my purse

Catie tagged me to show a picture of my purse contents. So here ya go:



I was going to say complete and unaltered but I got to looking at my picture and decided a few things (like my drivers license info) needed to be blurred out but other than that it's all there. No cropping - purse dumped and spread out for better picture taking.

The contents are (in no particular order): 2 pens, sharpie, spare keys, earrings, 2 darning needles, 2 mints, paperclip, aleve, wallet, bobby pins, palm, avalanche tickets and schedule, hair band, tic tacs, tape measure, motion sick pills/herbs, fortune from fortune cookie, face and remote for sirius radio in knitted holder, lighter, cell phone holder and eye drops.

For the record, no, I don't smoke but (as I learned from my father) you never know when a lighter will come in handy.

I think Catie tagged most everyone I would but if you want to play along, please do and please let me know!

OH, I also went by my cousin's today to give her the hat and fingerless mitts I made for her graduation and she loved them.

FO, knitting update

Well, I have one finished object from this weekend. My cup coozie:



This took almost NO yarn. I'm thinking of making more for friends or gifts or whatnot.

The baby sweater is lacking a sleeve, neck band and button bands:



I almost went on and finished it but since I'll see my aunt in 2 wks I thought I'd go on and work on her socks:



I'm actually on the heel now. That was taken a little before 3.

In addition to this, I went grocery shopping, yarn shopping (see Saturday's post), and did a little spring cleaning. All in all, I'd say it was a productive weekend.

Thank you!

I'm fairly sure there aren't a lot of military men and women who read my blog but I feel compelled to say this anyway:

To all of the men and women who have served our country, protecting our freedom and to all of their families that have shared their loved ones with us: Thank you!!!

There's a fair amount of people in my family (both birth and extended family) that have served our country. Most thankfully, we've been blessed not to lose anyone since WWII.

That all being said, I'd like to now take a turn to the silly, and thank Bartholamew for, once again, having me up and out of bed before 7:15 this morning. Seems he just doesn't understand "long weekend". I still love the fat bugger though.


"Anything I can do to help, Momma!"

Knitting Guru?

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
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After reading the rest of the options, it is the one that best fits me.

40% off!!

I don't think I mentioned this but our LYS (Needle on the Square) has a drawing every month. 4 or 5 names get picked out for various percents off of a project. Well, back in August I won the 40% off! I was so excited! I'd never won anything like this before and it was right at my birthday and I had birthday money and just went crazy. I bought some gorgeous soft pink yarn for a sweater. That's a whole nother story but lets just say that someone else is loving that yarn right now because I sold it on eBay. I couldn't enter the drawing for 6 months so when I went back in April I could finally enter again. And guess what? I won the 40% off discount again! So I wanted to use this discount cautiously. I looked and looked and couldn't find a sweater pattern I NEEDED. So today, I went to the store and got 2 skeins of Tofutsies. And some more black Encore DK to finish off the baby sweater. I decided not to make it as stripey as I originally thought so I knew more black would come in hand. And I got some Cascade Fixation that I plan to make some of these with. Minus the eyelash yarn. I've started drinking more water at work and the cup I have sweats a lot. My poor little felted coaster is getting a work out so I thought I'd give it some back up. Plus I thought they'd make cute little gifts.

I also got some DPNs for the baby sweater and a stitch counter/marker for working the round. They also had some adorable (perfectly sized!) buttons for the baby sweater. Little robots! How cute!!

So I decided since I did get a 40% off discount for all the sock supplies I'd buy myself a little something special. Truth be told, with the discount, I basically got them free! :



Yup. Rosewood sock needles. I can't wait to try them! I'm going to use them to knit up one of the Tofutsies for my Aunt Judy's socks.

Here's a picture of the rest of my haul:



Dianne- I want you to note the other DPNs are the Bryspun you showed me.

I was going to go up to Yarn Theory to pick up the knitting bag that I won and maybe stop by Tapestry on the way home but they're apparently closed today. Which isn't all that bad since I don't need to go to any more yarn stores today!

So I think I've got all that I need to settle in for a long relaxing weekend of knitting. Let's see how many FO's I have on Monday. Or at least how many new projects I have on the needles!

I hope everyone has a very safe happy Memorial Day weekend!

Pepper 'tocks

See, there's these blogs out there where they've showed their kitties 'tocks. It sort of started here. Well, Mayhem and Lucy made me think of Pepper and her Jaguar impression.



So I left a comment and told Mayhem's mom I'd get a picture for her. Well, it was too cute not to share some of them.



And my favorite of all of them:



"Why are you takin' so many pictures of my bum, Momma?"

Picture time!

I have a FO to share with you:



This is my cousin's hat and fingerless gloves in her school colors (yes you Hokies, I *know* what colors they are but they're Carson Newman's colors, too!)

Here's Baby's first sweater (from me) in progress:



Scott's a HUGE Steeler's fan, as is his whole family, and I thought they'd get a kick out of a baby sweater in Steelers (ish) colors. And Baby will be born during football season. Even though Amy will get a kick out of it, I'm making a prettier sweater, too.

Lastly, I bring you:



230 yards of yarn. I know, I think it looks like more than that, too. My calculations are correct but I'm now wondering if maybe my measurements are a little off. Can anyone tell me how you can figure out what size skein your niddy noddy will give you?

I don't have a lot of roving left to spin in this colorway so now I'm really wondering what to make with it. I'd guess its no where near enough for a vest or shawl now.

Catch Up Saturday

I've been trying to find the best way to photograph my homespun yarn (any suggestions here would be great, BTW). So it took me a few days to bring you this:



It's the Beneath the Waves roving I bought. Even though you can better see the colors here, it's still so much prettier in person. I'm trying to decide what to make with it. Maybe a vest? or shawl? I'm just not sure yet.

Today I took the smallest of the 3 Beneath the Waves hanks and my first homespun skein up to Bedford. We went to see Dianne and her Sock Sister Linda at Yarn Theory. They were having a Spring Fiber Fling. I ended up sitting and knitting with them for a few hours chatting and visiting and having a lovely time!

I suppose it'd be nice to show you what I bought:



That's Austermann Step for a pair of socks and Koigu for the Chevron Scarf in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Yup, I'm one of the last 5 people who haven't made it yet.

Lastly, I'd like to share with you what happened here last week:



I know, the Taco Salads are exciting but what I was showing you that on Thursday, May 17th, the gas prices really broke $3. The worst part was when I left for work that day, it was $3.03, when I got home it was $3.09. For the record, I don't get my gas here. I get it at a cheaper (sometimes by 20 cents!) place near work.

Well, back to knitting and spinning! I'm almost done with my cousin's present (thanks to said knitting for hours earlier today) and want to go on and get that done.

Not Cotton Candy

I finally got to give Mom her yarn and she loved it. Not just as a good mother would but a Knitter. She was already debating with herself what to make with it!

I got a little present in the mail the other day. OK, so it was a present from me but that's irrelevant right now.



I'm so excited. My first bought roving. No, I got some at Sedalia. Hmm, this is my first order of roving bought specifically for my wheel? Yeah... that's it!

I'm glad I learned to spin when I did. All of my TV shows are ending their seasons so I don't have to worry about not paying attention to the show. Treadling, drafting and keeping Pepper away from my roving, her "cotton candy", is enough without trying to pay attention to TV too.

Pat (my step mom) generously offered for Dad to make me a stool to go with my wheel! :) I'll take some measurements and have a good talk with Dad before I get too excited about this though.

the Golden Compass

Click on the picture to answer 5 quick questions to see if this really is my daemon or not.

I got this from Robin. (and now I really want to see the movie too and read the book)

Happy Mother's Day!

First I'd like to say to all the Mom's out there, I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Since my Mom was traveling, I didn't get to see her. I did call her and we do have plans for a baseball game in addition to the yarn I spun for her. I talked to my stepmom Pat for a while today. She got her socks and loved them. They even practically fit! Which I'm glad of since I just followed the pattern only customizing them slightly.

Today, I went and got everyone who lives here food. How is it cats Know when the bag is practically empty? The bowl can be full but they know. And they chose to remind me of this at 7am. Seems they dont know that the store doesn't open until 10am or else I could've slept a little later this morning. To show you how trained I am, I was at the store at 10am. This wasn't all bad though because I ran into a fellow knitter and got to hear all about her trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I SO wanna go next year.

Then I came home and finished knitting the hat for my cousin. She's going to Carson Newman in the fall. I thought a hat and some fingerless gloves would probably be the most useful and thoughtful things I could get her.

Here's the hat:



and folded up like you'd really wear it (so the big blue and orange color blocks make a little more sense):



I'm in the middle of knitting her fingerless gloves too. I'd be working on that except my knitting spot got commandeered.



If you look closely behind Pepper, you'll see a blue mitt and pink needles all sticking up. That's the first one. I think I'll make the second one orange.

I found TONS of fingerless glove patterns. Most even made with your hand specifics in mind. Well, being as how it's been a good long time since I've held my cousin's hand or even gotten a good look at it, I kept looking. This one is great! I found it here. Look at the sidebar and there's the link for Everyone's Squooshy mitts. I think she'll like them and thanks to such a great pattern, I'm not worried that they'll fit!

I'm especially glad I found this pattern because I wanted to knit a hat and fingerless gloves for my Hokie Knitting, too.

Gotta love that ribbing!!!

Tagged?!

Robin tagged me to list 7 random facts about myself so here goes:

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog. Here are my facts:

1. I hate mushrooms with a passion. It's as much their texture as the taste and I'm not above (discreetly) picking them out of food.

2. I'm thinking about killing a patch of poison ivy at the bottom of my stoop and pulling them up just so I can plant some flowers. That will probably not live because the spot gets no sun and I'll forget to water them.

3. Even before I learned how to knit, it bothered me when crocheters would put down knitters because they thought that knitters thought they were better than crocheters. I've never run into a knitter who thought they were better than crocheters.

4. I love having ink pens and have so many (both at home and at work) that they dry up before I can use them.

5. I'm glad that my parents aren't still married because I love my step parents very much and just can't imagine my life without them in it.

6. I don't drink coffee except when I'm really cold and there's no alternative (like camping).

7. I love getting Christmas cards.

As for the 7 people to tag, I have NO idea so if you want to play along, by all means do.

slow day?

Ever have one of those days at work where you'd rather play? Well, my boss enabled me today. She gave me bubbles.



Now, just so you don't think I'm a totally pushover or suck up, everyone got bubbles. It was part of our invitation for the annual Beach Party management throws for us.

So we got cute bubbles:



They just about made my day. And yes, for the record, I did sit there and blow bubbles for a while.

Tonight when I got home, I ate a little dinner while doing my blog reading and then plied my blue singles. It's starting to look like real yarn. (I know, I know, it's all real yarn and I love my first skein but getting more consistant singles really does make me happy).

It's a boy!

I just heard from my best friend and they're having a boy! I'm soo excited - although this does seriously limit the "fru-fru" I had planned on knitting but that's OK. Amy (the mom) and I aren't really fru-fru kinda girls anyhow.

I'm still "slaving" away on my spinning. I need a better chair. Any one have good recommendations or what to look for?

I started back on knitting my sweater. Figures now that it's in the 70's but that's OK. It'll be one less UFO lurking about staring at me.

Mother's Day gifts

Don't worry. I've already told my Mom's not to look. And they like surprises too much to spoil it. :)

For my step Mom, Pat:



Knitty's Pedicure Socks

She doesn't get lots of pedicures in the winter but she does live in her flip flops and well, the desert gets cold at night. Those are my feet modeling them and don't worry, her feet are longer than mine.

For my Mom:







Hand spun yarn. OK, so it's not perfect handspun yarn but she's mom, she'll love it. And I'll give her full permission to felt if it that's what her heart desires.

my how time flies

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted! I've been a very busy girl this past week. I worked a lot on my spinning and I was preparing for Saturday's Chili Cook off.



I made a very excellent pot of chili but it didn't place in the top 5. It may have been too hot for Virginia but would've fit right in in Texas.

There was a henna tattoo artist beside us and Mom and I each got one:



Mom's while drying.



Mom's after the 2nd application.



Mine after I got home and thought to take a picture of it.

The people on the other side of him were first timers so we made nice with them as well and offered moral support and encouragement. They'll be back next year. :)

The weather wasn't bad. It was in the mid 60's and overcast. Thankfully the rain held off all day!

Even though we didn't get pictures of it, Mom and I, in true Knitter fashion, knit to pass the time. She worked on a small bowl to be felted and I made a dishcloth.

I think all in all, it was a very good day. A trophy and a little cash certainly would've made it a better day but ya know, with the friends that stopped by and my most favorite Momma by my side, it would've been hard to top.

Today is for relaxing and cleaning up. But not all at once. I'm spacing it all out. I have to get a little napping and spinning and knitting in today too.

I hope everyone had less hectic week than I did and as great of a weekend!