Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Winter Wonderhell

Well, gang. We are surviving the ice storm. We lost power Sunday night, got it back Wednesday morning, and still don't have internet access. I'm paying out the nose at starbucks right now just to check email and such. The neighborhood looks terrible, and snow is coming, but I have lots of yarn.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Half an F.O.

Okay, I'm better now. I have half an F.O., but my only pic of it is with the Yarn Harlot. Please bear with me, this post is kinda long.
Sunday morning started out with me waking up late. Crap. Was supposed to be up before the crack of dawn to organize the rest of the move so the boys could work while I was away. Crap. Leapt out of bed, took shower, had to use hubby's shampoo cause I forgot to dig mine out of one of the several bags and boxes that came from the bathroom at the old house. (Did I mention we're MOVING?!?!?!) Got out, got dressed, dragged short one to the car. Sped over to old house. Filled car with stuff. Waited for friends to come help. Realized I had to pick up Tara in 45 minutes and still not dressed. Ran to storage, emptied car, drove to dumpster, cleaned out front seat of car, drove to her house, changed clothes. Right, off we go!

First stop, drinks and snacks. I'm not sure where we stopped, but we decided it was questionable as Tara's animal crackers were a little on the old side. No big deal, let's keep going. Must. See. Yarn. Harlot. We sail through the first toll booths with no problem, but then the road narrows down to two lane for like half the turnpike, widens to for before the next toll collection center, then narrows back down. Takes forever.
We finally make it to Kansas around 1;30. Plenty of time. We noticed the air conditioning is putting out warmer air. I whine about possibly needing Freon or whatever that stuff is that makes AC work. Then we decided to stop and get some maps at the welcome center, and as we pull into the lot, I hear a ding and look at my dashboard to see that the car's overheated a bit. I panicked and called my car person, then she called hers. After much consultation, we decide to open the hood, let the car cool down, and then add water. This solution worked very nicely, and we were on our way again. On to Wichita.

We made it to the high school with no issues, got pretty good seats, and settled in. (Settling in evidently includes me dropping my camera and losing its batteries and somehow dropping a DPN in Tara's bag.) Then Stephanie came out on the stage!!!! She was so great. My husband is definitely a full fledged member of CHOKE. I think the best part of her speech was when she showed us how she knits.

I would have to say the best part was the book signing. During the talk I finished a sock, even the kitchnering the toe! We had to wait around a bit cause our tickets were stamped 166-167, and the place was too dark to work on my never ending Josephine top. (I promise, pictures soon, I'm finally almost done with the back.) I decided to avoid the deadly Second Sock Syndrome by casting on the second sock. I got through the first inch of the second sock by the time we made it to the table where I proudly showed Stephanie my finished sock, which she promptly put on her right hand and instantly correctly proclaimed it to be the Undulating Rib Sock from the Favorite Sock Book. Then she picked up her recently finished traveling sock (yes! this one!) and put it on her left hand. She admired the socks together, then I think she made them talk to each other in the manner of sock puppets.

She might also have done a couple of yoga poses before pulling her sock off her hand with her teeth. Then she handed my sock back to me and apologized for being so silly with my sock, to which I regrettably replied. "It's okay, I work in Special Education." That sooooooo totally came out the wrong way. After that she took my picture, and wrote down my name, probably to warn other knitters to stay as far away from me as possible.

Not much else to tell but that I got us lost in Wichita afterwards and fielded phone calls from the grumpy and disorganized men, who were all quite pissed that I was out having fun while they toiled to get all our stuff out of that house. Poor Tara had to listen to the drama all the way home. All in all though, it was a wonderful experience!!!

Wichita

Tara and I went to Wichita yesterday to see the Yarn Harlot, and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! And I'm FINALLY out of my knitting slump! (Well, at least I think I am....) More details to follow after I get back from work/school.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I Just Can't Win for Losing

*sigh* I am never sharing information about contests for yarn with Tara ever again. For those of you that do not know, Tara and I tend to go on little knitterly field trips together once in a while. She even tolerates the Short One if she happens to tag along. Well, since we're such good friends, I thought I'd tell her about a contest being held by one of our beloved local yarn stores, Loops. She didn't want to enter, but I insisted she do it, so at the last moment she left her comment. Wouldn't ya know, she won the freaking contest!!!!!!!! Sooooo not cool. Maybe if I am nice to her, she will share? (No Tara, I'm not going to beat you up, why ever would I do that?)

In another attempt to win yarn, Short One and I went to a free concert at Utica Square with some other knitting friends, where it was rumored that a fat little giftcard to the above mentioned yarn store was to be given away. Didn't win that either, but I throroughly enjoyed watching the Short One rock out to classic rock music. She held her hands over her ears for the first song and sat bolt upright in her seat. By the third song, she was up dancing around, but still had her fingers in her ears. By the fifth song, she finally unstopped her ears and let her hair down. I had drag her out of there at the end.

So maybe I just royally suck at contests. I freeze up, get writers block, flat out forget to enter, or even let stupidity take over and encourage my dear friends to beat the pants off of me. However, I did still have a good time with great knitting friends and gained a very tired Short One.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Now with More Mail!

On Monday the postman brought me another package!


This time the contents were of Sockapalooza 4 nature. This is soooo awesome! Not only did Julie, my sockpal, knit me a pair of absolutely perfect socks, but she also gifted me with a skein of her own handspun!!!! Okay, the socks are made out of Lorna's Laces, the pattern is from the second sensational sock book, and the handspun is Crown Mountain Farm Superwash in "Say a Little Prayer" and it was spun the day before Short One's birthday, so that makes it even more special. I did try to get a picture of the socks on my feet, but I quickly learned that six-year-olds-who-are-almost-seven do not necessarily make the best photographers. I'll try again tomorrow. Thank you so much Julie!!!!!

On another Sockapalooza 4 note, I am on the toe decreases of the poor second sock. I'm having a hard time remembering what I did on the first go around, so I'm reading the other sock and copying it the best I can. I feel horrible, like I've failed my sockpal. I hope they will forgive me for running late!
Before I had to rip and reknit the sockpal socks, I got excited over Amy Singer's Everlasting Bagstopper pattern over at Knitty. Erm, so excited I knit the whole bag in one night. Tara knows this because I cast off the body of the bag in her car on the way to Fiber Christmas in July over in Kellyville, OK. I made up a pattern for the handles and knitted them at home that night. Now if I can get up the energy to weave in the ends and all that....... But Hey! It's functional! I'm declaring it an F.O.

In Dish Rag Tag News, I'm pleased to report that Susan not only received the Sweet Sixteen box on Monday, she also knit her dishcloth and got it back in the mail to Jeannie. Way to go Susan! Let's keep it up ladies, we've got a good groove going on!!!!!

Maybe tomorrow I'll show off what I picked up at the fiber festival with Tara.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Tag! (Hey, What's in the Box???)

Hey, y'all, guess what!?!?! I got a package today! Wanna see?
Hmmm, a priority mail box with the words "Sweet Sixteen" on it. Whatever could be inside???







I'm it! I just got the box out of my mailbox about 30 minutes ago! In the package we have peaches n creme in faded denim and shades of green, a recipe for shortbread (yum!), two adorable cookie cutters, and, of course a dishcloth! There's also an instruction page in there. I can't wait to get started!

On a more somber note, I am going to be late sending my sockapalooza socks out. After I finished them I put them away in a spot I thought was safe. I took them out to give them a little soak and block before their journey when lo and behold:

Eeeeeek! A hole! On the sole just after the heel!!!!!

I had no other choice but to rip the sock to the heel and repair. I'm almost done, I'll finish it tonight, block it, and then knit my dishrag for the tag.

P.S. Sweet sixteen members, that box up there looks rather plain. Please help to spice it up a little when it gets to your house! As long as the postal people can see the priority label and the mailing label, we are golden!

Friday, June 29, 2007

Finally, an F.O.!!!



I have finally finished my sockapalooza 4 socks! I am amazed at how much of them I got done while being whisked around town on our camp bus. Here's the specs on these socks:

Pattern: Campfire Socks by Cider Moon

Yarn: Sunshine Yarns sock in "twilight"

Needles: Size 2 US

Started:June 1

Finished June 26

I really hope my sock pal loves them as much as I do. Part of me wants to keep them for myself, but I think that means they're perfect for my pal! What do ya think?

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Maybe it's time to make a switch

I'm messing around with template, but it may be a moot point. I'm gonna go check out wordpress. Can anyone who's switched from Blogger to Wordpress tell me if it was a drastic improvement? If so, how?

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

I know I have this rotten tendency to disappear once in a while, but I can assure all of you that I have been busy working for a special day camp and knitting on the bus as we take our campers all over town. Want proof?
Ta Da! I have finished my first sockapalooza sock! I'm using the campfire socks pattern from Cider Moon with a few alterations, of course. I decided to continue the rib pattern down the heel, and I decreased a couple stitches more than what I picked up to make them fit better. I am extremely pleased at how this sock turned out, but I am a wee bit worried I won't have enough for the second sock. See?














I started the second sock last night so I wouldn't have to try to start it on the bus, but little further progress has been made because the bus that was supposed to take us on today's outing broke down. If I don't fall asleep right after dinner, I'm hopefully going to at least get the ribbing done. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Several little pieces.

Okay, so I got tagged for the meme that I think everyone else in the blogosphere has already been tagged for. (It's lonely in my corner, what can I say? Here we go......



1. During my sophomore year of high school, I saw a movie of how hamburger was made. I was so grossed out I didn't eat it for four years. I got over it in college, when I was dating my husband. His sister served chili, and I didn't want to seem rude.



2. I work in special education as a paraprofessional. Basically, I take high needs children through their day at school and modify it to suit their needs. I usually sit at a student desk with the kids. It makes me feel like I'm back in fourth grade.

3. Because I don't get paid salary during the summer, I have to find a summer job every year. This year I'm going to be a day camp counselor. (Yay!)

4. I'm addicted to the Ghiradelli dark chocolate raspberry squares. I go through about a bag a week. It takes me ten minutes to eat one square because I nibble and let it melt in my mouth.

5. I am a major night owl/insomniac, mostly because no one else in my house is up. It's the only time during the day I get to myself. It's also prime knitting time.

6. I won't let my husband use the front av jacks on the living room tv to hook up the DVD player. I think it's unaestheticly pleasing to see a bunch of cords hanging out. I think I'm making him a little crazy about it. (I'm sure he'll hook it up the minute I leave!)

7. I had seven wisdom teeth, and most of them erupted at the same time--second semester midterm week of my sophomore year at college. I had them all removed the first day of spring break. Good times.

Oh, and a bonus tidbit: I grew up in a tiny town in Tennessee. It was named Greenfield, our mascot was the yellowjackets, but our school colors were neither green nor yellow. The were orange and black. Go figure.

Okay, I think I'm one of the last, so I'm going to cop out of naming people. If you haven't done it, feel free to! Thank you and Good Day!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

And the winner is.....


We have a winner! The popular vote goes to :
Sunshine Yarns in "Twilight"!
It's already wound into a ball, ready to go. Tonight I'll surf around, find a pattern, and cast on.
And the Short One picked two winners for me:
She drew two names out of our bucket of "kisses":
Ina and Jamie, send me an email at janineknits (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks everyone for playing!
Tulsa Knitters, email me for details about the Friday evening's yarn sale!

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Last Chance to Vote!

Just a reminder: I'm closing the comments on the post below at midnight tonight, so I can tally the votes Wednesday morning and wind up the winning yarn in time to take it on a little field trip Thursday. So gimme your opinions, please!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Now for our regularly scheduled program...

Okay, I'm better now. For those of you who are local, that sale will be going on next weekend, details to follow as soon as I get them. I will shamelessly admit to laying it all out in the yarn room and rolling around in it a bit, but mostly to freak out the poor dh, who hasn't quite looked at me the same since.


Now it's time to go on to other business--Sockapalooza 4. I'm really excited about it this go around. I've not picked a pattern yet, but I have narrowed my yarn choices down to two:


Koigu pppm Color P118A


Sunshine Yarns sock yarn in Twilight.
This is where y'all come in. Leave me a comment about which yarn you think I should use. I'll tally up the votes and use the yarn that wins. Then I'll draw a name from the comments and give out a prize or maybe even two! Thanks for your help!

Edit: I'll close the comments on Tuesday at midnight, and tally on Wednesday. One entry per person.


Saturday, May 05, 2007

X-treme stash enchancement

I'm all verklempt--talk amongst yourselves while I go have a little lay-down.

Here's your topic:






















Attention Tulsa Area Knitters!!!!!!!!

EDIT: The sale is over for today. Tune in a bit later for details of my extreme stash enhancement!

Do you want some yarn? Good yarn? Very attractively priced yarn???? I have some very nice news for you !!! I was surfing the net last night, perusing the yard sales on craigslist, and I found one that mentioned a YARN LIQUIDATION. And we're not talking some crappy red heart or a couple of skeins of wool-ease, we're talking Rowan, classic elite, trendsetter, artful yarns, etc.

Google map here.


I'm going to hang out a bit and help organize, so come on over!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Attention: Tulsa Area Knitters

Okay, I know you're out there. I can't remember the last time I knitted with other knitters. I need camaraderie. I need adult conversation that DOES NOT involve which student is totally out of whack this week. Good food would be pleasant too. Anyone interested in going to Fringe for First Friday Potluck this week? I don't know if she's got a theme or not, but it usually ends up being an entertaining event!


Edited to Add: The theme is Easter, of course. I really need to read my emails more thoroughly.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Wee Tiny Sock!



Okay, I have this yarn. It's beautiful, my favorite colors, very soft, perfect for me. Why can't I knit it?

I started out trying a cabled sock pattern, got about 4 inches in, hated it, and rippppped. Next I tried the ever popular Jaywalker pattern, and got all the way down the leg before I noticed an error halfway down. I can live with the error, but not with the fact that it won't go easily over my heel. Ripppppp. Then I tried a lacy pattern from Sock Bug. (Lots of really fabulous patterns. Go look, I'll wait.) I got to the heel flap on that one before ripping. The varigation just completely obscured the lace work. Frustration abounds. Rippppp. What's a girl to do? I'm getting a little upset at this point. I'm going to get myself laughed out of the NASCAR Knit-along at this rate!







Enter the Wee Tiny sock swap over at Yarn Miracle! Finally, something I can finish without worrying about fit or complicated lace charts, etc. I grabbed my freshly ripped yarn and cast on a mere 24 stitches. I was finished in two hours, with absolutely no ripping, and now it's ready to go out tomorrow!



As a bonus, it's helped me realize that the best pattern for this yarn is simple stockinette.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

*tap tapt tap* Is this thing on?

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I am a HORRIBLE blogger! Let's try this again, shall we?