Ukrop's... I love you

This is my favorite part of the whole store! (It's really Ok... my momma always told me "simple things amuse simple minds" and I'll admit it, I have a simple mind) Looking at the picture, the escalator on the left is the people escalator, the one on the right is for carts. You push the cart into the gate, it locks into place and as you ride down the cart rides down beside you. OK, I should stop right there, I told a little lie. YOU don't push the cart into the gate, the very nice customer service people (I swear "bag boy" seems almost an insult to these guys) push your cart into the gate, then to your car and load up your groceries. And if you haven't ever been to Ukrop's before they give you a little history lesson and store hours and such.

I went in with my preprinted customer card form (I love the internet too!) and handed it to the nice lady at the very busy table. She asked me if I wanted a keychain card or a wallet card (the wallet card is my card of choice in case you're wondering) and handed me my card. I took a little magnet for the fridge with all their numbers on it. Mostly because I like magnets on the fridge. (see you're learning so much about me in this one little post!)

I wandered up and down each aisle carefully making decisions about what I wanted for lunch and for dinner. I bought the heathens a little treat (that was 4 cents cheaper per can than another place I usually shop), I bought my dad a .... wait, it's a surprise, I'll tell you later after he gets it but yes it will mail very well, I got some frozen chicken things and some prepared shepherd's pie. Because a lady at work said they've got excellent pecan pie, I bought a piece. I would like to state here for the record that she is right. I mean she's not Southern or anything so I used her recommendation with that in mind, but it's good. The pie is SO good, Pepper tried to eat the fork when I was done. And she's not so big on people food. The pie alone is worth a "I heart Ukrop's" but I'll tell you what really sealed the deal for me (I mean besides the cart escalator going to the underground parking) was they have Ginger beer. Dad originally told me about ginger beer when I was visiting with him but Catie is the one who turned me on to this particular brand. It's MOST tasty. It's also most tasty with a little splash of good tequila (Dad says good burboun too).

They've also got well spaces aisles and a very nice layout. As an added personal bonus, they're very close to where I live. I'll be shopping there again (maybe even to buy some French toast or French bread for the Tour de France KAL kick off . You always knit better after a nourishing breakfast.)

Another KAL

I tell you, I am SUCH a joiner these days!! First the Dish Rag Tag. It begins in August and our team will compete against other teams in the country, one in Australia and at least one in Canada! It's basically a relay race. The organizer (Emily of Yarn Miracle) will mail out a box to each team captain. From there the captain will take the enclosed dishrag and knit a new one from the enclosed ball of cotton. She will put her dishcloth, two balls of cotton (one for the next person to keep and one for them to knit with) and some small goodies into the box and mail it to the next person on the list. And so it goes. The first team to get it back to the start, wins! I may not be the fastest knitter, but boy can I whip out a dishrag!

The second thing I joined (just today!), is the Tour de France KAL! I'm competing under the polka dot jersey for "mountain climbers". I will be knitting on my first sweater! I'm most excited about this and looking forward to finishing my sweater! As a good friend pointed out "It will be cool before you know it". Hard to believe in this 90+ degree heat but she's right.

The links for both of these are in my sidebar, click on the appropriate button.

I also bring you:



Brother. (with a Bartholamew backdrop). Brother is the first fleece Catie bought and processed herself. When she sold me my wheel, she gave me what was left of Brother. After a discussion with my Dad on various subjects, he told me about a double knit Aran sweater my Mom had made him A Long Time Ago. It was still very lanolin rich and he really liked that sweater. Well, I told him that even though I love him dearly, I'm not knitting him a sweater (I haven't even knit me a whole sweater yet ya know?) I did have a still greasy fleece and would be happy to make him another hat? The man lives in the desert. I know it gets cold in the desert in the winter and they even got more snow than I did this past winter but I'm making the man another hat. Being a good dad (and a bit of a hat collector) he said that would be nice. :) So I spun up what is nearing the bottom of the bag of Brother. Catie was amazed that I've kept Brother! I think he's a very pretty gray. The picture really doesn't show the nice gray-ness of it. I know that sounds silly but it's true.

So, I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should rename Brother now that he's all spun up. (Be forewarned: there is MORE silliness ahead!) I thought well, I spun Brother for my Father. Maybe I should rename the yarn "Uncle" (see? Bad silliness at that...) I still haven't decided but am looking forward to knitting my first item with my handspun!

Sunday Catch Up

Well, it's been quite a busy week around here. Wednesday I went out to dinner with Mom. It was just Taco Bell but we still had a great time! Thursday a small group of us went down to the local Barnes and Noble and sat around knitting and chatting. Mostly chatting I think... either way, it was a very good evening. Friday was a quiet night at home.

Saturday, Laura and I headed up to Mosaic. She had gone up last Saturday to help sew the blankets for Virginia Tech together and they gave her a coupon as a thank you. I hadn't been up there yet so she let me tag along (thanks again, BTW!).

It was a whole lotta fun and I was a very good girl and only got this:



It's Cascade Sierra. An 80/20 pima cotton/merino blend. I have secret plans for it. I will reveal them after the plan is complete. Bwhahahahahaaaaa...

This is the first of the roving I bought at knit/spin group the other night:



It's called Eternal Flame.

Last in our fiber category, I bring you a very loving present sent to me by my wonderful Dad and Pat. They were vacationing out in Utah and called to see if I would want some roving they had found. I very enthusiatically said, "yes please!" Pat asked me what color I wanted and started to give me options. I asked her to please just pick something out for me that she thought I'd like. I think she did Real Good!



It's slightly darker than this in real life but oh so pretty. I feel yarn should be named so I named it "Utah Sage". I can NOT wait to spin it! I've got a couple other projects I'm currently working on first though.

Our last picture of the night is our newest neighbor. The glare on the left is from the window glass. I've found my neighbors aren't real fond of me opening the door and taking their picture. Or opening the door in general. What can I say...



A raccoon! Well, he may have been living here for a while but this is the first time I spotted him. So, for the count, this makes Big Fat Groundhog, countless squirrels, a chipmunk or two, lots of birds and now Mr. Raccoon.

I hope everyone has a most wonderful week!

Doing the Happy Dance

Well, it certainly was well worth the wait to get in to our newest LYS!! She had a knitting night tonight and man did we have fun! The long story short is that she did what we all talk about... "wow, wouldn't it be great if I could open up a yarn store" and all your knitting friends go "yeah, that would be so cool"... Well, she did it! The stock is still rolling in but it's coming a long very nicely. There's a great sitting/library/pattern area in the front window with a great view of the comings and goings of the little neighborhood and mountains and a lovely yarn/supply/bag area.

She's going to get a box to put up for donations of premie and baby hats and blankets for the local hospitals.

I have no pictures of tonight. I'm such a bad blogger picture taker!

BUT to prove I'm not totally hopeless when it comes to squares, I bring you this:



Marianne posted a little bit ago about making squares for Greensburg. Well, there was a pattern so I gave it another go and voila! I did it! I've got another one about 1/3 of the way done. I'm using up the last of my Manos. It's extra warm and squishy. Besides which, I think knitting with a yarn you love this much has got to bring extra goodness to the squares, right?

Everyone stay cool out there in this heat and happy knitting and spinning!

Attitude Adjustment

After I posted earlier, I decided that the best thing I could do, despite the chill and damp in the air was go down to a large public park for our local Relay for Life. It was very crowded and getting more so by the minute. It took me 50 minutes to get 8/10 of a mile. It was ok though. I had good music, a lot of patience and honestly, I was glad so many people were coming out. I didn't take any knitting because I wanted to walk and visit with my co-workers. Sadly, not many of them came out but I enjoyed hanging out with those who did.

I wandered around looking for cotton candy (an unsuccessful venture I must add) with my boss' 9 yr old. Walking around and talking with her and her worries (the day care serves the same snack every day) and being there with all the cancer survivors and all the luminaries of those who have died from cancer, it makes you think.

I'm still disappointed in the new LYS but it doesn't matter so much now.

I know several people commented that they were afraid that something was wrong with their computer and I'm so sorry if anyone else did that as well. I just didn't think about that aspect.

I hope you get to do something good this weekend. Something that makes you realize maybe your problems aren't as big as they could be.

So, as Pepper said the other day - go love on a cat or something :) tell those you love, that you love them. And thank you all for reading my little blog. I appreciate you. Very much.

New Yarn Store

Well, as I told you the new yarn store opened today:








This is what I bought:









What? You don't see any pictures? Hmm. Oh, I know, it's because they closed at 5pm today. I know, I'm being a little (cough... a lot... cough) snitty and I do apologize. It's just that I was so excited about a new yarn store and I was so looking forward to going after work today that I'm just really disappointed. She said they'd be open for about 3 hours tomorrow. I'll try to get out there then and keep my fingers crossed that maybe as time goes one she stays open later than 5pm during the week. Even one night a week.

Meow?

The following post is brought to you by Pepper. She asked if she could post so I told her sure as long as I got to do the final editing.

Hi. This is Pepper. I had to tell you about what my momma let me and 'tolamews do. She let us sign up for Secret Paws. We signed up as a family meaning we're only sending out one package and only getting one package. Which is OK by me cuz I do most of the playin' in this family and when he does want to play I let 'tolamews play with any toy he wants. However, he doesn't like it so much when I try to play with him. Only when he wants to play. Grumpy ol' man...

Anyways... I sent Momma to the store today to buy presents for our Paw. He's a cat like us so I told her to buy things I'd like. I think she did OK:



She did buy a little something for our Paws Mom though. I'm not sure that's part of the rules but she told me to hush. She did bring me a new toy home so I let it slide.




She told me if I put up a picture of me I gotta include 'tolamews too. Something about bein' fair or something. Why do mom's get that way? And why is she always chasing us around with that camera thing?



Anyways, I'm out. Y'all go love on a cat or something...

Pepper



Dana- I told Pepper she had to include a picture of Bartholamew for you to see his whole orangeness. I had to include this shot of his tail. I just love it. It's all stripey and has the only white on his body.

Marianne - I hadn't forgot about those questions. I just haven't had a chance to get them answered yet.

This weekend our new yarn store is opening in town and I'm most excited.

Picture Pages!

In an effort to not totally bore you with pictures, I bring you this. It's an online album of all my pictures I took this weekend.

Here's some knitting content not included in the album.

My Aunt Judy's sock:



Fits great. She loved it and said it was "her colors"! woo hoo!

The Knitting Bag I won at Yarn Theory's customer appreciation day:



The green skein is a little skein of Koigu that followed me home from Yarn Theory Friday:



The red I already had. I'd picked out another color to go with it but I like the greens with the reds better. I don't think it's too Christmasy but if it is, what's it matter? It's for a scarf. You wear scarves at Christmas time...

And this... This is my roving I got Thursday at Spin/Knit night.



David Simpson (I almost said Mr. Simpson but he stopped one of my friends as soon as she called him that and said his first name wasn't "mister" :) ) came down to spin with us and brought some goodies in case we were in the mood to buy. Bartholamew felt the need to help me arrange it just so for the picture. I actually have one without him in it, but that little orange paw is just too cute.

A long fun icky weekend

This is going to be a quick catch up. I went to visit my aunt this weekend (who LOVED) her sock! It was the right colors and fit great so the 2nd sock has been cast on.

Sadly this weekend I also got a little sick and was most puny all Saturday night and even though I felt much better today a good 5 hr drive will knock some puny back into you. Thankfully though there was no "sick" today though.

I did take lots and lots of pictues at Harborfest Saturday afternoon though. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to share those photos along with a little roving I got the other night...

OH, and I must confess that I did not knit in public on Saturday. :( I had all the intention too but we were so on the go Saturday while we were out I just didn't do it. And knitting and walking is not a skill I have. I did knit at my aunt's though... I realize she's not "public" or even anti yarn (this being the aunt who taught me how to crochet) but it's all I've got.

Hope y'all had a great weekend!

Two FO

I have two finished objects to share today.

A little baby hat. It's the pattern that goes with the Steeler's Baby Sweater. This is the basic pattern, but I did the stripes and colors myself. I wanted to see how the pattern worked up since it had (in this order from the bottom up) garter stitches, ribbing and stockinette. This one will go to charity and I'll knit a black, white and yellow one for my nephew. However when I get to the booties, those will be a solid color!



The second is the Steeler's Baby Sweater:



OK. So it still needs a little bath, a good de-cat furring and buttons but it's done.

Now, I'm going back to knitting on my aunt's socks. I get to see her next weekend and I really want at least one done to make sure it fits and all.

Project updates

Well, the Steeler's baby sweater is at a standstill. I've knitted the 2nd sleeve and the neckband. The other night I went to pick up the stitches for the right front button band. I read the pattern and got one number stuck in my mind as to how many stitches I needed. Well, I was wrong. By 6 stitches. That's a fair amount on a baby sweater. So I ripped it out and set it aside for now. I'll probably work on it later this weekend.

So, I picked up the Tofutsie's sock. I just love this pattern! I swear this is the quickest I've ever knit a sock. Hmm, I wonder if those Rosewoods have anything to do with it?



Robin just finished her pair. They're some great lookin' socks!

Last night Mom, Luke and I went to the local baseball stadium to watch a game and some very cool fireworks! After about the 3rd or 4th inning, I broke out the knitting:



It's another cup coozie for a good friend of mine. Easy mindless knitting. However, I did put Mom in charge of making sure I didn't get hit by any baseballs! There was one that came close. We were sitting off the first baseline and it was on a direct trajectory to us but fortunately it hit the sound wire and bounced into the next section to us 2 rows down. Whew!

One last thing, an online store testimonial! Last Saturday I was browsing about looking for sock yarn that I had to have. Well, I ended up going to our LYS, Needle on the Square and got that Tofutsies. BUT I found something else I just couldn't live without.



Stitchkeepers!!



I love them. Admittedly, I've never had a problem with stitches falling off of my DPNs but I worry about them all flailing about in my knitting bag. This way they're all nice and safe and clumped up together. No flailing. The best part? Sheri at the Loopy Ewe (link in my sidebar) mailed them on Saturday and I got them Tuesday! This was a holiday weekend we're talking about here, people! I expected them to get MAILED on Tuesday. She also includes little presents with your first 5 orders! I will certainly be buying from her again. The only "downside" is picking between all her luscious sock yarn!