Progress

Here's a couple picture of the earflap hat that will be given at Christmas. Dash was so kind to model for me.
A side view

And a front view. The colors are pretty true in these picture.

Now all that is left is I-cord from the earflaps and a pom pom. The scarf is still in progress. Dancer isn't home a the moment so no progress is being made. I may rip out what she's done and redo it. The fabric a bit too loose for my liking. A picture will be coming later.

(PS. Dash wasn't so sure about any future modeling jobs after seeing his picture. I thought he looks pretty darn cute, but he's worried his friends might see it.)

Elfin Magic

Today was my last day of work until January 2. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ed and I went out to eat tonight to celebrate the much needed time off and to celebrate a nice bonus I got from work. Over dinner, I told him that I wished the house wasn't so dirty, otherwise I'd sit on my butt all day and knit tomorrow. His reply was 'Why not?' You know, he's right. I deserve a day to sit around and do nothing. Work has been very stressful. I've busted my bum to get everything ready for Christmas. I do have some knitting to finish for the big day. I think I'll follow his advice. I will take a shower sometime in the afternoon. We have a party to attend in the evening. It might be wise to not stink for that.

The house has been invaded by two magic elves. Dash came home from school a few weeks ago and announced that a lot of the kids at school have attracted elves to their houses by leaving notes for Mrs. Claus. Of course, we needed to get one. 'Snicker' showed up one afternoon, hanging from our kitchen light. He seemed to be a pretty good elf, not getting into too much trouble. Last weekend, though, Dash said he was going to ask for another elf because Snicker was lonely. Mrs. Claus allowed Doodle to come since he was Snicker's older brother (the boys are named after Mrs. Claus' favorite Christmas cookie; if 2 more arrive they will have to be named Peanut and Blossom :) Well, two are a bit more rambunctous than one. Two nights ago Snicker got into the donuts and Doodle hid himself in the refrigerator. Then the elves were found swinging from our ceiling fan this morning. Dash is so excited to find out what mischief they will get into tonight. It's been sort of fun, but the fun will end on Christmas Eve.

On the knitting front, I'm still working on my alpaca sweater. I still have hopes of wearing on Christmas Day. I'm also knitting a hat for my neice who just got a new coat. She wants a hat and scarf for Christmas. Dancer is making the scarf, while I'm working on the hat. I'm basing the hat on
this pattern from Knitty. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Time to get a glass of water and head off to bed. TTFN.

Time Flies!!!

I really didn't intend for an entire month to pass by between blogs. But this is getting to be the busiest time of year.

Thanksgiving was spent in Tennessee at my sister's lake house. The kids were very excited about having 3 days to spend with their cousins. It was very relaxing.

To burn off some of the food that was consumed, I walked everyday. Wednesday after we arrived, I walked a mile with Nancy. Thursday morning, Nancy, Dan, their dog Togo, and I walked about 3 1/2 miles. After dinner, we did another mile. Friday morning we repeated the 3 1/2 mile course. Friday evening, Ed and I went out for a 1 1/2 mile walk. I really felt like I was getting a workout. The hills were killers!! Poor puppy was wiped out after the workout.

The Thanksgiving feast was wonderful. I made two pies, pumpkin and raspberry. Nancy made a chocolate bourbon pecon pie (YUM!!!), and the kids made a pumpkin cream pie. Nobody went hungry to say the least.

While driving to Tennessee, I made good progress on the sleeves for Sonnet. I think I started this about 3 years ago. Obviously I have attention deficit problems with projects, but I am committed to getting this done by Christmas. I hope to wear it Christmas day. Here's how close I am.

My intention was to work on this while at Tennessee, but I got distracted by this. It is from the Berroco pattern book #220, circa 2003. The pattern is Faith, knit in Berroco Duo. Duo is now discontinued, so I hope I have enough to complete the project. I had started this sweater a couple years ago, but discovered that I was knitting a size too small. I ripped it out and purchased more yarn. I believe I'm alright with the sizing.

Now, time to sign off, get a cut of hot chocolate, and sit by the newly decorated Christmas tree. The picture is a bit blurry, but you get the idea. :)

The longest week on record!!!!

I'm coming to the close of a very big project at work. The past week has been spent testing and retesting and retesting the software. Actually, I'm technically not doing the testing. As the project manager, I'm directing the testing, or being the testing bitch, as I've been referred to occasionally this week. Things haven't gone smoothly, which is typical with testing software. Murphy's Law rears its ugly head often. But some (too many) of the bumps were due to stupid human error. I expect software to misbehave when put through the rigours of testing, but I get extremely frustrated when someone makes the same stupid error when setting up the tests three times in a row!!! Actually inflicting physical harm on the project team is not a wise career move. Instead, I pulled out one of my double pointeds and casually mentioned that there are other uses for it besides making socks. Now, if I survive Monday morning when we migrate the software to production, I might actually get some of my sanity back.



In my last post, I had attempted to upload some picture of my acquisitions from Stitches East. Here's one of the sample blocks I made from the Get Twisted class:


Here's another in progress. I've fallen in love with doing cables. In the Get Twisted class, the diagrams for 4 sampler blocks were provided along with instructions for making a cute little bag out of them. If I have enough Lamb's Pride Worsted to make the bag, I will.


This will someday become my first attempt at making an Unpatterns sweater:


And this is my first skein of Socks That Rock. The colors are wild and fun.


Now, it is time to get a glass of wine and relax. Tomorrow's a big day. Daughter #2's volleyball tournament is tomorrow. Wish them luck.

Is October Really Almost Over?

I really meant to return sooner, but as usual, the evenings slip away before I know it. Right now I have a mostly quiet house. Dancer is in the other room reading a book. Dash is at his karate lesson. Ed is running. And VBGirl is at the library working on a project. (She is with her friends, so I doubt there is really not a lot of work being done. But they aren't here, so I'm happy.)

Since my last post there has been a flurry of activity. Ed and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on September 30. It is hard for me to believe we've been married that long. This is going to sound like a cliche, but it is getting better as time goes on, like a fine wine. (There may be a clue in that saying. Our consumption of wine has grown proportionally with the years we have been married.) To celebrate, we went to first to the Wine Shoppe Bistro. After an appetizer and a glass of wine, we went to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for a nice dinner.

The next weekend was packed with activities. Friday night was spent transporting the girls and their friends to the high school football game. Saturday was the league tournament for VBGirl's team. The tournament started off badly with them losing the first match. It ended on a positive note with the girls winning the consolation bracket. [I tried to upload a picture but the server wasn't cooperating.]

After the tournament, I headed out of town to attend my 25th high school reunion. It was fun seeing a lot of my friends from high school. We all agreed that we all looked great and haven't aged a bit. There may be a bit more of us than in high school, but we're aging very, very gracefully. [no luck uploadign a picture of the reunion either]

Over the following weekend, I flew to Baltimore to meet one of my sisters and attend Stitches East. It was a great 4-day weekend. I took three classes and Patty took 4 classes. After the weekend was over it occurred to me that she and I have never spent that much one-on-one time together. My favorite classes were the Unpatterns class and the Get Twisted class about cables. [I'll try to post pictures from Stitches another time.] I bought about 1500 yards of Decadent Fibers Cookie Dough while at Market. I plan to use it to make my Unpatterns sweater. Now all I have to do is find a decent template sweater to work from.

Hmmm... I think I know just the thing. Time to go find it and take some measurements.

Ketching Up

Two weeks ago I was feeling domestic and nostalgic. My dad used to do a lot of canning, but since his stroke 7 1/2 years ago he hasn't been able to do it anymore. When my mom mentioned that they finally have used up the last jar of one of his favorite things to make, I decided I wanted to give it a try and carry on the family tradition.

What do you do with 14 pounds of ripe tomatoes, a half dozen green peppers and 6 medium onions?
If you add spices, vinegar and sugar and cook for 3 hours, blend, strain, and cook for 1+ hours longer, you get something very yummy...
12 pints of delicious Grandma Kettler's homemade ketchup.

This recipe came from my Grandma Kettler, my dad's mother. Dad made this many times when he was able to do canning. He wrote the recipe, and several variations, inside of an old recipe booklet my mom sent away for shortly after they were married in 1953. The booklet is a treasure, but even more so with my dad's handwriting inside. The booklet also contains the recipe my dad followed to make saurkraut and one variation of corn relish. Unfortunately, this variation is one my mom wasn't too fond of and she can't find the other recipe. If she can locate it, I'll give it a try.

Now to the knitting portion of our show. The other evening I decided I wanted to watch my middle daughter's volleyball practice. I took along one of my UFOs. Another mom sitting next to me asked if what I was making was for Ed. When I answered they were for me, she got a rather puzzled look on her face. She said they look like they could be for Ed but doesn't know why he'd need 2.


They aren't what you think! I have to admit, though, they do look awfully funny. It never occurred to me what they looked like until Diana said something. Ed got a big kick out of the story when I told him. Later that week when he ran into Diana as the school, he told her that they were too little to be for him.


What they really are: socks, toe-up, two at once on one circular needle. A couple years ago, a friend and I took a class on how to do two at once on one circular needle. I loved the technique because you get the pair done all at once. No strays laying about. Some time after the class, I came across the pattern for toe up socks in Knitty.com and fell in love with the pattern. The socks fit perfectly, so I decided to see if I could make it work with two at once. It worked out fabulously. This is actually my second pair done this way. I doubt I'll go back to making one at a time.

My Favorite Season(s)

This is my favorite time of year. The weather starts getting cooler. I can sleep with the windows open and listen to the night sounds. Most of the song birds have migrated, so I don't get woken up at 5:00 am by them. In a couple more weeks, I'll notice the first leaves changing. It is hard to tell if it will be an early change or late change. I'm guessing early since we had such a hot, dry summer. However, we've gotten a fair amount of rain lately, so the leaves may hang on longer.

Another reason I love this season is football. I got to go to the season opener for The Ohio State University with my sister Karen, my brother Tom, and Tom's son. Tom and I are both graduates of OSU. Karen goes with me to the games whenever Ed doesn't feel like going. Here's a picture Karen took of the boys. It was mini-Tom's first college football game.


As usual, this first game was Alumni Band Day. This year about 800 former band members showed up to play. I believe the announcer said the oldest was 92 years old!! It was awesome to see all those people. They sounded great. At halftime, along with the regular OSU Marching Band, they performed the greatest tradition is college football - Script Ohio. There were too many Alumni band members present for all of them to participate, so some had to play from the side lines.


The Buckeyes came away with a victory. It was a good day!

Busy days

It is hard to believe but the summer is over and Labor Day weekend begins tomorrow. Now begins the busiest time of year for me, and my favorite season.

Since I last blogged, the kids have started back to school. Here is Dancer before heading off to her first day in a new school. No longer is she going to the private school of her elementary years. She gets to now experience school in fashionable clothes, walking instead of bus riding, and the extensive resources of a public education. So far, she hasn't shown any signs of home sickness for her old school, but I'm getting prepared for the inevitable. About two weeks into the new school year is when it hit her older sister. Dancer is making a lot of new friends. There are many other girls to hang out with after school, which is a big positive.



VBGirl also has adjusted well to the new school year. To my complete amazement, she has been setting her alarm every night and getting herself up in the mornings. I haven't had to harrass her about getting out of bed. It makes my mornings much more pleasant!!! Both girls are fixing their own breakfasts and totally attending to themselves. I sometimes wonder what aliens abducted the real VBGirl and when she's going to return.



Both girls are busy with their volleyball. VBGirl has had 4 matches already. Her team has a 2-2 record. The games have been extremely exciting. I can tell how much the girls have learned since last year. Dancer has just begun practicing. Her matches won't start until mid-September. She is playing on a team from our church since the public schools don't start sports until middle school. Dancer's other extra-curricular activity is dancing, of course. She will have tap and ballet lessons on Monday nights. She is taking those lessons with her best friend from her old school, Sare Bear. Dancer and Sare Bear have been best friends since pre-Kindergarten. Sare Bear is staying at the private school. It has been hard to separate the two girls, but since her mom and I are friends, I'm sure they will remain friends also.

Dash started school 3 days after his sisters. He is still at the private school and is loving being the only one there. Ed gets him up and off to school after the girls leave and I head off to work. Towards the end of the summer, he began getting anxious to return to school. He was getting bored with hanging around the house everyday. It was difficult for him to see any of his friends because they don't live in the neighborhood and, like us, their parents both work full time. It is ironic that Dash's most entertaining week at home all summer was probably the last.



For the past two weeks we've had a house guest. Two weeks ago, Ed's best friend from college flew into town. The plan was for the 'boys' to go up to Lake Erie to meet another college friend, spend a day or two up there, come back here for a day, and then Tim was going to borrow our camping equipment and tour Ohio for a week or so. Well, as they say, 'The best laid plans of mice and men...' While in Sandusky that Friday evening, Tim encountered a little misfortune which resulting in him being stuck at our house for a while. Even though he felt like he was imposing, he actually helped out by hanging with Dash all week because the girls were back in school but Dash wasn't. Tim and Dash played games and watched videos all day. In the evenings, Tim, Ed and I would sit out late on the deck, eat dinner, and enjoy a beverage or two (or three). Earlier this week, Tim did manage to get away for a couple days, but returned yesterday. We spent one last evening out under a full moon. Today, actually about now as I type this, he is heading back home, provided he was able to get past the airport security without his driver's license. He may need to return later this autumn to deal with his misfortune, but that is still not fully determined.

In a way, I'm going to miss having him around. It was a nice change of routine to have another adult to talk to. Even though I've known Tim for about 18 years, I've never had much of a chance to really talk with him since he lives in California. It was nice to finally get that chance, even though the circumstance that allowed it sucked.



And finally, the tomatoes in my garden are finally ripening. Here's the lastest cache. The pepper are still not ripe and the watermelons are rotting on the vine. My green thumb is a bit brown and mushy around the edges.



Oh, and because of all the activities listed above, not much knitting has happened. With volleyball season upon me now, I'll get a little more in during matches.

Back to School Preparations

Today's theme is 'Back to School.' Earlier I took the girls to the mall to get clothes. Since this is Dancer's first year in public school, regular clothes are a must. JC Penney's had a good sale. We were able to get her 2 pairs of jeans and two shirts. Then over at Abercrombie, we got her two more shirts and three shirts for VBGirl. I consented to so much at Abercrombie only because I had a gift card to use.

After coming home from the mall and eating lunch, I spent the next 2+ hours working on the stack of paperwork and writing checks for school. Dancer had her school orientation Thursday night. All forms and fees for her were taken care of by the orientation. Today's focus was on the stuff for the other two. I don't mind doing it if I can sit down uninterrupted and take care of it. Today was such a day. I also got my planner updated with the schools' schedules all the way through June 2008. I've learned the hard way to take the time and get it all written down at the start of the school year.

Dash's school is finally coming into the 21st century. In their newsletter they stated that they will not be sending home printed newsletters any longer. Everything will be posted on the school's website. They also will communicate via e-mail. My only complaint while filling out the forms today was that his school asked for e-mail addresses on 4 separate forms. Writing the same thing over and over again is one of my pet peeves. At any rate, I think I have it all taken care of.

VBGirl has her sports physical for volleyball on Tuesday and then that form will be complete.

Speaking of volleyball, VBGirl made her team and was selected in the first draft of players. She has heard from the assistant coach's brother that she is considered one of the strongest players on the team and is going to be groomed for a Libero position in high school. She is very excited about that. I told her to use this information as motivation to keep trying harder and improve.

I'm making progress on the linen shawl. I've completed 12 repeat. To finish it, I need to do 9 rows of garter stitch. I'm nearing the end of a ball of linen and don't think I have enough to do those 9 rows before starting the next ball. I can't decide if I'll do one more repeat before finishing, or just finish now. We'll see what my mood is tomorrow. I won't have time today to work on it so I still have time to think.

Lastly, the weather has cooled off very nicely. A front came through Wednesday/Thursday night which brought some heavy, but much needed, rain. It has cooled considerably. Last night it dipped into the upper 50s. I LOVED IT!!!! The windows were wide open and the crickets and birds were chirping away. Life is good.

Ramblings from a Fried Brain

It is so fricking hot!!!! When I pulled into my work's parking lot this morning at 6:55 am it was 78 deg F. The humidity was so high you could almost cut the air. It was awful. Driving home from work at 5:00 pm was even worse at 100 deg F!!! I really, really hate the heat. I much prefer cold weather. Not bitter cold, but cold.

It is almost shameful for me to admit I'm still on Clue 2 of MS3. My friend is up to the 5th clue. Looking at what the wing is like, I'm not sure I'll follow it that far. I may just make it symetrical and repeat the first 4 clues. I figure by the time I get to the point where I have to decide, many others will be done and I see some finished examples.

Monday evening I got 5 more rows done on the linen shawl. I'm into the 12th repeat. I still haven't decided when to call that one quits. My class reunion got delayed until late September or early October, so I have time to complete before then.

This weekend probably won't be a good weekend for knitting. Our church is having their annual festival on Friday and Saturday evenings. During the day Saturday will be spent at my in-laws. On Sunday I will be having lunch with a friend whom I haven't seen in 5 years. She's coming back to Ohio for her high school class reunion. It will be good to catch up with her.

Take care and stay cool!

Nice vacation, but no knitting

We left for Florida on last Monday and drove as far as Valdosta, Ga. After spending the night in a hotel, we continued to Orlando on Tuesday. Part one of our plan was to hang out at the pool for a few days. We stayed in the Disney All Star Music resort. Since we've done all the Disney theme parks in the past and we knew the temperature in Florida during July would be a killer, we decided to only hang out and swim. Three days of playing in water and catching a few rays. No need to worry, though. We all used SPF 50 sunscreen.

On Friday, we migrated a bit further south to just north of Naples, FL. We stayed at a time-share condo for three nights. Part of the deal was that we had to listen to a sales pitch. The condo was very, very nice but also very, very expensive. We declined their pitch and fortunately the salesperson knew we couldn't be swayed so he didn't press us. The resort had several nice pools including a lazy river to float in. We spent most of our time there. Here's some photos. This first was a fountain at the front of the resort.


One of the pools


The weather was alright. It rained every day, but allowed us to still get enough swimming in. By Sunday afternoon, the kids were starting to get homesick so we decided to check out a day early. On our drive home we stopped in Tennessee. My sister and her family were back at their lake house. We spent Tuesday with them and managed to get some tubing in. They had a brand new intertube to try out, one that you sat on instead laying. The kids liked it because they didn't bounce as much. I had one calm ride with Dash and one of his cousins. Ed and I then took a turn by ourselves. Dan made the ride much more intense. Here's a couple pictures of how it ended for us. Warning, these aren't pretty photos. We were being whipped around a turn and we had to hang on.



In the end, Dan won. Ed and I lost with a couple hard landings on the water.

Couldn't wait to get started

Last Saturday I bought some Ebony Zephyr wool silk and started the Mystery Stole 3. It was a rough start. I've never worked with laceweight before nor have I every tried beading. I found it difficult working with the fine yarn, especially with needles that were too blunt. Compounding my issues was the fact that my eyes had trouble focusing due to a muscle relaxer I was taking because of my back. I scrapped the idea of doing the beading and decided to just focus on the lace since this was my first project of laceweight. Thursday evening I went out and bought myself a set of lace needles. Nice and pointy. Now that I'm finished with the meds and I have better needles, I've been able to make some progress. What do you think?

I am up to row 71 of Clue #1. I know, I'm a little behind, but I'm happy with my progress. I'm a slow knitter and I want to make sure I do this right.

Over the next couple weeks, I should be able to finish up a few projects. We are leaving Monday for a vacation. Since we are driving, I'll be able to do some easier projects in the car. I'll save the MS3 for the evenings at the condo.

Discovering old UFOs

A lot of other bloggers and a couple friends have been discussing lace knitting. I've started a couple projects a few years ago and never finished them. Serious ADD issues. Some call it Startitis. Instead of giving in to the intense urge to start the Mystery Stole #3 from Pink Lemon Twist, I dug out one of my unfinished projects last evening. It is the Lavendar Linen Lace Shawl from Nancie M. Wiseman's Knitted Shawls, Stoles, & Scarves. The pattern calls for 11 repeats. I've finished 9 repeats and am a couple rows into the 10th. Last night I took the time to calculate how many repeats I could do with the amount of linen I purchased. I could do 16 repeats, but seriously doubt that I will. My 25th high school reunion is coming up in a month. If I stay committed to this I could get it finished for that event. The family and I are heading away later in the month for Florida for 10 days. If I devote the car time to knitting, I could probably make this 12-14 repeats and then finish it off. That will be my goal for July.

Hello World!

Certainly not a very original greeting, but it is appropriate. Creating that greeting was my first endeavor in programming a computer. Now it is my first blog entry.

I can't promise that I will blog often, but when I do I will focus mainly around my crafts. Working full-time on top of being a mom doesn't allow me much time to do my crafting, but I can always dream.

There will be some ground rules for my posting. I will not refer to anyone by their full name in order to maintain their privacy. I will also not refer to anyone under the age of 21 by their given first name. If I feel it necessary to refer to them at all on the blog, I'll make up a nickname for them.

Thanks for dropping by. I hope we meet here again soon.