Part of my insane household

I live in an insane household.

I have a two year old (who has blood sugar issues) that I cannot get to eat and who turns into a raving lunatic when when he doesn't. I also have a bizarre cat that suffers from bulimia (sp?) and tries to eat all the puppy food before the puppy can get to it then promptly throws it back up.

I finally moved the bowl next to my desk so that I could guard the bowl. The other dogs want her food too. I swear they circle like a school of sharks. It's quite amusing as none of them like each other.

Here's Widget sitting there staring at the bowl and waiting for me to turn my back. You'll note the obligatory Hot Wheels car. I'm thinking that my kids just might be on the Hot Wheels product placement payroll since one seems to show up in almost every pic I take around here.

What an afternoon!

What an afternoon I've had. Let me just tell you....

I decided today that I would be industrious and cut both boy's hair today. I gave up years ago on the ridiculous cost of haircuts for children in this area. Do you know that they charge around $8 to $15 bucks to cut kids hair? Forget it. I went out and bought a $19.00 set of hair trimmers and never looked back.

The Eldest went first

But you really don't know what fun it is to try and strong-arm a precocious two year old while taking the shears to his head. Watching the Eldest get his hair cut first helped a little. Having him sit of his own accord in a chair didn't work. Holding him with one arm while sitting on the floor and holding the shears in the other hand didn't work. Putting him in the high chair and buckling him down and giving him a small cup of chocolate chips Worked! He wasn't thrilled, but he didn't really fight it anymore.

After the wrestling match

There was a huge pile of hair left over after I balded the two of them.

The pan was overflowing

What else happened this afternoon you ask?

Well, first the Youngest lost his "papper" (pacifier) in the back yard and we had to have a scavenger hunt to find it before the puppy did.

Next, once we were inside he got into the pantry and removed the labels from the two containers that hold flour and threw them into the trash can when I wasn't looking. I had to guess which one the self rising one was so that I could make Buttermilk biscuits to go with supper.

Then, a little later I was putting my gray/pink sweater back on the needles (I had put it on scrap yarn to try it on) and heard "Mommy, got poopies in pahnts." That got my attention pretty quick, and I looked up to see his pants and diapers around his ankles and his little tushy in site of God and everyone. Luckily he still gets confused about the proper "potty" words and the diaper was only wet. I don't even want to think about the mess that could have been at that point.

And last, I caught him trying to shove a barbie shoe up his nose. (don't ask why we have a couple of barbies around a house full of boys)


Did I mention that all of this happened in a two hour time span?

Would anyone care for a used Two year old? He's free to a good home.

A-HA!

I had an A-HA! moment today. Today was the day where I figured out what went wrong with my Circular Shrug. Remember this?



In this pic, the arrow is pointing to the ribbing. I just couldn't figure out why this side was wider. Well, duh. I skipped a most important line in the pattern. You know, the line that says into increase the amount of stitches? I feel very stupid. and annoyed. Why didn't I see this before?

This is why, my friends, when you are frustrated, it is good to *cue the swat team voice - "Step Away From The Knit." end swat team voice*

I took another look at it this afternoon and went, A-HA! that's the culprit! Sigh. Now I have to rip that section back and fix it. But at least now I know what's wrong.

My gray/pink sweater is coming along nicely. I think. It's a top down raglan and I need to put it on scrap yarn and try on what I've done and see if a), it fits and b), I like the giant pink striping section that I added to it. It's difficult to tell on the needles where the stripe will be on the body. I do like the color combo though at the moment.

Real Southern Cookin'

Do you want some true Southern cooking? Are you dying for some deep fried goodness? I've got it for you! I've also got the recipe for the classic Southern Drink - Iced Tea.


How to cook real Southern Fried Chicken:

I'm going to start you (ya'll) out with the simplest way to make this dish. This is the height of true Southern Cuisine. If you can't make this, forget it and just come on down to the South. This is also called Soul food. It's the same thing folks, don't let others fool you. If you've got a thing against fried foods because you're all healthy and all, umm, this might not be for you. But if you feel like hardening the arteries, boy are ya'll gonna to love this!

Ingredients:

1. If you've never made it before, start with Boneless Chicken Tenders. They come in a handy pack all raw and everything. You can make this with bone in chicken pieces and they are excellent, but it takes way longer and it's a little more difficult to judge if the pieces are done.

2. Flour - I use Self Rising so it makes a fluffier/Crispier crust, but all purpose works too.

3. Salt & Pepper

4. Vegetable Oil

5. egg (optional)


First off, tell the spouse and chillins to go over yonder and not bug you. That's Southern speak for tell everybody to get lost. This isn't something you want to do with the rugrats hangin' onto your skirts.

Now, You're going to need a frying pan or deep sided skillet. I use the skillet. Add vegetable oil and turn the heat to high and leave it for a sec.

In a shallow bowl, add your flour. How much you add depends on how much chicken you're going to be fryin'. I make it about an inch or two deep in my favorite bowl (you can see it in the pic - it's a pasta bowl.)

Add salt and pepper to taste. Yes, I said taste that raw flour. That's a mistake a lot of people make in cooking, they don't taste as they add things. You haven't added raw chicken yet to the mixture so it's perfectly safe to do this. When you add the S & P, you want to be able to just taste the salt. If you taste it immediately you either haven't mixed it in well with the flour or you've added too much. If the latter is the case, add a little more flour to the mix. You may also pretend to be Colonel Sanders and add random spices - play around with the spices, it's fun!

Now for the chicken. Pat it down a little and make sure there is no moisture on it. You'll notice in the pic that I haven't done this step yet. You can dip it in egg if you wish or skip that step.

Nekkid Chicken

Take a tender (in egg or not) and put it into the flour. This next step is critical: Don't just barely put it into the flour. SMUSH it in the flour, then turn it over and do it again, and again and one more time. As I do this, I also push more flour onto it. You want this sucker to be very thick with flour.

Chicken properly clothed

Take a minute to check your oil. How can you tell when your oil is hot enough? Take the wrong end of a wooden spoon and put it into the oil. If you see some bubbles forming around it like it's boiling, the oil is ready, if not, give it another few minutes. If it's ready, turn the heat down a bit to Med. High, otherwise you'll have oil spattering everywhere and your chicken will be too brown, too fast.

Place the prepared chicken piece into the oil. Use tongs if you've got them or a large spool with a long handle to do this. Please be safe, this is a dangerous dish (and messy) to prepare. Oil hurts, trust me, I learned it the hard way.

Definitely messy

You can prepare side dishes at this time. This is a dish that takes time to prepare, especially if you use bone-in chicken. It's going to take about 4-6 minutes per side to cook. When both sides are a pretty golden brown, remove from skillet and place onto towels to soak up the excess oil on it. I put a paper grocery bag underneath three or four paper towels for this. Oil will go right through the towels, but not the bag. The bag is optional as well of course.

MMMMMM!

Please double check to see if the chicken is done. Cut it in two and look at the meat. If it's white you're set, pink, put it back in to cook a little longer.


If you make this recipe, or have any questions about it, let me know! I'd love to know how it turns out and I'll gladly answer any questions you may have.


Southern Iced Tea:

You can't have the above dish without Southern Iced Tea. I mean, that would just be plain ol' UnAmerican!

I've traveled around the World and have found that the only place you can order this is in the South. Oh, you can order it, but it comes unsweetened, yuck! They also look at you funny (like you've sprouted two heads) when you order Sweetened Ice Tea.

Anyway, here's how to do it properly:

This recipe is for 1 gallon. Sorry, it's the only amount I know how to make at a time.

Ingredients:

3 large family tea bags (can be caf or decaf)
Pan/Pot - not a dinky sauce pan either - a pot (see pic)
Water
Gallon pitcher/container
Sugar 3/4 cup to 2 cups (your choice see below)

Fill pot full of water and turn heat on high. You want to make sure the water is almost boiling, but not a full boil. If it gets to a full boil, turn off the heat and let it sit a minute. Tea is one of those things that if you let it boil, it can turn bitter, so be careful. You want to see teeny tiny bubbles barely floating to the top. When this happens turn off the heat. Place the 3 tea bags in the water and walk away. Yes, I said walk away. It needs to sit a spell and steep. You can leave it for 15 minutes or 30, but not more.



Why? Because of the Sugar!

Get your pitcher out. It's time to add some sweetness. How much? Depends. I don't like my tea to be syrupy sweet. I add a little less than 3/4 cup of sugar per gallon.

I have an Aunt (that's pronounced Ain't down here) that likes the syrupy stuff. It's two cups for her gallon of tea. In her defense, it's because of the lemon. People who normally like it this way add a bunch of lemon to their tea. It's quite good that way actually.

You want your sugar to be able to dissolve, so don't wait until your tea on the stove is too cold.

Pour the pan of tea into the pitcher with the sugar. Stir together. You will probably not have a full pitcher. You could use a dutch oven full of water I guess to make your tea, but that's not needed. So, add more water or ice or both until the liquid level is at the top of the gallon pitcher/container.

Your tea may look ready, but it's not. It needs to sit in the fridge for a while. It will get sweeter as it cools off. Taste it when it's cold. That's when you'll know if you've added the right amount of sugar really. It's all according to your preferences. If it's overly sweet, add lemon this time and cut back on the sugar amount next time.

Enjoy!

My Cap

Hi All! I'm back, tired, but back. This weekend's sale went wonderfully. I even got some knitting done as well!

I worked on the Jaunty Cap by Terry Morris. I worked with only one strand of yarn instead of two. I was afraid I would not have enough yarn, but now I wish I would have so that the had would be a bit firmer. It hasn't stopped me from wearing it though. I love it and the colors. It's made with Noro Silk Garden #270 on size 9, 16" circs.

Such pretty colors!

I also started a new project. I really want to start on a cabled sweater. I have everything I need for it. But! I'm going to be taking an Annie Modesitt class in April on Cables and Lace so I thought that I would wait. I want to be able to use any cool techniques she has on that sweater. So, I started the Purple Sweater .


Except it won't be purple. I'm using my new alpaca yarn from Peru for this. I have 5 skeins of the light gray and 5 skeins of a very bright pink. I think that I'm going to put in random widths of pink stripes in it. The pink is a bit too bright for my tastes, but it will be cute as a few stripes in this sweater.

This Coming Weekend

When I say that the Lil' Lambs consignment sale I work at (I'm a committee member - there's about 22 of us) every six months is huge, I'm not kidding. For the past two days I've worked my behind off setting up for this. There' still two days left. We open to the public tomorrow.

But for tonight, I've got some pics for you of it. You'll have to forgive the quality of them though, all I had was my camera phone.

Let's start off with the toys, shall we? These were piled up and falling off the tables and there are loads crammed under each table as well.

Mountains of toys

And even more toys

And look! more toys!

Need a few shoes?

How about a few baby swings?

I counted 41 swings

And strollers? Tons.

How about clothes?

A view from on stage

The best thing above all about this sale though? Yes, there's tons of stuff. Yes, about $65,000 will exchange hands this weekend. But it all goes back to the children of our church: To children in need and to the needs of the children's ministry in church and to the children in the community. This sale also provides the community with extremely (some downright cheap) affordable items that they can use to have well clothed (and toyed) happy children. Not bad for a weekend's worth of work huh?

Evening post

Welcome to the late evening post at All Things Shea. This week is an absolutely crazy week for me. I will be all over the place, either working the Lil' Lambs Children's Consignment Sale thru the weekend or driving the Eldest to the next place on his itinerary. Why does a 7 year old get an itinerary and I'm stuck at home going nowhere fast?

Do I have a baby sitter? Only on Thursday. Am I sorta panicking? You betcha. I begged my Mom to drive two hours to keep the Youngest on his schedule. When he gets off of his eating and nap schedule, he turns in to Mr. Hyde. I'm not kidding. When his blood sugar gets low, he turns into the AntiChrist. It's scary how evil a two year old with low blood sugar and no naps can be. You guys have only seen the cute side. It's the cute side that has saved him so far. The other Grandma gets him on Saturday. At this point, I'd let anybody watch him as long as they could keep up with meals and naps.

Anyway, I put the Circular Shrug back down. I'm thinking that I'll have to add another inch to it, but I prefer to be in denial right now. I'll get it finished sometime in the next week. But today! Today I made something else.

I love the fast easy project and that's what I needed to bolster the ol' confidence.

I made the Calorimetry. I know that everyone has already done this project and I'm a little behind, but who cares? This was fun and fast. Fast being the important factor. And, it'll look cute when I have my hair up. Here's the final outcome:

Shea's Calorimetry

Mods to the pattern: Cast on 80 sts instead of 120 the pattern calls for. I didn't really keep up with how many repeats that I did, just winged it. Doesn't matter, fits perfect.

So not happy.

Notice from the pic below that the knitting part of the Circular Shrug is finished. That's the good news. The bad news is that one edge (2x2 ribbing - the one the arrow is pointing at) is way larger than the other. I don't know why this happened. Clueless. I don't know if I got more tense towards the end and my gauge tighteded up. I don't know if it had to do with my bind off (I did Grumperina's super stretchy bindoff on needles two sizes up) or what. Maybe I need another inch of ribbing?

Right now it's in the blocking stage. I'm blocking the hell out of the side that the arrow is not pointing too. I'm hoping to stretch it out a bit. If that doesn't work, I might try adding another inch or so of ribbing.

I'm so not happy with the way this is turning out. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Not the best knitting day ever.

Book bargain!

Today was a fun day. All the county libraries had one huge book sale. If you liked needlepoint or crochet you were set, but knitting books? I only found one. And holy crap did I find one.

I didn't know a single thing about this one, just thought it might be good. I went to Amazon just out of curiosity to see how much it would go for and what reviews were. Do you know what this is selling for there? $163.05!!! Wanna know what I paid for it? One whole dollar. Hubby is all for selling it. I don't think so, at least, not 'til I get all the goody out of it.

Slipper Design

I turned into a great big lump yesterday. One of those "24 hour" viruses caught up with me and I was running a fever in the late afternoon. I felt like 100% dog dirt.

But I'm up and back running today and feeling fine. Weird.


Slipper Design:

I have the slipper prototype mostly finished. There are a couple of changes that will be made to the slipper modeled in the pic below. First off, I hate the toe. I wanted this pattern to be really basic with no fiddly stuff, but I think I'm going to have to go for a tiny bit fiddly to get the toe to look right (and pretty.) Right this second, the toe's not pretty at all. I think that shifting the two circs. 180 degrees to where they are parallel to the toes and doing a three needle bind off would fix everything nicely.

Second, over socks this slipper feels fine, but on bare feet it likes to "slip" and move around a little too much. It could just be that i have really narrow feet and that this is cheap acrylic, but I don't want to take any chances. I'm going to add a rib edging to the top of the foot to make it grab the foot a little better. I also hate the back seam, but it's mainly because my mattress stitch sucks and needs practice.

It has been interesting to try and design this slipper. I've never designed anything before and it's harder than it looks. My first prototype looked nothing like I had planned, this one is much closer.

Another cool thing about this pattern? It can be used to make fingerless mittens! So it's a two for one pattern.

As soon as I get the pattern written up and my final slippers finished, I'll be posting it free for anyone who wants it. These are done in garter stitch which is amazingly stretchy and should fit a wide variety of sizes.

Here's how it looks at this minute (just remember that I'm going to be making the above changes to it):

Shea's Slipper Flats

I did not work on these today though. I was feeling guilty for putting down the Circular Shrug and got a few more inches done on it this afternoon.

creative versus practicality war

I have tried tons of crafts over the years. I was searching for that one ultimately satisfying crafty hobby. I've driven my husband nuts by jumping from one project to another. I have crocheted off and on for about 30 years. God, that makes me sound old. I've done cross stitch off and on for about 15-20 years. I've avoided scrapbooking though, I knew I'd never stick with that one. I've quilted, I've painted (not very successfully I might add - I just don't have my Mom's flair for that), I've sewn, I've been all over the map with my hobbies. Everyone of them has been extremely useful in some form or other in my life. But I don't think any of them have been as fulfilling for me as knitting.

I'm a product knitter. I don't care about the d#mn process, just give me that sweater to wear! It feels so good to be able to slide that sweater on and say "Look what I did!" to anyone who pretends to listen.

My husband however, is the Anti-Hobbyist. If it doesn't come from a technical manual and there is not a need for something, it does not get learned or done. The man is not spontaneous. He can't even go poop without a list telling him it's okay too. He's gonna shoot me for sharing that one with the world.

When I've brought a new hobby home to learn, you wouldn't believe the comments and questions that I get. Does your new hobby have a practical application? Is it something you can use? Does it cost a much? (That just might be the most important, in his mind, question in the whole lot.) But what are you going to do with it when it's finished?

It's the creative versus practicality war. It's a constant thing at my house.

He wasn't real enthused when I brought knitting home and announced that I was going to teach myself to learn this craft. It's just another one of her crazy hobbies was his thought. That was two years ago. I'm still going at it full tilt.

It may be the first time that I've been able to answer most of the questions up above to his almost full satisfaction. The only real complaint that I get from him is that he has to compete with the yarn and needles for my attention. Practical? Can you get more practical than hand creating a garment to be worn for years?

The only question that I have to tiptoe over is the "but does it cost much?" question.

The "But Honey, It was on SALE" methodology has not been particularly successful. So instead I came up with my Knitter's Math to answer the question. It kind of goes like this:

Step 1. See yummy must have yarn at LYS.
Step 2. Check price tag of the one skein.
Step 3. Panic and then begin division. $40.00/2 = $20.00. Still too much to explain for a 100g. tiny hank. That doesn't mean I'm not going to buy it, just that I don't want to explain the price.
Step 4. Subtract $10.oo. That $10.00 becomes my so-called "lunch." (not really, that's just what I tell him.)
Step 5. Purchase Yarn.
Step 6. Decide that he still wouldn't understand and subtract $5.00 from that. That $5.00 becomes the "I needed a milk shake on the way home" piece of fiction.

See? It's simple really. Actual purchase price/2=first total. First total-$10.00=Second total. Second total-$5.00=Just right total.


It's okay. My Mother-In-Law told me to do this on my Wedding Day. I have full and total approval for lying to my husband about shopping expenditures. Have I told you how much I love my MIL?

Trying my hand at designing some slippers

Check out my new Meez on the side bar- She's knitting! She's also the closest thing that I could get to what I look like. I found the link to it through Lil' Knitter. This was fun to put together and I wasted some precious time that was supposed to be used for getting ready for a children's consignment sale.

To save my sanity I put the Circular Shrug down this weekend (it's about 50% complete) and tried my hand at some designing some slippers. The first one did not come out like I wanted and so I decided not to make the second one. This one was way too fiddly and I don't like the shape. Here's a side view:

Fiddly Slipper Sock

So I'm trying again. I've got the sketch:

consisting of some loose directions culled from another pattern that had a shape similar to what I wanted and some of the modifications I want to make to it. By the time I'm finished it won't even remotely resemble the other pattern instructions. That could be good or bad, we'll see. I'm going to try again tonight when I get the kids out of my hair. I tried to fiddle with it today during my carpool waiting time, but the acrylic yarn that I'm using for my prototype turned to yarn barf and I spent the whole time untangling and making it into a ball.

And to end today's post here's something just for the sake of complete cuteness or cute completeness:

Kickin' back Youngest Style

And not to be outdone by the above pic:

The Youngest doing Balloon Yoga on a messy couch

WooHoo! and a Question for you

My yarn stash is growing by leaps and bounds this year. I've got so much yarn and so little time. What a great problem to have.

Here's another wonderful problem:

A friend of mine (who has a gorgeous hubby and four perfect children) went on a mission trip to Peru. I asked her to bring me back some yarn. I didn't mention color or anything, just said "surprise me." Well, she did.

I got 20 skeins of an alpaca/wool/cotton blend. 10 are dark gray, 5 are a medium/light gray and are a bright pink. And get this - all 20 skeins were only $39.00! Woohoo!

Now, on to the problem. The label states that it is 5o grams. There is no yardage listed. I'm getting 13 wraps per inch, so I'm guessing it's either a light worsted or heavy sport, take your pick. I'm at a loss from there. I don't know how to figure out my yardage and I suck at math. Any brilliant math people out there who can help me figure this out?

I also don't know what to make with it. But I'm so excited about this!!!

I don't have a pic of it yet, but here's some sheep pr0n for you: ;)

Poor kid

This poor kid. He's at a High School Science Fair and his mom makes him wear a 3 year old's sweater. At what point are we knitter's responsible for our children's humiliation? Can you just imagine the bullying he's going through right now? If this was on a pre-schooler the comments would be, "Awwwww, he's so cute in that sweater." But at this age? "Dude, what a geek. Did your Mom pick out those clothes? Did Gramma knit you a new sweater?" How can he possibly pick up chicks dressed like this? Come on mom, face the facts. The boy's growing up and deserves a grownup sweater.

This is your sweater on drugs

Happy Camper

Call me a Happy Camper. Go ahead, do it. I got a "new to me" hand me down toy from my overly generous (a couple of months ago he also gave us a large screen rear projection tv) baby brother:

This replaces the dinosaur monitor that I had that took up the entirety of my desk. This is so cool. Notice the obligatory child's toy. There's not one space in my home that is devoid of one. How do you possibly "declutter" when there are children in the house that are 7 and 2?


Here's the progress on the Circular Shrug:


In the mock rib section, it takes four rows to make one vertical inch (row gauge for the beginning knitters.) I need 20 inches of this. 20 freakin' inches. I've got about 8 now. It's killing me. This project is monotonous and slow, so get ready to be looking at this one on the blog for a while. But it will look super cute when I'm done. I hope. I'd hate to spend this much time on it and have it suck, ya know? The colors are striping up super sweet. I love the colors to death and how the stripes are fairly thin.

Pig-Pickin' in South Carolina

The weekend was fun. The Eldest and I went to a family reunion/"Pig-Pickin'" in Florence, South Carolina. This was my Dad's family who I didn't know growing up. I didn't meet most of them until I was married and had one child. I took all my family genealogy stuff with me, but did little research while there. We just didn't have enough time and some of the key people that I need to speak with weren't there due to family health problems.

It took us 5 hours to get there. I got some more done on the Circular Shrug. I got about 16 rows done. It doesn't sound like much does it? But multiply it by 120 sts per row and you'll understand that it took a while. I was only able to work in the car for a couple of hours each way, so that is all I managed to accomplish. I am already very tired of doing rib and mock rib though. I am ready to be finished with this project already!

Besides the knitting, which I had to knock off after a couple of hours due to sore hands, this is what I had to look at during the drive:

Obviously The Eldest was not the best conversationalist on the ride up.

Anyway, back to the Pig-Pickin'. They had cooked a big hog on a humongous grill and it was quite tasty. The hog weighed around 138 pounds! The turnout was a bit of a disappointment. Only about a third of the people that were there last year showed up this year. I did get to wear my new Bella Paquita sweater though, so that was one consolation. :)

On Sunday, we took a drive out to the sticks (which is most of the area to be truthful - lotsa farmland) to see if we could find where the old family farm was and to find a couple of the homes my Dad lived in as a young child.

We found the remains of what was once his Grandmother's house:

(I always told my Dad he came from trash and there's my proof, a huge pile of trash!) Seriously though, it always makes me sad when I pass by old homes that the owners have let delapidate. She was incredibly poor, so I guess noone wanted to do anything with what was essentially a shack by the time my g-grandmother inherited it. She died in the early 1940's.

It was cool to be able to find it though. At one time this was part of a plantation that had 450 acres of land and that was after the Civil War. Now why couldn't someone have taken care of and held onto all that land so that I could inherit it? Why?

Progress on Circular Shrug

I love my mailman. He brought me more yarn today! This is the yarn that I will be using for my cabled pullover:

Wool of the Andes - Iron Ore

As I said last time, progress is slow on the Circular Shrug. It takes way to long to make one row. There were 240 Stitches cast on. I am working on the 5 inches of k2p2 right now and then I will go into the mock rib section and do that forever and then another 5 inches of the k2p2. The stripes will be vertical on the finished product. Maybe this will make me look skinny? I can only hope.

Isn't the colorway pretty?

This is my last post for the week. I'm leaving town early tomorrow morning for South Carolina for a family reunion type thing. I'll see you on Monday. Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Yarn!

I told you there would be a knitting/yarn post next didn't I?

Well, slow progress is being made on the Circular Shrug. When you cast on 240 stitches, it takes a while to make a row, but it is coming along. I'll have a pic of it tomorrow for you.

I do have some yummy pre-Valentine's Day yarn pr0n for you though:

MMMM! Yummy!

This weekend I went to the Knitting Emporium in Kennesaw, GA. This was my first time in that shop and I loved it. It's in a tiny old house and every single room is filled with yarn. It's a great place to explore every nook and cranny. I found this Colinette sock yarn (colorway - Bright Charcoal) in the back room. It's so soft and squishy, love it.

The Valentine you see is destined for one of the Eldest's teachers at school. I found the idea on a blog a week or so ago, but can't for the life of me remember where. If this was your idea, please forgive me! Let me know in the comments so I can give you full credit for this really cute idea.

It's so simple to make. Cut out a heart. Then take a hole punch and go all the way around the heart with it. Next, grab some yarn and a crochet hook. From the front, insert your hook through the center top hole and grab the yarn and pull it back through. Then do it again in the next hole and the next and all the way around. It was super easy to do and is an easy teacher gift for Valentine's.

Political Rant

If you dislike Political Rants, please skip this post. More adventures in Knitting will be appearing in the next post.

Today I felt that I had to write a letter to my Senators in protest against them voting to give the Telecoms retroactive immunity. I feel passionately about the issue of spying on the common everyday "Joe". This is not about whether I am a Republican or a Democrat, but how I feel about my Telecom collecting data on where I visit on the web, who I send email to, what I post on my blog.

While I know that the information that they will collect on me will be useless to them or anyone else for that matter (does the Government really need to know about knitting patterns or stitches or yarn or me lolcats to my Mom?), I dislike that they will be doing it at all.

I believe in my freedom, and I believe in my Senators upholding my Constitution which grants me my freedom. Here is a copy of what I sent:


Mr. XXXXXXX,

I'm disappointed that you would choose to vote for giving Telecoms retroactive immunity. Do you remember the Constitution, which you swore to uphold?

According to Article 1, Section 9:

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law (ex post facto laws are seen as a violation of the rule of law as it applies in a free and democratic society. ) shall be passed.

The rights of the people that you serve are being violated Mr. XXXXXX. All citizens must have legal recourse when their rights are infringed upon, and companies must bear the responsibility for breaking the law.

I feel that the you and your fellow GA representatives have completely lost touch with their constituents (as in "We, the people...", not "We, the corporations and PACs who gave you cash...) and all of you who have voted for this legislation have completely lost my confidence and my future vote.

The saying that "Big Brother is watching" has never been true or appropriate. After writing this letter to you I fully expect to be watched very closely. It is unfortunate that the government will be wasting it's money by spying on a middle class American Housewife, don't you think?

Sincerely,

SHEA

I am positive that I have wasted my time in sending the letter and ranting about it here, but I feel better now, thanks.

PS - I would like to hear about what my fellow knitters and bloggers think about this issue - please leave me a comment and let me know!

It never rains, but it pours

It never rains, but it pours. That saying is so apt in regards to my knitting. I was complaining a few days ago about how none of my little projects were satisfying me and that the projects that I want to work on needed the needles that were supposedly in the mail from KnitPicks.

Well, I found a project that I wanted to tackle in the meantime. The Circular Shrug from Craftster. You can paw through all 55 pages about it on the forum (and they are very informative- you can make it like the one pictured below or you can make a vest, change the stitch patterns - the possibilities are endless), or you can just go here to the pattern from it. It is a pattern that was created to look like this one:

Retro Cool

The problem now? My needles came in, but now I don't want to put down this project. I'm using Patons SWS for this. I believe it's the Natural Earth colorway. Not sure, but it's definitely "earthy". Also, I'll be needing the needle this project is on, so I guess I'm just gonna have to hurry this project along huh? I'll be traveling this weekend and this will be going with me. If I can avoid car sickness, I might even work on it in the car. Dramamine here I come.


By the way, My kitty made it onto StuffOnMyCat.com again! here's the link: Tiger's pic