photos now!

I am so tired I can hardly see straight. Today, tomorrow, and Wed are hell in billing world, as it is not only month end, but year end. I amhauling butt to get as much $ in as possible, and I am tired.

So here are a few photos to keep you happy. I made a complete set of hat, mittens, and scarf from Malabrigo in colorway Mariposa, and the bag is my Jordainna Paige knitting satchel from Eric.

Seriously done typing now.

Best Christmas Ever

This is so far the best Xmas ever. Just me and Eric and the cats, sleeping in, eating, drinking, presents, lots of free time. All of my favorite things.

I did get the Jordanna Paige knitting bag, will take pics later. Other wonderful goodies include a knitting help book from mom and a lovely sweater, a gorgeous window ornament, some books, a page a day calender of knitting stitches, a brand new Wally Lamb book a hand tied blanket from Leo, hand knit mittens from grandma for me and hand knit slippers for eric. I know I'm forgetting, but I got lots of wonderful presents from my favorite people. Except the cats. Cuz they don't have thumbs. They did help unwrap though, which was a hoot.

The next four days are just for me. Video store, liquor store, yarn store, knitting and sitting. Maybe even in that order. I am so happy right now I could implode.

Posting my favorite pics from this year, cuz I'm too lazy to take a new one.

Happy Holidays!

I just want to know what happened

What the heck happened to the world I live in and operate in and deal with people in from yesterday to today that has made everyone either wacked out crazy batshit or angrier than me with pms or stupider than Itchy? I just want to know so that I can be prepared come tomorrow when things continue on this way.
yesterday. driving. Now people, I understand that we got snowed on and that it took you 2 or more hours to get home the night before. And I understand that yesterday the sun came out and it was about 5 degrees outside which felt like a heat wave. But seriously people. This is Minnesota. We do this EVERY YEAR. Every one. Why do you have to pretend it's summer and do your hair in your rear view mirror while simultaneously trying to drive everyone off the road? and why do bus drivers not see me? Am I invisible at 5 degrees and sunny? Never mind the parking lot at the store where everyone pretended they couldn't see the little yellow lines or my big green car and started weaving in and out of lanes at an alarming rate. And that was just yesterday.
Today.
mr phone call: why do i have a bill
me: can i get your account number
mr phone: i don't understand this (angry)
me: it seems that you were seen in the emergency room on blah date
(inside head starting to scream)
mr phone: no i wasn't
me: you weren't in the emergency room on blah date?
mr phone: well maybe but i didn't see a doctor
(emergency room without a doctor? is this possible?)
me: that's what the bill is for.
mr phone: well you already got money. why do i owe you
me: you have a copay.
mr phone: well, that's all your getting. don't bill me again
me in head: and you were seen in the emergency room or weren't seen by an imaginary doctor and you don't need therapy?????
me: have a nice day.

mrs phone call: I got a check in the mail. what are the dates on it for?
me: those are for the dates of service the patient saw you
mrs phone: so I saw her on blah date?
me: um..... that's what the bill was for....
mrs phone: and the other dates?
me: umm....... that's what was billed...
mrs phone: so was I paid for all of them?
me: um... have you billed for all of them?
mrs phone: i don't know.
me: um... (screaming inside head)
mrs phone: i just want to know if i can cash this check.
me: um.. go right ahead.

you see? what the heck is going on??????

Lessons Learned

Sometimes you just need to sleep on it. Vent, then sleep. I realize that my previous vent about Karma was unreasonable. Really, I think it is the universe trying to tell me to give in and be nicer and accept people and blah blah blah. So I have decided to give in to my usual advice to others and listen to the universe. Seriously. I'm not kidding.

The reason I came to this conclusion is that I spent 3 labourious days on a baby sweater, not to mention the 2 weeks prior on a lacy baby blanket for a person's baby shower. The blanket was no big deal, but the sweater was a torment from above. Someone wanted me to labor on that sweater, so I did. I ended up with about 3 feet of yarn left over, knotting ends together to make more yarn. I finished in the knick of time. I really thought that the woman would like this sweater and blanket, as she frequently comments nicely on all of my stuff. I don't think she did. She treated my handknits at the shower as if they were hand me downs. But she beamed ferociously at all of the name brands that everyone else bought her. I went to my office and nearly cried. I really did spend a lot of time on that sweater, and I thought it was great. DH was way supportive when I wah wah'd at home, saying she just didn't have good taste. I appreciate that, but still wanted to cry.

So the lesson learned that will be applied is get people what they want. Not what you think they want or even what you think they SHOULD want. My secret santa gal likes candles and knick knacks and such. I found a very pretty candle set at a discount store, I hope she likes it. I'm going into this thing just hoping that I can make someone happy.

And forever on, you only get handknits if you are my mom, my grandma, or my cat. Enough said.

Tis the season for Karma

Karma has kicked my ass this year. And it's pissed me off. Which is probably not the right reaction to have towards Karma, cuz, you know, it's KARMA, but still. I'm pretty ticked.
Every year at work we have secret santa. I usually don't participate, but this year I thought I would. Don't ask why. Bad things happen when I decide to participate in things, which is why I don't, but heck, let's throw all that aside and see what happens. Well, bad things, let me tell you.
Let's start by saying I like the people I work with. Most of them I like all the time, and some of them I like part of the time. Maybe 2 of them I hardly ever like. And I have a thing with grammar and spelling and correct speech. Which means I usually don't like the people that can't do any of them. I try to overlook it. Really. I try. But one can only try so much. I used to have a coworker that used the improper tense of the word saw for everything. "I seen that movie last night". ALL THE TIME. She never used the correct past tense. She never said the word "Saw". Ever. (this apparently still drives me crazy). I have given in and decided it is a midwest thing, because almost all of the people I work with use the word "seen" this way. Fine.
But I draw the line at calling a freaking votive candle a "votem". It's not a votem. there is no such thing as a votem. If there is such a thing as a votem, I'm quite sure it wouldn't smell good when you lit it.
So this is the person I got for secret santa. The person who seen a votem yesterday. I had a brilliant idea to get her a bunch of VOTIVE candles and cross out the ive and write in em. But that might start a work war. Which would be amusing, but not worth it.

holy buckets!

That picture, is my neighbors. Eric said if I decided to do the same thing, "those bratty neighbor kids" would steal everything in the night. I dunno, kinda like it for this neighborhood. Shows that people are outside and care about their houses.

Still working on the Malabrigo version of test knit sweater. I just have to get the mojo going to finish those sleeves!

Great weekend for finishing things

This weekend I finished many things. So many that I am high on myself. Dancing in my pants happy.

I knitted Charlie's sweater (Sarahs' baby to be) in only 3 days and finished with about 3 feet of yarn to go. I only had one skein of this particular discontinued bought at a thrift store yarn, and prayed to the yarn goddess to let me finish. I had to knot a few strands together to get the seaming done, but it's done. And it's darn cute. It's the baby yoda pattern on ravelry.com.

I finished 2 mug cozies, one for grandpa and one for enrique. They are wrapped and ready to mail.

I finished moms shopping and all of that is wrapped and ready to mail.

Biggest thing of all I finished a pair of flannell pajama bottoms 3 years in the making for Eric. He's wearing them now. They fit. They were 3 years in the making because the first go round I seamed up the crotch instead of the legs. Had to sit and patiently rip seams. That got done today and after about an hour at the machine, he has pants.

I won something!

remember all those mini socks? Well, turns out that lovely Momwolf decided to put all the knitters that knit on them into a drawing for a knitpicks.com gift certificate and I won! I never win anything! I ordered a book, an extra needle set for my Options, some yarn for a sweater and an alpaca sampler. Yes, it was over the gift card amount, but heck, already placing the order!
I can't tell you how exciting this is for me. I love doing things for other people, but like the rest of you I'm sure that sometimes you feel like your generosity of time is not quite as appreciated as you were hoping. That isn't meant to be snarky, it just is what it is. A lot of people do a lot of stuff for other people and we really aren't always recognized. Sometimes even the "thank you" is missing. Not always. but sometimes. This small recognition has really meant a lot to me. It's not the $. It could have been a thank you card. It's the recognition.
Thank you again, knittinghelp.com knitters and momwolf.

Finished my test knit sweater

I love to test knit patterns. I use semi-cheap but nice-ish yarn, and I knit the pattern. Especially if the pattern is a sweater. I like to work out all of the fussies in the test. Turns out I happened upon a pattern that test knit wonderfully, so I went out and bought myself enough of the yarn in my beloved Malabrigo, colorway frost grey, to make a nicer version. Though, to my credit, I did wear the test knit to work in public and got lots of compliments. Hopefully the Malabrigo version will be as yummy to wear as it is to knit. Burgundy sweater is the test knit, grey is the new version, needs sleeves and neck still.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Take a lesson from Mulder, lay back and relax today!

Knitters rock

So, another knitter on knittinghelp.com posted a pic of her newest fo (finished object) and because I am in a bit of a bind xmas knitting wise, I think she his brilliant. I wanted everyone to have sweaters and slippers, etc, but it turns out that even though I started xmas knitting in FREAKING FEBRUARY I am a bit behind on the plans. Needless to say, everyone is getting my own modified version of this gift.
no you can't see it, it's a surprise!

I had an idea

I had a thought yesterday. I thought to myself, "why don't I buy a real honest to goodness but fake xmas tree for us?". I haven't had a real (fake) xmas tree in probably 10 years. Not really since I left the house. For a while my mom did xmas trees, but then it got down to one year all she did was get a branch from outside and put it on a table with some decorations. A BRANCH. That was my last tree. When I was a kid we had a tree every year. Some years we returned them after xmas, but there was always a tree, always a theme, and always my own ornaments. (Mom, can I have the red and blue birds back now please?) Even when we went to grandma's, and she had the hugest most ginourmous tree because she had a 18 foot high entry room, we had a tree at home.

Here the last couple years we had one of those tabletop fiberglass ones that have a million different lights. No siree-this year I wanted a tree. I have a house, I have a room, I have enough $ for one on sale, and I know where Target and Michaels' are.

So I got a tree. I got a prelit 7 foot tree. Pretty clear lights, nice height and fullness, not even that hard to put together. Really. I got a huge roll of sparkly silver ribbon and wound that around the tree for garland, got a million tiny sparkly silver snowflakes and hung those, found a sparkly silver star for the top, and one silver ornament in the shape of the eiffell tower. For those who know our engagement story. Oh, and 2 birdees just like the ones I had when I was a kid, only in red velvet. Gotta have a theme folks.

Let's vent!

First of all, Itchy didn't need a stupid tooth extraction. He just had really bad gingivitis. To be fair, he did need the procedure to clean his dumb tooth, but what we didn't need was a big huge ordeal before hand because of said extraction. If he just needed his dumb tooth cleaned I would have put it off. But of course, no way to know until xrays done. and xrays can't be done with Itchy until sedation. Heck, xrays take an hour with Mulder, and all you get is blurry head and legs. So fine. But still. Clean teeth, ticked off as all hell cat, shaved leg, and $300 later, we have one heck of a clean tooth. They did clip his nails to an obnixiously short length while he was under, and it is kinda funny to watch him slide when he thinks he'll grip. And the fight with the bandage on the arm from the iv was funny. But not that freaking funny.
Work is ticking me off too. Nothing to do with the actual work, just that one of our main providers has outsourced their claim status to an actual collections agency that sees nothing wrong with hanging up and calling back 5 times and harrassing my receptionist to get me on the phone for some dumb non emergency billing crap, and then being rude as crap and pissing me right the fuck off. I am attempting to go through all the right channells to get them fired, or at least to get them to stop freaking calling me. That was 8:20 am today. And you all know that my HUGEST MOST GINOURMOUS pet peeve is repeating myself. Lets just say by the 13 bagillionth time I'm not quite so nice anymore. Which ticks me off. Because I like my job and I like 98 % of the people I talk to and I don't like having to be "firm" or "rude" to anyone when it comes to work. We're all just trying to do our jobs and go home people, stop being an asshole.
And what I thought I could stave off as a headache that came every day has turned into migraine from hell (see above for reasoning). I want everything to be quiet. Dark, quiet, just knitting and maybe the tv.
Please, please, please, when I walk into work at 7am (7am people!) do not let ANYONE accost me at the door telling me about the current must resolve right the fuck now crisis. I might just implode.

Socks, Mulder, Itchy and yarn

Over on knittinghelp.com, as referenced before, we are knitting 850 mini socks for troops for xmas. Because it's been 8 years,(!) a lot of people have been forgetting our troops for xmas and some people aren't getting anything. So we are knitting mini socks and sending them. Well, we have some milestones today. 2 weeks into the project, we have hit 300 socks! (my 7th sock was the 300th, but who's keeping track!) Some lovely women have bought xmas cards in bulk and are having students, friends, family, customers, and all sorts of lovely people sign 850 cards to go with the socks! There is a gradeschool class that is going to stuff a bunch of the socks with goodies. Nothing big, chapstick, candy, gum, etc, but gosh that's so cool. What amazes me the most is all one person had to do was reach out to one other person, who reached out to her friends, who reached out to others, and darn it all but people have redeemed themselves a bit in their extreme generosity. Knitting is not buying a sock. It is sitting for at least 1/2 hour doing something for someone else. some people are on their 30th sock. That's 15 hours people, 15 hours of knitting for someone else. Actually, knitting for someone else, for someone else, for the other person that requested help, 4th person removed. That's pretty freaking awesome.

In other news, Mulder decided to help with the knitting of the mini socks, and took some yarn he deemed unworthy and decided to kill it for me. See pics. I was happily knitting away, cut the yarn and set yarn on table to start to seam the sock. all of a sudden i see a trail of bright purple yarn leading into the kitchen, and hear a "plop". Mulder drowned the darn yarn.

Itchy survived the 1st part of his dental ordeal, the BLOOD DRAW. I sent DH to the vet with Itchy all on his lonesome because I had more important things to do, like visit Crafty planet for their 5 yr anniversary yarn sale! Apparently the vet is stinky and dirty, because Itchy came home and proceeded to clean himself FEROCIOUSLY for about 2 hrs. Then DH stepped on his tail. Poor little guy. Itchy goes to the vet on monday for the tooth removal. He does get to come home with me after work.

Oh, and did I say yarn????? Crafty planet is 5 yrs old, so they were having 25% off all the yarn this week. Oooopsies! I might have had a minor accident in there. I also think I am now a part employee, as they had crafty planet hoodies that Matt sold me one for 25% off. Seriously. they have this "frequent buyer" program where if you spend over a certain *not telling* dollar amount you get either 10 or 20$ gift card for the store. and there was the sale. and there was Malabrigo in colors they never had before. And they had Noro that I helped pick out for stock the last time I was there. Seriously. I walk in and Trish and Matt ask me what I like for the store. not kidding. They bring out a buying list and we talk about the pros and cons of each one. I couldn't make this shit up. So now I have the sweatshirt to prove it.

I cannot be held responsible for my actions

It was the wool fumes. And she was a knitter. I was doomed from the start. I fell off the stash wagon right into her hands and dropped my money like it was going out of style. More like yarn was a limited commodity. Like the sheep had stopped producing.

But in my defense, it was all 50% off. I swear, I never had a chance.

Owner of the Yarn Garage went out of business and was selling her stash/store. All enourmously wonderful yarn at 50% off. I asked if I could write a check. they said yes, "if you spend more than X amount of money" um... got that covered in the first 5 min thank you very much.

Again, to be fair, none of the yarn I got have I found anywhere else. I only bought the most superfabulous yarn and I did buy in large quantities (umm.... that was supposed to be in my defense). Sweater quantities.... yea, sweaters.

Seriously though, I got all the yarn in the pics for the freaktastic price of only $130. Seriously. You all know yarn, this is alpaca, silk, cashmere, llama, and wool. none of that acrylic stuff. Even Itchy likes it all. I spread it all on the floor and he immediately decided the 100% llama was his favorite and took a big nap in the middle of it. No, I did not try to move him.

850 mini socks

A friend over on Knittinghelp.com has commissioned her fellow knitters (including me-I'm a sucker) to help knit 850 mini socks for the troops for xmas. I started my first one. I might need some backup. Wanna knit a mini sock? leave me a comment and I will email you the details.

I think I have too many ideas

Besotted is done. Done I say! Even though there is about 20 yards of the Malabrigo left, I cast of, wove in ends, and she is done. She argued too much about whether she would knit right towards the end, so she's done.
Now I'm a bit at loose ends. I cast on for those socks with the yarn that Cindy sent me, got to the gusset and got bored. I cast on for a lovely and if-it-works-out will be my favorite sweater ever.
Monkey socks are still on the ribbing for sock #2. But I have yarn for a great scarf/hat/mitten set I want to start on. Also still want to chug on the afghan that has idled for about a year. And Mom is bringing me the afghan she started that was supposed to be a birthday present but it still just yarn and is going to teach me hairpin lace. ( wow, is that a theme? yarn that was supposed to be a present but is still just yarn? I guess I inherited a lot). hmm..
Is it the weather? Do knitters instinctively want to cast on tons of stuff in the winter so they'll be surrounded by wooly warm goodness? Do we automatically revert to hat/scarf/mitten/sweater sets at this time of year because we want to already be wearing them? Do I want to knit an afghan because the one I have right now isn't warm enough? Of course, that's not considering that by the time I have an afghan done it will be 2 years from now and probably summer.

Itchy needs a tooth removed

Argh! Itchy went to vet today, I KNOW he has tooth problems. But today it was worse. His tooth is being reabsorbed into his gums and needs to be removed. And cats don't have single teeth like we do. they have root system. so it's about 3 teeth in a root system that has to come out. Apparently this is common in cats. Ugh. It's an enzyme thing. Ugh.
Fortunately, for the first time ever, DH said that he would be around to help with the transfer of said demon seed. I think it's because it's "his" cat. I also think he didn't second guess the diagnosis because it's "his" cat. Remember the bickering when Mulder had pancreatitis and I had xrays and such done and he "mentioned" that the cost was a bit high and I was doing a lot for the cat? I do. No such "mentioning" this time.
That's the only comment I will make on that.
I am just happy that he made the effort to try to help with the transfer of spawn of satan to evil vet of doom. You should have heard the howl that came out of that boy when the lovely (I sincerely love the CRAP out of our vet and ask for her by name) vet came in and asked "how is Itchy?" OH my. she was nice though and polite, and just remarked that he was "vocalizing". Notice I am using a lot of quote marks for this post.
Lets just say that the vets office shouldn't LEAD the exam with a rectal temp. Maybe leave that for last. I'd be a bit pissed too and so would you.

On other lovely notes, I am raging away on my knitting. Besotted scarf is almost done, I am swearing to finish the ball of yarn even if my fingers and the needles resist. Cindy sent me some of the most lovely handspun for socks, and when I remarked that it was softer that anything else I've gotten she said it was because she spun in some extra soft stuff she had leftover. Smart smart girl. Oddball blankets are coming along. I'm on 2 groups right now, the midwest oddball baby blankets and the Pet snuggle project. Loving them both. The firl that runs the midwest babies seemed a bit overwhelmed, and I have more than my fair share of extra yarn, so I started my own blankie for the group, "it's not easy being green". I bought myself a stitch pattern book last week, and am having so much fun playing with the stitches and my extra yarn. I could seriously fill a few hospitals with blankies just with my yarn. The pet snuggles are awesome as well, and have a great special huge place in my heart. I can't adopt every kitty that needs love, either thru abandonment, illness, or other such heartbreaking issues, but with our blankies we are donating a bit of snuggle to each of them. Not just kitties, I know, but I like to think that if Mulder hadn't been found that evil wretched day and had to spend a day in the shelter, he would have had a blankie to snuggle/chew/pee on/ lay on/etc. So we are having fun.

Gutters done

Today was a busy day. It might not have been if my neighbors had not been busy, but they motivated me to get outside and get some stuff done. Raked the whole yard and learned that using a shovel to put the leaves in the garbage bag rocks. Got the gutters on the garage cleaned. Who knew that there was an entire ecosystem living in gutters? Whole trees with root systems were starting to grow! Could've planted those suckers. And it's disgusting. and smelly. Yuck. But it's done for now. Got about 15 bags full of yard crap out back now. I'm pooped. Just waiting for my pajamas to be done in the dryer and I will conk out on the couch with my knitting and a movie. I am on the second skein of Malabrigo for the besotted scarf. this scarf is awesome, but takes a lot of yarn because of the cables. Glad I'm using my most favorite yarn in the whole world, because that might suck if I wasn't. I'm not even close to bored with the scarf because the yarn is that awesome. The color is "sealing wax". If you've never knit with Malabrigo, really, come to my house. I have a whole section in my craft room just for my Malabrigo stash. You can feel it and be addicted. It is my favorite gift to give knitters. Hint hint.

Last day of vacation

Yes, I know it's weird to go back to work after vacation for only 2.5 more days until the weekend, but it just worked out that way.

Got the outside lights installed. Took the guys 4 hrs on the front light and 1 hr on the back. Why? Some weird electrical stuff that I don't understand, but they had to run a line up from the basement for the front. Apparently "dead" wiring and such. Eric asked but I had no idea really, and he seemed perterbed that I didn't. I hired the guys for that. BECAUSE I have no idea. I thought it was better that way. And the lights work. Both of them. One guy just turned the front off and on a bunch with a grin. Seriously.

One thing about having workers at your house is they are loud, they go in and out (especially when working on lights where the wiring is inside and the light is outside, go figure) they track in stuff, and they make you worry about using your own bathroom because it doesn't have a lock. And they freak the CRAP out of the cats. So when they said they might have to come back to finish the back I said no way, you finish torture now, now I say! no more coming back to refresh torture! Well, I didn't say that. But it was clear. And the guys cell phone played Kung Fu Fighting. And it rang all the freaking time. I had a headache, I can at least say that.

I did get a ton knit on my Besotted scarf, see pic. That's the thing about workers in your house. You can't hover, but you don't want to leave or go do something far away. Especially when one guy walks through your living room with a huge metal pole aiming straight for the gazillion and a half dollar tv. Nope. Stayed put and knit. Which made for a decent, if somewhat tense, day.

All in all I think vacation accomplishments went well. The fence isn't fixed and the garage gutters aren't cleaned, but now I feel ok doing that on a weekend. Dang it, the cat needs more syringes. Don't let me forget to pick up more needles!

day 5

Today it rained a lot. All day. Wet and chilly. No outside work done. Did hire guy to install lights, will be done on tuesday. Got 2 last porch curtains and 1 curtain for Nicole done.
Word to the wise: trying to explain to hungry cats that you have to go to the store to get their food and continuously clawing at you doesn't help, doesn't work. You would have thought the darn things were starving. Came home w/ food, they ate, then promptly took a nap for 6 hrs. Buggers.
Tomorrow we get the lights done. I'm not going for much more than that as it is my lasdt day off. I have a movie to watch, knitting, and some good food around here still. Besides, I got way more accomplished in these last days than in the last year I think. Fence still isn't fixed though.

Day 4

Took day 4 off. It is a sunday after all. Watched some movies and knit on my besotted scarf. After a few errors that only I can see, I am getting the hang of the pattern. Which is good, because the scarf will take forever to make. Tomorrow I work on sewing. The rest of the porch curtains need done, and Nicole from work gave me a curtain she needs hemmed. Also want to throw in some cat toys while I'm at it.
finished The Hunger Games, was a very good read. gave to amy to read next. hope she likes it.
Picked up The Reincarnationist and a knitting stitch dictionary today. The dictionary is for all the oddball blankets I'm working on. I have a lot of little dictionaries in all of the books I have, but not one big one. This one looked the best, and I had a 15% off and my 10% off barnes and noble membership. Seriously, for only $20 a year, this is the only membership I've found worth keeping. And if you know someone that doesn't have it, give it as a gift. You get 10% off everything, even sale stuff, all the time, even online. And you always get these coupons in the email/mail. Way worth it. I swear!

day 3 & don't touch spazzy cat

Day 3 was awesome. Me and Amy hit the Crafting together sale in white bear lake, and while neither of us bought anything there, we did hit it big around the cute little town. Bought some yarn (rule in yarn buying is to buy what you can't find somewhere else), wonderful chocolates at a candy store, great beads at a full on bead store, had a great lunch outside (it was 70 degrees or more, lovely day) and generally wandered and had a great time. The highlight of the day was driving into town Amy pointed out a "polar bear" statue outside a car dealership. about 2 min down the road she says "oh, duh, it's white bear, as in white bear lake." I laughed for about 5 min. I had just accepted that there was a polar bear. Why, I have no idea, but I didn't think anything of a polar bear at a car dealership.

In other news, when your cat really doesn't want to be kicked out of the bedroom at night, and goes to hide under the bed, don't pick him up. See picture. Let's just say Itchy still has a bit of the feral cat in him. The scratches actually go all the way around the arm and up the hand. And it bled. yes, i hit it with neosporin, but today am letting it dry out a bit.

day 2

Slept in again until 10:30. Got the target shopping done, finished a puzzle, and laid the tread on the basement stairs. Yes, the stairs are dirty. but they're basement stairs. All in all pretty good. Still shopping around for someone to install outside lights. Tomorrow me and Amy head out to Crafted Together in white bear lake.

Day 1

First day off, slept until 11am. Went grocery shopping, took out loads of trash and made pie. Yummy apple pie, me and Mom's traditional recipie. 6 cups of apples chunky, not sliced like these weird Minnesotan's do, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and some nutmeg. The only thing I measure are the apples and sugar. Everything else to taste/sight. more flour if the apples are super juicy. I still haven't figured out how to tell if the pie is done on the bottom crust yet, but she's hot and gooey, and smells heavenly. Tomorrow is day 2. Probably put the treads on the basement stairs.

I get some days off

I like my job. I swear. I even got another degree so I could do my job better. But I need some days off. Seriously. My boss (everloving sweetheart that she is) just took of a week and a half to move. Meaning I got to play boss. (ie: Gretchen isn't here. ask later) So I need a vacation. insert STAYCATION. I am taking off 4 full work days to get some stuff done before the snow flies and I go berserkershit out of my mind. I will be attempting to install outside motion lights, put tracking on the basement stairs, grocery shop, and maybe fix the fence. Oh. and I may nap a bit and knit and spin. I haven't done any spinning (as noticed by Cindy) in a while, because I've been on xmas knitting speed. But I had a thought. What if what I spun was part of xmas? Like, ha, here I spun this try to make something from it? Still working on that plan.
If you get random bits of yarn that have a gift tag from me, I spun it. Try to knit with it. Tell me it rocks.

Addendum to turtleneck of doom

Apparently I am too good of a seamer for my own good. Turtleneck of doom was knit in 4 pieces, all seamed toghether. in order to frog, must un seam. Um, who would like to come to my house and help me figure out just what all those strands of yarn were for? And the knots? I am apparently the knotting queen. All I can say is that hopefully none of my other gifted knits will ever come unravelled with the apparent mastery of seaming and knotting I have.
I am seriously thinking about giving up. I have a lot of hours, about 4, into the frogging, and about 1 skein of yarn to show for it. Thats a lot of time > output. Thoughts are welcome.
I also rediscovered my love of reading. I can't believe it but really, I used to read every waking moment, and I haven't really completed a book that I LOVED in a long time, at least a year. The Twilight series, if nothing else, re-inspired me to find obsession-worthy books. I am currently reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Another teen book, but I like it because it is kinda Lord of the Flies meets survivor. The main character is quite a smart chicky. Another book on my list is The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose. From everything I've read, this will be right up my alley.
So, How exactly do I store the enourmojumbous amount of books and yarn I have? Ideas? (I already have one whole room, and DH has said we need a bathroom so I can't make that a closet)

Frogging turtleneck of doom

I have finally decided that the turtleneck of neverending ginormous doom is going to be frogged. There is a lot of yarn in that sweater. and though it may not be the best yarn, it is still yarn. And the sweater is awful. By the pics you can't tell just how huginormous it is. but it is. I thought for some reason to make the size medium. I know I'm not teeny, but I'm not huge, so I thought medium would be good. Nope. Baggy on DH, who is about 60 pounds heavier than me. And there was the problem with the neck. The problem with the neck that has shaped every problem with every neck I have had since. I tried that neck probably 15 times. Ripping, knitting, ripping, knitting, enough that the neck became a saggy messy holey atrocity.
So bye bye doom.
And I finished Breaking Dawn. I know some people were dissappointed with the ending, but I wasn't. A nice clean finish to a series that didn't leave everyone dead. Well, in the human sense of the word at least.

Almost done

Ever enjoy a book so much that you don't want it to end? I still only have about 50 pages to go on Breaking Dawn, but I have loved the series of books so much I don't want to get to the last page. I could. Tonight even finish the book. BUT I DON WANNA!

In other news, I realized that my obsession with knitting during tv shows leaves me some time, so I joined a few charity knitting ops. I am now in about 4 or 5, I lost count, I will just knit as the blankies show up at my door. How it works is one person starts the blankie, and then passes it on needles and on to the next knitter in line. Usually via mail. I am lucky though, one of the people in the project lives close enough that we meet for coffee and knitting when it is time to pass on the blankie, and she is a dear. I get to see her again on Friday. Pic is of the first blankie I've worked on and the lovely ceramic jar she gave me as a small gift. Gotta love the knitters.

yep, still obsessed

It's been a full week since last blog, and I have managed to get to almost the very end of the last book. Honestly, I'm exhausted. Too exhausted to finish the book tonight, even though it would only be another hour or so of reading. I read all last week, and literally got up at 9:30 am sunday and read until 8pm. I even had to stop myself from reading while cooking (because I forgot to eat) and call Amy to talk about the book. The book is Breaking Dawn, the last book of the series in my last blog. Crack I tell you. Crack.
Amy read the series in a week. Said she didn't sleep and had a stomache ache from the damn series. I didn't believe her until last night. After reading about Bella and Edward and the rest for a good 11 hrs, no breaks at all, I dreamt of them. I woke up thinking in some dreamlike state I was in the book. I spent all day thinking about the stupid book.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Have any of you ever been so immersed in a book that you read non stop for a whole day or more, and start to feel like you are living in that "story" because it's all you have been doing? Jane Eyre? Anne Rice? VC Andrews?

Obsessed...

I used to be an avid reader. I collected books like I collect yarn now, almost entirely in the same fashion. I would see something that looked good, buy it, and put it on the shelf until it called to me, the same way I buy yarn. After the knitting hit me, I put down the books mostly and knitted in my spare time. I did still read, ususally on my lunch breaks, a book a month, no where near the book a week or more like before.
Enter new obsession:
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Saga-Book-1/dp/0316015849/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221521649&sr=8-2
That is book 1 of a 4 book series. I am on book 3, Eclipse. (no, don't buy them for me for xmas, my addicter friend loaned me the ones I don't have)
So mentioned addicter friend Amy (she owed me, I got her on knitting) told me of the series, and I was hooked. Yes, it is a series in the young adult section. No, there is no sex (well, not yet anyway) Yes, it's a vampire series. But captivating nonetheless. Maybe for those reasons? Easy read, no intellectual existential talk. No politics.
And, it's coming out as a movie. Me and Amy already have the day planned. DH's be damned, we are going to see some hot young vampire action!

I remember why I'm moody this week

I had no idea for a while there why I actually had a physical lump in my throat. Then I remembered what happened.
I hope you do too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70-whFUnxNI

Me... Cooking!

I hate to cook. Really. Dinner can be anything that doesn't require cooking, which for other people is a snack. I just eat a lot so that it's dinner. A whole bag of chips. Popcorn. Sometimes I'll nuke a brat, but otherwise, no cooking.
I am though, after 7 years or so, getting quite sick of how much I spend on lunches. I have to eat lunch. It's my main meal. and if there isn't something in the freezer at work, I get take out. Ugh. $15 sometimes. At least once a week.
I'm not all that bad though, I usually hit the store on Monday and stock up for the week on frozen meals. Today's frozen meals aren't all that bad, and they aren't terribly expensive, but they are more expensive than cooking at home.
After reading Crazy Aunt Purl's blog the last few weeks I am going to try to cook more and take more to work from home. Tonight I made frozen ravioli and garlic bread. The garlic bread is just bread with butter and garlic powder in the oven, and the ravioli is... well... frozen. But it's all good and cheap. $3 ravioli bag, 4 meals, $4 sauce, bread about $.75 for the 6 slices. All said, maybe $12 for a week of meals. Even buying frozen lunches would be double at least.
What are you doing to save money?

The sisterhood of the traveling yarn

Aka: my yarn goes on a vacation.

A few posts ago you may remember a fellow Raveler in need of some yarn I had. Said yarn was just in my closet, so away 4 skeins went to help her finish her sweater (great job Bley! I may copy!). Turns out she only needed 2. 2 left.

Enter being nice remorse. Said yarn is angora/wool. Not the most expensive yarn on the planet, and it fuzzes a bit in knitting, but really nice nonetheless. I was/am really happy to have been able to help her out, but I realized that in letting 4 skeins go, I only had 6 left, not enough for the nice warm long sleeved/possible turtleneck sweater I envision this yarn to grow up to be.

Lo and behold, the knitting fates smiled on us both. She finished her sweater, and had 2 skeins left. she emailed me if I wanted the other 2 returned to me. !!!!!! How nice! She could have just made a matching hat or something, but now I get to have enough for at least a long sleeved sweater, and I may copy hers it turned out so nice.

So there you go. I kinda feel like asking my yarn if her house was cleaner than mine, if the weather was nice, if her fur babies were as cute as mine but it's not talking.

Give and you shall recieve. Even if it's your stuff back again.

Books from Auburnchick

A fellow KH'er and blogger recently posted a list for book readers, that goes as follows:
Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones on your book shelf! Combine indicators as appropriate.
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee- saw a play too
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold-best Sebold book so far
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte-read about 50 times, have 3 different copies
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood-first Atwood book read at age 10
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
I thought I would play along! you can too! just copy and paste to your blog, or copy and paste as a reply!
I don't know where she got the list, but doing good so far on it!

I suck at stealth knitting

DH never asks in a really committed way what I am knitting. He asks, I tell, he moves on. For some reason when I cast on for Sonic the hedgie, he wanted details. Dammit. Now sonic is not an xmas present. DH likes to follow the whole felting/blocking/stuffing process. Now sonic is early. Ho hum. What now???

Done, now to start the xmas knitting

The Summer swing jacket is done. The last of the knits, (fingers crossed behind back) for myself before the xmas holiday season. I modified a bunches, see other posts, and in the final photo you can see I added the Noro (gorgeous up close, really lovely colors) for the trim on the edges and neck. The neck I made is nothing at all like the pattern, but I like it more. And I added a vintage pin that I happend to have found a while back for the closure at the top. All in all a lovely sweater, but I will make it longer next time. I think the designer had smaller boobs than me.

oh, I found my diamond earrings in the sock drawer below where the earrings are kept. Me thinks a certain kitty person knocked them in there.

So now I am on to the holiday knitting. Eric, go read another blog. Lots of blogs to read. bye. mom too. other people to meet and greet. come back next week. I dont' think anyone else that I gave this bloggy address to reads this, but if you do, come back later and don't read this post. Seriously. I will open up a can of whoop ass.

Eric's knit is a hedgehog like Leo's was last year, only in sonic the hedgehog colors. I want to make mom a sweater, but time is getting a bit limited on the sweater. She may get Grumperina's odessa hat, with or without the beads, pending beady difficulty. Leo is definately getting the felted kitty, pending finding a black feltable yarn and piecing together the pattern.

So said, I did a proactive thing for holiday knitting I have never done before. I actually took out the patterns for the knits and put them all in a plastic bag with the yarn together as my "kit". They are all in my "wip" box. Now, whenever I need to start a new knit, the whole kit is there. I feel seriously brilliant right now. August, and I have holiday knitting kits. Someone congratulate me.

Finally proof of lots of money spent!

I got it today! wooo hoo! only took 4 months almost to the day but now I have a $20,000 piece of paper to go along with the $35,000 other piece of paper!

Now I just need a frame to hold it.

Stuffed catnip fishies

I started to work on the curtains for our front porch, got about halfway on Saturday and pooped out on Sunday after having to return 3 rods for 3 bigger rods. I have everything, I just need to finish the hem. So instead I made some cat toys.

The fishies are an old pattern I have, just the shape of a fish in a large size. So old i have to tape it a bit every time I use it. Same pattern I used for the fishies I made to donate to the 35 w bridge craft sale, but they sold to the crafty people before the sale started.

Mulder had more fun than Itchy so far. I had fun with the camera.

2nd time's a charm

I recast on the Summer swing jacket, and boy o boy am I glad I ripped her out and started over. All of the problems I had the first time I learned from, and I had the forsight to add the Noro to the bottom for the edging (thanks for the bday present mom!) It is the PERFECT yarn in the PERFECT color to add to this sweater. It has a weight to it that hangs the jacket nicely, and is such a great color, a blue-green in royal/dark hues to complement the light blue of the body. LOVE.

The only other mod I might make is to use a prettier frog closure for the neck part instead of the japaneese style wooden buttons.

In other news, Ravelry rocks! (Where I got the summer swing jacket pattern btw). I got a message from a fellow user who is making a sweater but is going to run out of yarn, but she searched and saw that I had some of what she needed, in the right dye lot and all, and asked if I could spare some.

On a side note-I truly believe in knitters karma. well, nice people karma, but knitters are the nicest of all. A few times in the last year or so, someone has posted on Knittinghelp.com that they needed/wanted/couldn't afford/had an accident/ etc, and I truly believe that in my state of having enough and not wanting for anything that if I have the means, I should help. I'm not rich or whatever, I'm just blessed. I am happy and content and even sometimes blissfull in my life, and I truly believe that because of that I should help others if/when I can. Because as we all know, this state of life might not last forever, and I may have to call upon others to help me. Even if it's for a certain dye lot of yarn. So I help when I can.

So, even though I love said yarn, (it's classic elite lush, a lovely blend of angora!) that I got for a steal, I happened to see the woman's page and that she really was doing a lovely job on her sweater. I almost wanted to give for free, but I'm not that rich!

In another weird note, she happens to be from minneapolis, so I told her to drop me a note when she comes next time. Small world!

I can fix a toilet

New skill, fixing a toilet. Discovered after $90 water bill.
The toilet was constantly running. Found out it was because the float wasn't working properly. Attempted to bend float to my will. Broke said part. Hmmm.... I seriously considered trying to duct tape back together.
Nice man at hardware store explained that replacing the whole inside part would actually be easier than trying to unscrew really rusted screws and replace just broke part. $11. not bad.
Got home, DH helped undo part to replace, popped in, adjusted a bit, and VOILA no more running toilet.
Tell me how much I rock.

I hate/love this sweater

Remeber the part in Grey's Anatomy when Meridith is giving Derek her "pick me" speech, and she gets to the part where she says something about "in a hate you love you way". Well, that's me this week. Enter Summer Swing jacket.

Looks pretty good huh? It's a pattern found on Ravelry, and oh the woes and loves that this pattern has given me.

The first woe was that the designer forgot to include the part about making 2 sleeves. I went with it, dutifully believing that designer had a secret I had yet to see. Nope. No right sleeve. Email designer. Oopsy, she forgot to add that part. Fine. Mad, but fine. Rip out sleeve, reknit with 2 sleeves this time.

Then I decided that midway thru the back and midway thru a row, that I was going to change to garter stitch. This is knit in stockinette stitch. Obvious difference. Whatever. It bugged me, but no way in heck or hell was I ripping out the whole back and sleeves. I considered adding a bow to hide it. Really.

That was about 3 days ago. Before I forgot how to tell the right side from the wrong side. My brain, in the middle of watching Ghost hunters international, decided to add the 2nd part of the right sleeve on the wrong side. yep. Second part of the sleeve was facing in toward the body, 1st part of sleeve out like an arm. How long did it take for me to figure this out? Until I only had about 4 inches left before seaming. 4 INCHES! out of 8 gazillion stitches, I realized this now.

Although this seems like the saddest knitting story of all, and yes, I was almost in tears last night, trust me, there is a happy/moral side. the love side. I realized that when you look at something and you realize it isn't how you want it to be, rip it out and start over. Seriously. (just the knitting of course, you can't rip out a husband, well, you can try, but not my idea don't hold me to it) Part of the way in I decided that the bottom was curling something awful and found this great yarn that my mom had given me for my bday last year and thought to add it as the bottom trim, but bottom was done. See above pic for lovely Noro yarn. Perfect color for this sweater. Love it. Then the back/garter stitch incident, and really, a bow would have just been stupid. Now this. Really. I should have just ripped the darn thing in the beginning. The knitting fates got me this time. I bow to them.

Happiness is doing it yourself

Another Sunday spent painting a shelf. I needed one more shelf for the big wall above the futon, and hadn't been able to find the right one. I had to go to the post office yesterday, and there is a little used furniture store next to it. I've bought lots of things in there, including the blue ceramic cats. I found a cute shelf, but it was green. No worries. I have PAINT! Besides, it was only $30.

Spent the morning painting and letting it dry, then hung. Put my prettiest not in use yarn on it and voila! Another lovely addition. I might have to stop now, running out of wall space.

I did spend about 2 hrs yesterday cleaning the crafty room, vacumming (which Itchy thought was the best thing ever. ) Itchy attacked the attachment hose and hissed at it, and even though the vacuum is in the closet NOT IN USE OR ON he is still intermittently attacking and hissing at it. Quite funny. I even got out the 409 and cleaned the floor under and the wall behind the pooper box. (it was gross).

You get pics of the shelf and a bonus of my knitting helper.