together if the grosgrain plan doesn't work and just put it on by sliding over my head. We'll see. This thing is so beautiful. I'm very proud of myself. I didn't think I'd ever get this project this far.

Word of warning to the beginning knitter about this pattern:

1. Annie is a damn genius when it comes to yarn and sticks, but this pattern is not written for beginners. I consider myself somewhere in the beginning Intermediate range of knitting skills and it took frogging it 5 times for me to finally get the pattern. She assumes that you already know how to knit.

2. Some of the directions were not self explanatory. The mini-cables come to mind. Simple once you figure out which stitches to cable, but she doesn't exactly point this out. She also is not very clear on repeats of each section and how many times to do each.

3. When you do attempt this pattern, use lifelines and lots of stitch markers! I could have saved myself a world of trouble if I had bothered to do this after and or during each section of the pattern.

4. Also, it is critical that you look very closely at the long written out instructions about each section as you go along. This makes you have to constantly flip between the beginning of the pattern and the charts/knittese (my own made up word for knitting language).

5. This pattern requires concentration. This is not a pattern to do in the company of others while chatting. Also not good to do on the side of a basketball court when the basketball players are all 6 and 7 years of age and have no control over the ball. just sayin'.

6. One more note about the pattern. This comes in a .pdf. It prints out really wonky too. I know she mentions how to put it together, but this never worked for me. I just cut out each page, put it in the right order and made a booklet out of it with staples.

Those things being said and warned about, I loved this pattern. It's beautiful all knitted up and you don't get bored during the knitting process. (Possibly frustrated, but not bored.) I learned a ton of stuff during this project, mostly about reading my own knitting.

Here's some pics of the corset so far. Please remember this has not been completely finished and has not been blocked.

Overall view. pre-blocked

View of the lace-worked ruffled bottom edge./pre-blocked

View of the Neckline - pre-crocheted. pre-blocked

Knittingfool

This post is mainly a note to myself, but feel free to look this up yourselves!

Thanks to the Knitty forum, I found a fantastic site for knitting stitches. As described in the forum, it's kinda like the online version of the Barbara Walker treasuries. You can see it here at the Knitting Fool.

Pavarotti and Sting

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Sting fanatic. I absolutely adore his music, with or without The Police. What they probably don't know is that I also really loved to listen to Pavarotti. The man had the voice of an angel. Nobody did it better. I was so sad to learn of Pavarotti's death a few days ago.

Today I found a video on YouTube of them both together. I really love this. They blend very well together. It's surprising considering the vastly different music genres that they represented. This was done in 1992 and I could watch it over and over.

big score!

Today was such a fun day. Today was the day that the committee of the Lil' Lambs Closet consignment sale got to shop for goodies. We get the first pick and usually the best stuff that comes through the doors on both toys and clothing. Of course we work our proverbial behinds off to get that privilege though.

I got a major score. A Moonwalk/Slide Combo! It was $95. Around these parts, you can't even begin to rent one of these for a day for that price. I'll be able to use this for both boys' birthday parties for years. I was thrilled at this buy. Yes, it was a much bigger purchase on one item than I would normally buy, but when you stretch the price by several years, wow. And, my brother can borrow it for his kids too. My kids don't know about it yet. We're taking it to the lake for Eldest's birthday on the 15th to surprise him with it. Well, it'll be a surprise if we can keep it hidden. It's rather huge.

It looks similar to this when blown up:

It's not a castle though. I'll post pics when we've got it up and running. Cool!

Wake me when it's over

I'm tired of the second sock. Second Sock Syndrome has arrived. I just want this sock to be over and done with. I've only got about two inches or so left on the leg and then it'll finally be over. It's not that I don't like these socks or that I'm tired of the color of the yarn or anything. I think I'm just tired in general.

Wake me when it's over please.

*****

I finally finished organizing my consignment sale stuff and got it turned in and now I'm concentrating on my actual committee job of dealing with the phones. When a sale begins, we have a registration and the people who want to sell their kid stuff get a seller number. Once we are out of numbers, well, we're out. However, these people I deal with over the phone, just don't get the concept. I can't give a seller number out if I don't have one can I? I even say that plainly on the voicemail that they listen to. Still, they beg, they plead, they demand, they get mean or they try reasoning to get one of the numbers. I crack up at the reasons they use to try and coerce me into giving them a number. An couple of examples of a voicemail like this would be:

"Hi. I'm XXXX XXXXXXX, and I'm a church member so I should be given a number. Mrs. VVVVVVV said it would be ok."

or,

"Hi, I'm BBBBB BBBBB, and my neighbor's uncle's cousin's children go to the preschool there. So, can I have a number?"

*****

Let me tell ya, Widget was a huge help in the organizing of the clothes I had to sell!

Everything looks fine from under here!

Happy Birthday Post

Happy Birthday to my Computer Geek Baby Brother! He's 32 today!

new toy

I got a new toy in the mail yesterday - a ball winder. Did I get to use it? Well, yes and no. It did get used, just not by me. I did get a new cake of yarn out of it and got to see the new swift in action.

Everyone get in on the winding

My parents brought the Westie (named Minnie Pearl) to visit too. She and the youngest watched it rain for a while. It amazes me sometimes what babies find fascinating.

This was too cute not to share.

Dogs!

This might be one of the best knit sweaters that I've ever seen. Go check it out. Someone's got a great imagination.


Remember the exploding dog I spoke of in my last post? Well here she is in all her Chow/Shepard fuzzybutt goodness:

Hi, I'm Jette and my hobbies are exploding and chasing cats

I'm also into begging for whatever you're eating

And this is her furry counterpart, Cessna, the Spaniel/Beagle alpha dog. Yes, we named our dogs after airplanes. We figured Jette was bigger and faster and Cessna was smaller and slower and somehow the names just stuck. We had Jette first and someone else had already named her. When we brought Cessna home from the pound, she just sort of took over the leadership position and now runs the entire household.

Hi I'm Cessna, but you may call me boss mama

First, Next and Last

First Up: Child update - better, but not all there yet. All I'll say about that.

Next Up: Consignment sale madness is here! Check out the wreck of a dining room. Imagine the opposite side of the room and the back wall and most of the dining room table looking roughly the same and you'll have an accurate picture of what I am trying to sort, enter on a spreadsheet and tag. AAAAHHH! And this is just the winter stuff folks. There's almost as much summer clothing in the attic. Ick! Please ignore any dog hair that you see on the floor. She exploded on the floor. (She's a chow mix and it's really frickin' hot here and instead of shedding outside she did it inside in about two hours. God help me.) I promise it's been cleaned up. I have to try (really hard) and look at it like it's black roving as I vacuum it up or I'll completely gross out. Thank goodness the rest of the house is hard wood or tile. Can we please get those organization, cleaning people from tv to come clean this mess up? Also, the dog whisperer guy while we're at it. Maybe he can train her to roll and shed somewhere besides my dining room carpet. The rest of the house looks quite different. just so you know.

Help!

Last Up: Knitting! If you've read the previous couple of installments in my life, you will know why this sock is going so slowwwwlllyyyy. So, here to brighten up the sock with a little luxury is an emerald green velvet background. Of course the sock is inside out, cause I wanted it that way. That's just how I roll dude.

More for the hypochondriacs

Update: Well, last night was not fun for Mommy. Youngest's temperature spiked at 105.5. We were up with him watching the Wiggles in the middle of the night while giving him a sponge-bath and filling him up with Tylenol. He's back down to 101 and much better as of this morning. Not completely happy, but not listless anymore.

More for the hypochondriacs out there: Who Is Sick? Here's the write up for it:

"Misery loves company, and if you're a sicko who can't find any good real-world company, you can now turn to the virtual world with the Who Is Sick? database. This fun beta site maps out illnesses, showing you who's got what (runny nose, cough, fever, headache, muscle ache, stomach ache, or whatever) and where. It's a beta site, so the interface can be buggy at times, and it's hit or miss whether any sickies have joined up yet from your neighborhood. Still, it's a good little time-waster-and when you're sick, it can be oddly comforting to know that others nearby are suffering the same symptoms."

Obviously, knitting is down to a crawl at this point. I am in the middle of the heel now though.

hy·po·chon·dri·a

hy·po·chon·dri·a (hī'pə-kŏn'drē-ə)
n.

1. The persistent conviction that one is or is likely to become ill, often involving symptoms when illness is neither present nor likely, and persisting despite reassurance and medical evidence to the contrary. Also called hypochondriasis.
2. Plural of hypochondrium.

I may be one of the worst hypochondriacs in known existence. If someone around me sneezes, has the sniffles, has a temperature (that's a fever for those of you not raised in the south), has aches and pains, headaches, etc. I start feeling some of those same symptoms. All too often I manage to talk myself into being sick. It's tragic, I swear.

Why do I bring this up you ask? At around 2:30 am, the youngest child alarm went off. He was inconsolable and burning up at 102 degrees. I got lucky and got him back to sleep in his own bed at around 3:30. Today he was absolutely horrible to live with. Still had a temperature, had a runny nose, was grumpy and Mommy could do no right.

By 5pm I could swear I was starting to get the same symptoms! Jeez. That's just what I need.

I would have gotten a picture of the little miserable creature, but I was afraid that if I got my camera out he would pretend to be one of those arrogant superstars that grab cameras and smash them. Besides, it's hard to grab a camera when you have to hold a 20 month old all day.

UPDATE (11:59pm): Two hours ago we were frantically trying to get his temp. down from 105 degrees. It worked somewhat (much better), it's around 100 degrees now. Depending on how well he sleeps, you might be getting another update in a few hours. PS - the hubby just started complaining of phantom aches, it totally cracked me up. There's two of us in the house!

New Yarn

New yarn! This will be used to make a pair of socks for Dad for Christmas. There's more yarn coming in the mail and a new toy! I'll show ya as soon as I get it!

Sorry, dark pic. Click to enlarge and see more detail.

If it can be climbed while holding a chocolate chip cookie and wearing pajamas, then it should be climbed while holding a chocolate chip cookie and wearing pajamas!

After going off on some major tangents, we now return you to your regularly scheduled knitting blog:

"The house has gone to pot, but my knitting is proceeding fabulously"

Today, it's Progress Report Time!

First, Evening knitting: After numerous debacles with the Annie Modesitt Silk Corset Top, I think I've finally figured it out. I'm so glad I frogged the first one. I found a major error that I made the first few (or 4 or 5) times. I'm not talking about the kind of error where you realize that, oops, you have an extra stitch on your needles and you just k2tog to fudge it. Nope, this was one of those big 'ol mama, never going to be able to recover from, errors.

I am finally reading this pattern the way it was meant to be read. Please don't ask me why I didn't get it the first couple (or bazillion) times around. What's that funny colored line going through the project, you ask? This time I got smart and put in a lifeline. Can ya see it? I figured that if I have to frog back, it's only going to be a portion this time and not the whole friggin' thing!

Coming along nicely now, thanks for askin'

I'm amazed at all the things that I am continually learning with my knitting. Not just new techniques, but really learning to read the stitches. As a self-taught person, I don't exactly do each technique the way others would, but the results are the same as long as I pay attention.

One thing that I've noticed is that when I'm working in the round, whether it be socks or sweaters, is that I knit through the front loop and everything is fine. However, when I work flat, evidently I do something a little wonky with my purling and end up having to knit through the back loop to keep my stitches from being twisted. I figure as long as I pay attention, I'll be just fine. I just have to be careful with those patterns that say to knit through the back loop and do the opposite. Does anyone else have these kinds of issues?



Second Item, Car Pool Line knitting: . Almost ready to start the heel.

The second sock proceedeth thusly

Imponderable of the Day: Why, with all the toys that are overflowing out of every pore of this freakin' house, must a baby play with (and in) a box? Do houses really have pores?

Cuteness in a Pampers box!

Interesting, yet scary

This has absolutely nothing to do with knitting or family, I just thought it was neat. I spend a lot of time roaming the internet. One of the sites I go to is called Digg. I found this through a posting on that site.

Now, I knew that you can trace an IP address, I just never knew how. Now I know. You can go to this site here and find out more about it and other neat stuff, or you can watch the video below. What I find interesting about this, is that any and every site that you visit (not interact with, just visit) collects your IP address.

Yes, even the bloggers like me can see 'em. I'm only going to do this to my Mom to freak her out though, not you. I promise. But Mom's are fair game! :)

They could trace you to either your residence or work place using this technique. The government has been doing this for years. Hackers have been doing this for years.

I know that there are ways to hide your IP address and if you want that information you're gonna have to Google it for yourselves cause I don't have a clue. But, for every way that I learn how to hide it, I'm positive that the hackers (who are usually smarter than you and me put together) and the government have figured out how to get around my hiding it. So what's the point?

Interesting yet scary huh?

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Trace Any IP Address Or Website! - video powered by Metacafe

Apt huh?

Truly Apt huh? (If you're confused, please see previous post.)

click to enlarge

Stuffed pig's feet and potato chip salad

Do you truly appreciate how your parents can affect you for the rest of your life?

My Dad used to work for Eastern Airlines before they went defunct. While checking everybody in as they arrived for their flight, he got tired of constantly hearing "what's the meal on this flight?" So, one day he answered "Catfish, grits and jello." Needless to say he got some funny looks, but the people quit asking stupid questions.

I, too, get the question "Mom, what's for dinner?" every night as I'm cooking. You'd think that the eldest would learn to stop asking this question.

The other night I made stuffed chicken. The way it was wrapped suggested the look of a hoof. I also made au gratin potatoes from a box. When asked the inevitable question, I answered "Stuffed pig's feet and potato chip salad." You should have seen the look on his face.

Another time my answer was "Dog food with fish poopy water (from the aquarium of course) to drink."

You really would think that he'd quit askin' wouldn't ya?

blogiversary

AAgghh! Would you believe I missed my blogiversary on August 8th? Not only the first anniversary of my blog but the first anniversary of my first ever knitted Finished Object! I was so proud of that first FO. Even if it was done flat in Red Heart acrylic. I proved to myself that I can do this knitting stuff!

Yep, I've been knitting for approximately one year now. Man, it's gone by fast and I've learned a ton. Thank you all you Knitty and Craftster folks for all your assistance in the learning process!

Supervisor Widget says what a great idea this blog was that she had!

Seriously great day

Today was a seriously good day. I ditched all motherly duties and responsibilities, foisted them off on the hubby and went shopping for makeup and purses and cheesecake. We're talkin' serious heaven here folks.

AND, I got a sock off the needles:



Taking a picture of a sock on your foot and making sure the picture is clear is not the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. The second sock is already on the needles, but may take a while to complete since I'm only working on it in the afternoon school car pool lines. Oh the joy of being a knitting mom. Doesn't my life sound exciting?

So, I'm going to make myself sit down in the evenings and start working on the corset again. I got seriously bummed by ripping it off the needles 4 times. I WILL finish this. I want it, I have to have it and I will look so sexy-fine wearing it too! :)

Lookit Mah New Toy!

I was in a Walmart the other day with my Mom and the eldest. We were in the craft section looking at some baskets (the Westie needed something to contain her ever growing amount of toys.) I was in site of but nowhere near the yarn section when I heard a small voice saying very loudly "Avoid the Yarn Temptation Mom!" Now really, I would never ::cough:: ever ::cough:: even dream of looking at yarn. really. No more VeggieTales morality stories for him.

***

Lookit Mah New Toy!

Shea's New Yarn Swift!

My awesome friend Darrell made me a Yarn Swift! For free! Or at least close to it - I did take him out to lunch for it. He's amazing! Not only does it work, it's collapsible. I'll need to make a case to hold it, but I'm so stoked about this! I've already ordered some new yarn so I can play with it. :)

He got extra brownie points from the 19 mo. old. The kid loves anything that spins. He's spent tons of time whirling this thing around. He thinks it's his and not mine!

Garfield Wannabe

Does your cat do this? How do they breathe like this? It can't be comfortable can it?

Hi, I'm Tiger and I'm a Garfield Wannabe.

Earricuss Gigantus

Messiouss Babious + Mosquitoe = Earricuss Gigantus

This is what happens when a 19 month old and an itty-bitty mosquito rendezvous. You get a hugely swollen ear. Notice how it's standing straight out from his head! When the youngest woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon, he had a huge Dumbo ear. I rushed him to the doctor to find out why my baby had elephantitus of the ear. The doctor just glanced at him and said "oh, it's just a bug bite." So, $30 dollars spent to be told he had a bug bite. lovely. The swelling is still not completely down, but it's getting better.

Sillius Boyius with new Glasses

Yesterday was a lovely comedy of errors. First, found giganta ear on baby. Second, made Dr. appointment. Then, left 20 minutes early to pick up eldest from first day of school. This part was HELL. Very unorganized pick up situation due to construction and first day confusion. This resulted in us being 20 minutes late to the doctor. Only to be told about the bug bite.

Oh Well. Today was much better. Thank God. I actually got two repeats done on the sock I was knitting in the car pool line.

Happy Dance, New Sock

Use your imagination for a moment and picture me at this moment doing a major happy dance. YIPPEEEE!!! School has started once again!

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY.

Ok, I feel better now. I was sick to death of hearing "Mom, what can I do?" said in a whiny tone of voice. When I made suggestions, they were never the ones Eldest wanted to hear. I swear, People with no children will never understand the joy that school starting again can bring.

Proud of himself!

I promised I'd show the new sock that I'm working on. This is from Charlene Schurch's book, Sensational Knitted Socks. This is the Laburnum Socks. I'm using the red and purple yarn that I dyed here. I've been itching to try the yarn out and see how it would work up and I love it! Lookee - stripes! Even the gray is getting in on the act. I'm impressed. I wasn't even looking to make self-striping yarn.

OOOH, AAHH!

Look closely at the terrible Microsoft Paint addition to the photo. See, I do my best knitting if I have something to listen to. The Green is what I managed to do at my Mom and Dad's last week during idle chitchat. The Yellow is the heel I completed watching Mission Impossible 1. The Red/Blue was done watching M.I.2 Have I told you how much that movie sucks? Consider this my first movie review. (Yes, if you didn't know before, you know now - I'm like umpteen dozen years behind in movies.) Why did I get so little done? I walked out of the living room after about 20 minutes or so. I left the hubby to torture himself with the rest of the movie.

FO and Fun in the Sun

I've got lots of pics for you from the last week, but I'm going to break them down into separate days.

First, here's the spruce ankle socks that I finally finished. I left them at Mom's. On purpose, natch. I have an extremely narrow foot and these were way too wide for me. Luckily, Mom has a wider foot than I, so someone gets to enjoy them. Forgive me for showing you two pics, but read the captions and you'll understand. They turned out okay, but I wasn't real enthused about them. Not sure if it's the colorway, which is very pretty, or the plain stockinette, but it took sheer willpower (why can't I use willpower to get over the chips ahoy cookie fetish I have?) to get over the second sock syndrome this time around.

This is sort of a hybrid sock I suppose. It's a toe-up sock (love the toe-ups - so practical.)
I used the magic cast-on for the toe, which is awesome by the way. Plain stockinette for the foot, and used Wendy's generic toe up recipe to do the short row heels (which I'm getting the hang of - sorta) and 2 x 2 rib for the ankle.

Blurry, but the color is right

Clear, but the color is way too dark

I started a new toe-up sock, but I'll share that later.

Fun In the Sun Part 1:
Look at these two photos closely. Can you see a shared trait? Can you tell they're brothers? Check out those tongues stickin' out!

What's happened this week?

Sorry for not posting for a while, I'm on vacation with the kids. Not much of a vacation since the kids are still managing to raise my blood pressure to unhealthy levels, but even so.

Lots of stuff has happened in the past couple of days. I'll have pictures later, but here's the highlights:

1. Eldest is getting his first set of glasses tomorrow. In less than two months, his eyes have become 75% worse. He's excited now, but I still feel sorry for him. Too much hateful teasing is heading his way. It's mine and my husband's fault. blind as bats both of us (or, at least I was until some wonderful lasik surgery).

2. Found out my uncle has prostate cancer and may have more bad news coming his way when more biopsies are done. Please keep him in your prayers.

3. A 19 month old and a puppy are beautiful to watch together until they decide on both doing something they shouldn't at the same time.

4. I got over the second sock syndrome and finished the Spruce socks. Will have pics soon.

Posts will still be sporadic over the next couple of days. Thank God school starts next Wednesday so that we can get back on a decent schedule again and the almost seven year old can get the sillies out at school again and not at home. He's driving me nuts.

Stair Fun!

There are some days that it just doesn't pay to knit. I frogged the corset twice tonight. Fourth times a charm right? We'll see when we begin version 4 tomorrow.

On a lighter note, the youngest learned a new trick today. How to slide down stairs. He was so proud of himself. Everytime his little bottom hit the next stair down he said "Wheeee!"

See for yourself:

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Croquettes!

Hi there!

I have absolutely no knitting to show you. Things are moving quite slow in that department. I did cast on for the corset again. This time using the i-cord cast on that Annie suggested using the first time she published the pattern. Why it disappeared from the pattern, I have no idea. The only reason I learned about it was from reading other blogs and forums and reading up on how others progressed with the pattern. It is definitely more stretchy than what I previously used and I really like it much better.

I do however, have a recipe for you today. This is a comfort food dish for me. My mom used to make this quite a bit as we were growing up. Since my husband is allergic to fish, I have to use the chicken substitute, but it's really much better with the salmon. So without further ado, here's her recipe with a few comments here and there from yours truly:

Salmon (or Chicken) Croquettes

vegetable oil
1 large can of salmon, undrained (you can also substitute a can of chicken)
1 large egg
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup cornmeal mix (MIX, not straight cornmeal)
buttermilk - very small amount (see below)

In a skillet or frying pan, add vegetable oil until bottom is covered. Heat on Medium heat until it is hot enough for frying.

Mix all ingredients except the buttermilk. At this point the mixture should be pretty thick. If it's not, add a bit more of the cornmeal mix. Now that you've gotten it good and thick, thin it down again with the buttermilk until it is just thin enough to dip with a spoon. (If you add too much buttermilk, you can always thicken it up again with the cornmeal mix). Adding the buttermilk not only thins it, it also helps the croquettes brown better.

about this thick

As the spoonful of mixture is dropped into the oil, they should spread slightly.

Fry these until both sides are golden brown. Place them on folded paper towels to soak up any extra oil from the frying.

Please ignore the one on the right. This became a little more crispy than is should've when the cook had to go rescue a 16 lb. cat, the tv remote controls and an elder brother from the octopus arms of the 18 month old.

Enjoy!

Back to sqare one.

Would you like to see the progress of the corset I've been knitting? Would you really? Well, how's this for excitement?

back to square (circle?) one.

Yep. It's been rrrriipppped! I knew that some small mistakes had been made in the corset, and I was willing to let those go. But, stupid me took the project out of the home at a very poor time. The pattern required a lot more attention than it received at eldest's basketball camp. I made a whopper of a mistake. It was actually a good thing in the long run. I took it off the needles and tried it on to see if the size that I was knitting was a good one and decided that I wanted to go up a size anyway. I'm not that comfortable with a sweater that is that tight anyway. Better to find this out now, halfway through than when I finally get the whole thing done. So, we're considering this a test run for the pattern. I think that Annie Modesitt, the author of this pattern is an absolute knitting goddess and I'm amazed that someone could just come up with something so beautiful just out of the blue. However, that being said, I do wish that she would "dumb down" or explain the pattern better, just a bit more. Now that I've been almost the entire way through the pattern, I understand it. mostly. Granted, I bit off more than I could chew on this one perhaps. I'm still very young in knitting years, right around advanced beginner or so. But, by golly I'm going to do this one or bust!

I got a little smarter tonight at the bball camp.

Look! a toe-pocket!

It's much easier to work on a plain old stockinette stitch sock than a lacy sweater when there's the chance of getting hit in the head with a basketball that's in the control of a bunch of six year olds . Won't make that mistake again. promise.
At least this is helping me get past the second sock syndrome on this last of the pair of socks in the Spruce yarn.

Interesting/Strange

Found something interesting today. Did you know there is a site called the fantasy blog stock market? I had no idea that this even existed. You can check here to see where my lil' ol' blog is on their site. There were people who were actually voting to see what kind of blog this is. Some of the entries were for female, knitting, fiber arts, crafts and photoblogs (no photo today, sorry).

Please be aware that I am not promoting their site or trying to persuade you from going to their site, I was just surprised to find my blog on it. I'm aware that little search spiders put me there, but still. Why on earth would someone be interested in trading fantasy shares of my blog for heavens sake? Strange.

I was reading in a forum where people were listing the strange things that led people to their site (which is how I came across the above stuff). So, out of curiosity, I had to check mine. There was
"hair care disasters"
"dyed pink haired westie" - why would someone want to dye their westie's hair pink? Unless, of course, they gave it a mohawk first and dyed that hot pink, then maybe I could see that one.

and my two favorites:
"Shea recipes" - didn't know you needed a recipe to get one of me! :) and
"change Shea scent recipe" - what's wrong with the way I smell? Don't answer that one, please.

free stuff costs $$$

Ya ever noticed how free stuff costs you money? Two examples that happened this week:

1. Some tenants moved out of a rental house that we have and left a bunch of stuff. One of those being a sega-genesis game system (one of the old original ones). Eldest happens to be a video game junkie and was thrilled. The system was missing a cord, so there was $13 bucks spent on a cord and one used game for it.

2. Free Braves tickets from a rich uncle who has season tickets. Hubby wasn't going to go. He's been in a terrible depression from the job and has been turning into a house hermit. He desperately needed a night out. I had to almost pick a fight with him to get him and eldest to go. They both had a great time and after I got the youngest to bed, I had a relaxing evening to myself. Of course they had to get drinks and peanuts at ball park prices but I consider that evening worth it!

So, I got a little bit more on the corset done. I'm on chart D and working my way through the mini cables. Here's some pics of the project right before I started on that section.
I can't wait to finish this. I think I'm going to try Annie's new corset top after this! It's been fun to do this one. There are several mistakes hidden in there, but I "think" they're not going to be noticeable to anyone but me, especially since I'm the only person I know around here that knits. :)

Why ME? rant

Why ME? Why do I get stuck in long lines with older men who feel compelled to tell me their life stories? For the second time in recent history (see here for the first) , I had to sit and listen to this older dude tell me the following:

1. "Oh, you live over on ******* street. Well, let me tell you, I was one of the people that framed your house. As a matter of fact, I framed all the houses in that neighborhood."

2. "I live over on **** street for 27 years. Yep, 27 years until my wife decided she wanted a divorce and kept the house. Yessir, I had just got that house completely paid for and then I had to go and start payin' on another house. My daughter and her boy live there too. It's over back behind the high school. We watch the kids run track and play football over there all the time."

3. "My grandson is five. He's going to be in kindergarten at ***** school. We thought about going to ***** school, but decided that ***** school was closer."

Now, I'm all for being friendly. I like meeting people, really, I do. But, there's a limit to how much I want to find out about them at the first meeting. Are these folks just that lonely or just that dumb? I mean, what if I was a spy, a home burglary expert, or a child kidnapper even? I've just learned your life story, where you live, where your ex-wife lives, where your grandchild lives, that you have a grandson going to X school. These people are ripe for pickin'. Scary.

But seriously, why me? Do I have a huge sign on my forehead that says "If you're over 55, please, tell me your life story while you waste an hour of your time in line?"

Cursed by the cemetery?

Well! Long time, no speak. Last week is such a blur. I was very busy for the 4th. My number two nephew had his official Hindu naming ceremony that day. I didn't understand a word of the ceremony since I don't speak that Indian, but it was basically wishing him health, wealth and a long life.

Here's a pic of the little butterball. He's so cute. When he smiles he looks like Buddy Hackett! It's so funny. He's so sweet and he can pucker up for a kiss like nobody's business. Here's proof:

Me and the nephew

Not a flattering pic of me, but I wanted to show the world that cute little fella.

After that was over, eldest and I dropped off the youngest and the hubby and then we went to catch the fireworks over the Marietta Square. This area gets incredibly crowded during the fireworks and it's hard to find a good vantage point, but we did it. We and about 100 other folks set up shop in one of the cemeteries (sounds creepy doesn't it?) and it was great. Very loud and very bright. Evidently most folks don't like sitting in cemeteries. That's just fine by me.

On the knitting front, I've only gotten a few more rows in the corset. It's coming along slowly. I finished the armholes and I'm about to start all the ribbing. I'm not feeling real confident about it. It feels like the tension is too loose on it, but we'll see.

Eldest and I have caught colds. Hmmm... maybe a curse from the cemetery?

Sock update and what I found in the puppy kennel

Sock Update: This may be TMI for the un-knitterly folk out there, but this is also my working notes. If I don't write it down somewhere, I'll never get a second sock like this one.

I told you I had the first one finished and here it is. It's a hybrid of sorts. I did the magic cast on for the toe. Sounds fancy doesn't it? The circumference of the sock started at 30 stitches. I, however, have an incredibly narrow skinny foot. So, after the toe was complete, I did 6 rows of 30 then decreased to 28 sts. This actually worked pretty well.

I did plain stockinette on the body of the sock then did a short row heel. See, here's the problem with being a self-taught combo knitter, there's no-one to consult when you get stuck. Short rows and I currently do not get along. I wish, desperately, that I had someone to show me the proper way to wrap these. I really need to find a sock knitting class somewhere. These turned out okay, just not exactly good. Maybe I'll catch on when I get to the second sock. I was pretty disgusted with the heel thing so by the time I got to the top of the foot I gave out of steam and turned them into ankle socks with a 2x2 rib.

One lesson learned with these: when the directions say you may want to pick up an extra stitch when working the heel, do it! I have a lovely little hole on either side of the ankle that I now get to go back and sew up. great. just great.

Love the colors in this yarn!

In an effort to avoid the other sock, here's the progress on my Annie Modesitt Silk Corset - 'cept it's gonna be bamboo. I'm sure that sooner or later this will drive me back to the other sock. I can only take patterns for so long before I go nuts. Of course, that also goes for short row heels. This bamboo is really pretty. It's got a nice low key sheen to it.

Photographs nicely on the side of the grill doesn't it?

You turn your back for two seconds and an 18 month old disappears. That's it, that's all it takes and God help you if he gets quiet about it. So, I heard the silence and went looking (rushing) for him. Couldn't find him the first go-around the house, so I went again. Remember that we are puppy-sitting for a few days?

Look what I found in the puppy kennel today!