You are missed

Dedicated to Amy Skaar who lost a dear friend one year ago today.

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Cuddle and hold

Cherish our friends

Old ones, dear and frail

When they pass on

a part of us is taken.

Replaced by a part of them.

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Memories, so precious

tender and intimate

Pain so raw, fade

smile, images of them,

us appear in our heads,

our hearts.

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Poetry

Expectations to excel. The thrill of the conquer. The misery of defeat. Mutterings scribbled on a page. Do they delight the mind? Ignite imaginations and passions? Or do they leave you wanting for more?

More intellect. Indulgence. Piquing the mind with hints of illusion.

Do we cater to the masses or write the emotions of the heart? For the simple face of what they are worth. Value. Trinkets of my soul, for myself or for the masses. Precious hidden jewels of immense delight or misery.

The pain of illusion. Raw emotions. The car wreck of my pain for all to see, for all to view, for all to read.

The heavens look down and scoff at this. This infantile scribbling. Oh, to the gods. Muses that be. Guide this pen. The mutterings of a mad woman. May it be to you a nectar of purity. Ambrosia of raw delight.

May the senses inflame with secret passions.

Pastimes Whistler Retreat

Wednesday night I decided to attend the 4 day Pastimes Knitting Retreat in Whistler. I told you I needed a vacation. I got a great one! Wish it would never end. I packed so much into it though I thought I would show ya'll the landscape. Peep photos coming soon. Be warned though that lots and lots of sillyness ensued.

We arrived Thursday evening around 7 p.m. and walked into the village for dinner. There seemed to springs of life welling up everywhere. I love water, the sounds, the textures, and the soothing nature of it. I think there are few things as beautiful. Even a single drop of water holds an immense amount of beauty. Water holds the power of serenity and reflection.

Friday morning I woke at 6 a.m. I headed out for a short hike at around 6:30. Oh my. The fog seemed to swallow so much of the countryside at that hour. It was beautiful. It was however too dark for my lil' camera to get too many good shots. I found an interesting nature trail. My fears over took me, bear maulings and all, so I tried to recruit someone to hike with me. to no avail. Later on I took a walk up the hillside. Stupid me, I started off at too fast a clip and burned my thighs before I was up the first incline. I didn't get up too far before resting and then heading back down. The countryside here is breath taking... for real... like I gasped multiple times at the beauty.

I would love to be surrounded by the delicate nature of this place every day, however I think I would lose the ability to be awestruck. I live with the gorgeous Mt. Ranier practically in my backyard and forget it's there until someone points it out and then I'm like 'Oh yeah, the mountain.' I definitely will have to make it to the retreat often, which is an annual event.

Saturday we spent the day in classes. Erik, however, spent the day photographing this exquisite wonderland. I am impatiently awaiting his gallery of work.

Sunday, we went horseback riding. Wow, the tranquility!!! We were able to do something as a group of friends, quietly, peacefully enjoying this land that will rip the words right out of your mouth. We stopped for a few more photo ops on the way home. I miss the fog. I miss the rocks. I miss the water and its craddling serenity.

Lots of knitting, lots of crap

I need a vacation. Like a really long one. Maybe a permanent one. Ever think it would be nice to be declared insane? Lock you up in a padded room. All alone. Where they make sure you don't get stressed? Of course, they would let me have my knitting because it's therapeutic. Sometimes. Ever feel like someone else's life would be better? Sign me up baby!!!

Yeah, it really has been trying for me lately. I've gotten lots of knitting done, woo hoo, kind of. Thank goodness for friends right now. They are the only ones keeping me sane. House is trashed. Kids are sick. Husband is sick. Not only is husband sick, because he's sick I have to give him some slack. It's like trying to reel in a shark on 10 lb line!!! Weeeeeeeeeee, run baby run. Yeah, so his Evercrack (thankies Erik for that term) has reached an all new high. I started playing again which is ironic. It has been my selfish time.

My last week has been like this. Monday, clean, take care of screaming kids, clean and sob into my pillow. Tuesday, clean, a break (better run for it) as a friend and I hung out for a while, go home and clean. Speaking of such friend. We discussed super powers. She has decided that her super power would be setting peeps on fire. I don't think she can call herself a super hero. Well, except the people she was talking about lighting up are villains in their own right. So... she would be doing the world a huge favor. She got a new car yesterday. A black beemer, a Z3 I think. I can just see her careening madly, knocking over pink frilly teenagers and the ones she misses she blasts with a fireball. LOL. I'm scared to go for a ride with her. The 'OH SH&$' handle will be well used. I thought my super power would be to read peeps minds, at will, and not have them know it. I reconsidered and decided that the more fitting power would be the ability to annoy peeps until they scratch their own brains out. LMBO. I'm not sure which skill is more disturbing, hers or mine. Any, back to life as we know it. Wednesday, um... can't remember so I'm going to guess it was so horrific I blocked it from my memory. Oh, if only I could chose to do that more often. Thursday, yeah yeah yeah, it was our knitting group's first time to meet up. Knitting with the ladies. Oh, my memory is going, the super power discussion actually happened on Thursday. My god! I'm losing it... well I lost it long ago... so what do you call it when you are sinking further? Anyway, I think you are getting the picture. Bunch o crap, little sleep and rats!!!

My kids start freakin' last night around midnight that they saw a rat. I'm afraid of the dark and the little ones' light bulb has gone out. Try to wake up Tim. grrrrr. Frickin frackin rotten fink. Um, he didn't get up. I grab the broom, flashlight, and emptied a yarn bin to catch it in. I have no clue what to do as we've never had a rat in the house before. We need a cat again. I sweep out every dark corner in all the room saving the little ones room for last. I heard something, leaped (more like flew) up onto Bella's bed waking her up. No clue what made the noise, but no rat found. Anywhere. It's now 2 a.m. I feel like having a heart attack. I hear rat scratching sounds everywhere. I can see them running all around in the darkness. How am I supposed to sleep? I guess with one eye half open.

Blah, blah, blah. Knitting, that's what you are here for. Shut up T, no one is listening to you!!! So I got a scarf made for Gracie, seed stitch out of Galaxy. Scarf made for Bella, stockinette out of Lucky. Scarf for myself, garter out of Pansy. I got my tank finished. Lousy picture. Give me a break. I am blogging, didn't have the drive to get a decent photo of anything. Got my vest made. Yes, it does look like crap in the photo. I had a problem with it. I washed it, laid it out to dry, and by carefully handling it grew several sizes too big. I washed it and dried it to shrink it back down. It still is a little too big... and wrinkly from the dryer. No brain power to work on it though. Oh, Rowan's hat turned out perfecto! Made from Oddyssey. Wonderful merino yarn. I will post the pattern later with fotos of Rowbug wearing it. I will include instructions on older child sizing and adult sizing as well.

And finally, a foto of my dagger. It is in progress. It originally was just a slab of steel. I've been using a hand saw, hand files and sandpaper to get it to the state it is now. I'm going to define the edge more and then sand, sand, sand till I get a mirror finish on it. The handle should be interesting as I'm going to carve it from wood after attaching it to the blade. I'm pretty impressed with it so far. A ton of laboring has gone into it so far and it ain't even half done.

Captain's log: Life is crap. Friends are good. Send truffles and no one will get hurt!

P.S. Grace says that monsters come in at night and do all the bad stuff. Like get into the ever precious dew, makeup, wipe their fingerprints all over clean mirrors, stuff like that. So, if you see a monster, kick 'em where it hurts for me please.

Pastimes Peeps BBQ

Check out the cute frog trying to get his lunch through the glass! He was so adorable following the bug along the window sill. Made me want to take it out to him. Course he wouldn't appreciate that gesture. There are a ton of tiny tree frogs all over the place at Amy's house. I love frogs.

So the Pastimes crew got together for a BBQ yesterday to celebrate our time together at Pastimes. I have no idea what Emmet was doing here, but he sure has a rapt audience. William, in the grey coat, is such a great guy. I wish I knew him better. I have never seen him in a bad mood. I wish I was more even keel like he is. The crew is going to get together on a weekly basis and I'm hoping he can join us being the big ole college man that he is. :p Over to the right you can see that Emmet is still carrying on. He's wearing the infamous Jack's Back. I love that sweater!!! Liz is standing to the left in the photo in the killer green sweater. I want one! It's from a pattern called Merino Top Down out of Jo Sharp Silk Road Tweed. I have some in dark purple for a cabled vest for myself. Liz is another even keeled person. Amy must have hand selected these people to try to balance out us freaks. LOL. Ok, so maybe I'm the only freak in the group and it takes a bunch to try to balance me out. snicker. Don't ask me how Amy snuck into all these photos. I think if you look real closely you can see her reflection in the frog photo. snicker. It's almost like where's waldo. Lol. In the photo to the left you can see Amy (of course), Liz (in the bee yoo tee ful sweater), Nancy (who I think felt it was her job to make sure I cried like a baby), and Kristen. I can't say much about Kristen as I never really worked with her. I do know the rest of the crew was quite fond of her.

And last, but not least, is Erik (seen in the background of this photo). Erik is Amy's brother. Ummm... :) See, Erik played a joke on Nancy and I last week. I got my revenge and boy was it sweet. :P finger lickin'. He looks very suspicious in this photo, doesn't he? hehehehe. So, after all my kind words about the Pastimes crew he felt that I should say something nice about him. I was going to be naughty, but I feel that we should call a truce as someone is going to get hurt so here goes... Amy holds Erik in high regard. That alone should tell you that he is a man to be respected. He is an intelligent, good looking, self-motivated photography in need of a girlfriend so... if anyone has an extra blow up doll, please send it his way. And if anyone wants to send me some flowers, I will be in the hospital... lmbo!!!

Well, it is done

What can I say? My dream job was to order all the merchandise for Pastimes. I was denied that dream job. I have no idea why, snicker. After months of soul searching I figured out what my next dream job would be. Receiving for Pastimes. Could you imagine? Being the first one to see the new yarns and accessories as they came in. I'm sure I wouldn't have held that position too long because for some reason not too much would make it to the shelves. I was actually going to approach Amy with the idea when she returned from the knitting cruise. *sigh* Another sad thing, I hadn't ever figured out the sales software. Over the last 2 years I had rang up about 10 customers. Now I'm pretty confident with the software after ringing up what seemed to be hundreds of customers. How sad is that! I just learned a skill that I will never use again.

Pastimes closed its doors October 2nd. Sunday was a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Nancy, above, is saying good bye to some loyal customers. Nancy, the dear heart, made me cry so many times. I was having a hard time all by myself, but with her having difficulty keeping the tears under control I lost it a few times. Emmet is helping another customer here finish her shawl. Amy is down further helping another customer. We had scheduled this time to say goodbye to customers, especially those who had developed relationships with us. Instead we got this. Ok, ok, I won't say anything more for fear that I will let my anger get the better of me. I know it may seem weird for me to get so mad.

There have been several other employees of Pastimes, but these 3 especially have made Pastimes what it is. They have been gracious, self-sacrificing, and unbelievably kind to so many that have entered here. Their combined knowledge of business operations, knitting and crochet, and teaching would fill a whole series of books. I respect these people so highly that I was disappointed with the way they were treated. I mean, come on people! Give props to those who deserve it. To those who have served you so that you could grow. Those who have served you and it should have been the other way around. Grrr.

I know that I'm a just a tiny fraction of the customers of Pastimes, but I would like to say thank you! Thank you for what you have given of yourselves! Thank you for everything!!!

I love you.

I have no home

Worse news possible for a yarn huffer like me. Pastimes, my LYS, is closing it's doors. Very suddenly.
They are closing October 9th and the store is already being changed so that they can sell all store samples and fixtures. Oh. My. It is a very emotional time for me.

I found the shop on my 27th birthday. It was a ray of sunshine on an otherwise dull day. I went to the Half Yearly Sale a couple weeks later. The store was a sardine can of other customers. This is were I learned to hoard yarn. I was so excited. I had been buying top knitting books online and this was my first experience of those designer yarns I had been reading about. Not too long afterwards I started to take classes here. I learned to cable, fair isle, intarsia, magic loop and many other techniques here. It wasn't unusual for me to spend 5 out of the 6 days they were open at the shop. 7 months after finding the shop I was asked to start teaching there. After my children and all they entail, it was the most rewarding experience I've ever had. I became friends with the owners, Amy and Emmet Skaar. These two people richly deserve the many successes this store has achieved.

I've learned about pattern making. I've learned about so much through this shop. It honestly has been a second home to me. I've never had a second home before. If I had a hard day with the kids I knew I could go down and knit on Thursday evening. If I needed a break, I knew I could go down and knit during the weekends. If I needed a challenge, I could ask Emmet for a new project. He has THE best eye for color. I love you man! Yes, now I really am crying. If I needed to be stretched, I could teach a class. Amy is so gifted. In so many ways. She is THE creative genius. Her patterns defy all laws of knitting. Thank you for letting me be a part of such a great entity (it definitely was more than a store!) Thank you all for all that you have given of yourselves. I can't say any more as I'm determined not to cry any more!

Don't Cry for Me Yarn People...

Yesterday, Tman took a day off from work to play EQ2 as a new expansion launched. Yes, he has a PROBLEM. So I thought, my yarn is coming in today! With that hope I ran to my LYS to pick up yarn for a tank I've been longing to do all the while hoping that UPS would come by. I make my purchase, which I kept to a minimum, yeah!!! I went to go say goodbye to Nancy to find her in the back with the UPS man and huge boxes of Colinette... heavily damaged. I watched as they went back on the truck and just about cried on the spot. I have waited somewhat patiently for 2 months for the ever glorious Queen Mab sweater yarn. Depressed and wanting to soothe my soul I decided to stop by a store I had been wanting to check out for a while. Can you guess what happens next? Yup, store is out of business. So... even further depressed I decided to stop by the local craft store to pick up some fall decorations. It is just sort of across the street from where I am now. Take a guess what happens next...

They had like 3 shelves of junk left. That's all. Can you believe this? I guess if you know me you can believe it as this sort of stuff happens all the time to me. How did I resolve my depression? Chinese food. Even that was tainted. I wanted a Barqs root beer to go with it and all they had was Mug even though they had ever other coke product. Come on! This has got to end. But it doesn't... it gets WORSE. That is for another tale though.

Knitting news. I finished Pismo. Woo hoo! I started Gyrid from E. Lavold. I am thrilled to be finally working on it. Time to run. Wait till you hear the new WORSE news. I even had nightmares about it last night!!!

Life as me

What do you get someone who is marrying their 3rd husband again? Huh? Wha? My sister had been married and divorced twice before when she married Russ. I really don't like being negative at a wedding, but I had little hopes for that marriage to last. Who gets married when you need couple's therapy BEFORE you get married. As you may have guessed by now they divorced a few years later. It was a pretty nasty split. One of the nastiest I've ever witnessed. Anywho, so my sis goes about her life for a couple years when she hooks up with Russ again. They've been dating again, very happily I might add, for the last 2 years or so and tied the knot yesterday. But... um... what do you get someone who has everything? It isn't like you can give them money. For financially successful peeps that would be an insult, right? So I finally decided I would make them something. I thought this cross-stitch was highly appropriate. When I think of a fairy tale I think of something bad happening before the end.. the 'and they lived happily ever after.' I hope my sis likes it as much as I did. Here's a photo of her 'walking down the aisle.' It was a very casual, Hawaiian wedding complete with roasted pig. Oh. my. goodness. I've never had any before. If you are what you eat then I'm a huge porker cuz I ate an obscene about of it! I really liked how she did her bouquet. She had someone hand out flowers to the guests. Jackie went along and collected it on her way to the altar and was able to hug and kiss friends and family. It almost made me cry.

So that was Saturday, right? On Friday I was the fat kid. You know the one that no one wants to play with... Totally was me. A group of friends get together locally to do crafts and what not. I was invited to join them 2 weeks ago and again Friday night. I get driving directions. Tim had agreed to go with me so we're all excited cuz it's a pseudo date, right? W. R. O. N. G. We arrive at the hosts house and her husband answered the door. What craft night, there isn't a craft night tonight. So he calls his wife. What craft night, there isn't a craft night tonight. I'm totally bummed out. With my recovering preggo brain I think for half a second that I got the date wrong when I realize I didn't. I mean, on Tuesday a friend said she'd see me on Friday, earlier on Friday another friends says she'll see me after 8 when she gets off work, and finally another friend sent me the addy to the hosts house. Now, I don't have anyone's cell phone numbers except the hosts. Why bother calling her again, I mean she already said there wasn't one. I only have 2 other peeps phone numbers so for a half an hour I ring back and forth these numbers... all the while knowing that they won't answer their phones because they are at craft night. So I emailed the group and asked if they were playing hide and go seek or just hiding and willing that I would go away. snicker. Anyway, the craft night was at the house that I went to. Everyone met up there. I could have joined them, but it would have been 9 before getting there. Between my night vision, my sense of direction and my total lack of coolness I would have seriously gotten lost. I plan on making the next craft night... if they don't go in hiding again. hehehe. The host's brain got befuddled with a new grandbaby and all. I can't wait to be a grandma. Er, yes I can, I mean my oldest is 11 years old so um, I can wait, but I'm really looking forward to it.... a long time from now. hehehe.

Hey, lookie, I'm making the Pismo hat from Marnie's blog. 150 stitches on a size 2 needle. I know a lot of knitters freak at size 2 needles, but I enjoy smaller knits. Not that I would want to make a cabled colossus sweater on size 2s any time soon. lol.

You will NEVER believe this. I told my hubby and he said he thought it was impossible. Ok, see, I ran to my LYS today to drop off the Blythe scarf and to pick up some wool wash I had ordered. When I walked in I remember these 2 Lantern Moon baskets I had been obsessing over. Oh, and the LM accessory pounch. And don't forget the Silky Wool tank I've been dying to knit. I stood there staring at the stuff for AT LEAST 15 minutes, no joke. I had decided that if I bought the pouch and the yarn for the tank I would be a real good girl for not buying it all. I already know what colors I want and everything. Nancy tells me that if I want to shop she's ok with that. I had arrived before the shop had opened. I tell her "I know, but..." We launched into a discussion of Ireland. I left the store without buying 1 single thing. Someone really needs to call the doctor now. What in the world has happened to me? I'm like motivated or something. Ok, shut up, motivated for ME. ha ha ha. Get this, it has been over a month since I've purchased any yarn. Oh my! That is the longest I've ever gone!!! I don't know if I can call myself a yarn huffer any more. I'm in remission or something. My hubby is a real motivator though. He told me the other day that if I put my mind to it we WILL move to Ireland. He complimented me by saying that whatever I really put my mind to happens so that's what I need to do here.

I'm thinking though that for Christmas that I'm asking for yarn, cuz if I don't buy it, it doesn't count, right??? *snort*

I'm back already!

Oh. My. Goodness. Yes, I'm actually posting a picture of myself here. It was the first photo in a long time that I don't HATE. Weird. Someone call the doctor... something is wrong with me. snicker. ANYWAY, sheesh, Lily, Tim and I went to a Cherry Poppin' Daddies concert on Saturday. It was wonderful. Kick back and relax and watch Tim drink plenty of wine. It was at a winery after all. And we saw the cutest couple. I just love old people in love. It makes me look forward to the future when Tim and I are dancing together at a concert with all the history and memories we will have. sigh. I love old people!

I hate to end this on a sour note. I guess better to end with it than to begin with it. Look what I found on Tuesday. What is it? What was it is more like it! That is my journal of poetry. Grace loves books. All books. But when she tires of them she rips them up and eats them. Chews on them and calls them bubble gum. I know I'm sounding light hearted about it. But... I... bawled! My sweetie Tim tried everything to console me. He suggested that I rewrite them. Ok, so a story I can rewrite. An essay I can rewrite. I blog entry I can rewrite, but poetry, no WAY! I write in the heat of the moment. I sound psychotic when I write. One poem may be about bones and gnashing of teeth and the next one will be about how joy is like a butterfly. Finally, I told him that I just needed to cry so he held me against his chest and let me bawl. I feel like I've lost someone close to me. Not only that, but that I've been violated. I have the journal locked up for now. I am going to buy a new journal and transfer what I can and start over I guess. Thank goodness motherhood has more ups than downs or I would be tempted to eat my own young. :)

I can explain...

See, our camera downloads all photos into hubby's cpu. My laptop can't access his hard drive over our network. Well, it probably can, but it isn't currently set up that way. Our kids have 2 cpus, but I don't use those much. Our last computer, which, has a terminal in our kitchen, is technically MY gaming computer. Hubby has commandeered it though. Anyway, while he is at work I usually use my gaming cpu to blog, email, etc... It has access to hubby's said drive so that I can upload photos. Well, the network has been down for the last couple of days. I can't really use my hubby's cpu as he usually remotely logs into from work or he's playing EQ2 if he's home. Right now he's out on a customer call so I jumped on his puter. Good excuse, right? Right? Come on now! Be fair. hehehe.

Lookee, so what do you think? Beautiful. Yes she is! Oh, the neck scarf, hehehe, that's what I'm showing off here. For those who have forgotten, total laughs as I've been such a bad blogger lately that I've practically forgotten, this is Classic Elite's Blythe (baby camel) done in a smoke ring I designed for my LYS. I can't wait to knit mine up. This one is for the shop.

Here are some photos of my tooth fairy pillow. I think it turned out really well. The tooth fairy especially loves that it hangs from the bedroom door. Hubby says the tooth fairy loathes waking up children. hahaha. It has a lovely pocket for holding teefers and moolah. I tried to embroider this thing. Again, should have taken photos of the process as it was hilarious. My tooth kept coming out like Strawberry Shortcake's puffy white hat. Anna marveled at how well I could do the hat and Tim was rolling every time I showed him the new and improved version. So I ran to the craft store and picked up some patches. I really like the moon patch. But.... I found the PERFECT patch. Eventually I will knit up a new one to go with this patch as it um, well, ya know it doesn't really go with these colors, lol. I'm thinking a soft blue, peach and maybe a butter color for the next one. What do you think?

And Timothy? He's going to be singing "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth." snicker. Weird, but I think all of my chillens so far have lost their 2 front teeth around this time of year. Christmas... did I, me, Loralyn, say Christmas? Woo hoo! We are celebrating Christmas again. I am so freaked. Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I can't think of a more magical time of the year. Now I can sing Christmas songs all year round and not feel so goofy. Shut up Tim! Back to the pillow... Timothy loved the pillow. He especially loved the fact that he was the first one to use it. Anna was looking at it with pure jealousy. I said to her, "I bet you wished you could lose a tooth." She agreed so I offered to knock one out for her. Weird, she declined.

I started taking a few classes again. It is so nice to have some time for myself and do something productive at the same time. I met this wonderful gal named Melissa. She has the cutest little man who is about a month older than Lily. I think he is my favorite baby other than my own. He is so funny. He laughs, actually more like he guffaws, at who ever is talking, usually the instructor. I think I got a glimpse of what it will be like to be a grandma. You can cuddle them, play with them, just sit and hold them and the moment they fuss *bam* back to momma! Pretty nice, hehehehe.

Cafe Bastille

Cafe Bastille is DONE!!! No longer a UFO. Woo hoo! That's about all I've got to celebrate in the world of knitting. Oh no, it isn't. My baby camel smoke ring is finished and blocking. I'll post pictures as soon as it is done drying. I used a little hair conditioner on it and wow oh wow, did it ever soften up!

Ban the Boogie!!! Say it with me, Ban the Boogie! In other knitting news, my patience has met its match. Ok, so I'm not a patient person and it is pretty easy for me to come to the end of it. LOL. If you know ANYTHING about me, you'll know that I am an optimistic. This is NOT a good thing for me. Why? Cuz I'm a little kid so everything is like Christmas morning to me. My birthdays are a complete disaster. Wait... that's an understatement. I feel like sobbing after every one of them. Anyway, back to the knitting topic at hand. So I'm sitting back one night wanting something relaxing, fun, for me knitting. Plus I have this huge stash that is always making me feel guilty, right?
I found the perfect project, Boogie from Knitty, or so I thought. Enter scary movie music here. The thing is a freakin joke. I like the term handcrafted for my knits. This thing looks homemade in all the bad ways you can take that. There are so many design flaws with it. I've knit several of Knitty's patterns and have always loved them. Ban the Boogie! I so wish I had taken photos of the progress of this THING! The neckline is one of the biggest problems with the pattern. If you look really, really close at the pattern (like really fine print) you can see that she has the collar wadded up under her other shirt collar. So I rip back and kind of fix the collar. Still not totally happy.... but this is my fun, relaxing just for me knitting... RIGHT??? So I start finishing it when I realize that the armholes are another design flaw. Now I am designing sleeves for my vest so that I don't have to rip any more. If it still looks awful who wants to join me for a banishing negativity fire in my backyard? snicker.

I promise to try to be a better blogger. I've really got to get photos up of Rowan, my 1 year old, table top dancing... or Bella running around in her pretty wress (a huge prom dress style fluff)... or Timothy with his two front teeth missing. I am just now starting a tooth fairy pillow to hang from his bedroom doorknob. Thanks Pamela for the idea!!! Taco night, gotta run.

No knitting for a reason

Grrr. So planned to be finished with my vest and my hubby's sweater by now. I decided to relax and do some reading so haven't knitted much over the last couple of days. I guess for a reason. The sweater FINALLY finished drying, but I notice I knit one sleeve 6 rows longer than the other. Yesterday I ripped back and finished it. Sewed on one sleeve and tried it on. Stupid frickin frackin thing! The weight of the sweater causes the sleeves to grow about 3 inches. Sooooo... I guess I'm ripping the sleeve off, frogging the sleeves and trying once again. frickin frackin flippin floof bag. Maybe today I'll work on it a little bit, maybe not. Maybe I'll set the thing on fire. It isn't like it is going to beat me or anything, but I HATE redoing things. I was tempted to just tell my hubby to fold the sleeves back BUT on a $300 sweater I want it to look perfect. grrrr.

Bad blogger

It's been a week already! Wow, time flies by. Let's see, I worked down at my LYS last week for a day. That's a big no no. Now I have so much on my list to buy. Oh no!!! Sweater didn't make it in yet. Will have to wait another 2 weeks before I can start on Queen Mab. Sad, but I can knock out a few more projects in that waiting time. Cafe Bastille is knit and blocking. Must not have had enough ventilation because it has been blocking for 2 days now. I moved it to the floor to finish blocking with a fan on it. That should do it. Don't want it to mildew!!! I started another project while I am waiting to finish that. I am making Boogie from Knitty.com out of some Reynold's Cabana I had in my stash.

I haven't bought yarn in weeks! Can you believe that? Course that's because my sweater hasn't come in yet. I've been a good widdle girl!

Not much time here. Gonna post pictures of my lovely hubby when the sweater is finished. Will post pictures of Boogie when it is done as well. Should be done on Wednesday. Gotta love fast projects!

Ruffles is done!!!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I finished Ruffles from scarfStyle Friday night. Can you tell I am glad to be done with it? I knit it in Premiere from Classic Elite. Nice and soft around the neck. I did end up only using 3 skeins. I didn't quite get the 86" for the pattern size, but a) it's a scarf and plenty long as is b) it will stretch with wear and c) no sense in using a skein to get another couple inches. So I did the good-girl-no-yarn-hoarding thing and returned the 4th skein. Yeah me! I'm getting better, slowly. Recovery is a long process.

Saturday, I was able to relax and knit for a bit at my LYS. Ahh, so soothing to a mommy's soul. After knitting my baby camel collar to about 3" I realized that it was going to be too wide and since the stitch pattern was stretchier than I thought it would be I ripped it out and started again. I was amazed that such a delicate yarn would withstand that much ripping, but it did. I haven't worked on it that much because...

Saturday night a UFO called to me. Cafe Bastille Cables is a sweater for my lovely hubby. I decided to frog the whole thing. Why? Because it has been in UFO land for over a year and I was worried that my gauge had changed enough to be visible. So I restarted in Saturday night. Isn't it gorgeous? Knit with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky. Yes, it will take some blocking to get the bottom edge even. This bottom portion is knit in the round and then flat from the armhole shaping. I'm a couple of inches past the armhole on the backside now. I'm hoping to have it wearable by Saturday. Wish me luck!

Oh, and we decided to start celebrating Christmas again. It is one of our favorite holidays, but we really felt like our family needed to take a break from it to refocus religiously. Amazing how things change from year to year. I'm really hoping we can get our spending at a reasonable amount this year. Spending $5000 between just Tim and I is ridiculous. But, yeah! I can clear out some stash yarn making Christmas gifts. Hallelujah! S.W.A.K. for now!

Knit What You Got Poncho

My little girl is soooo beautiful!

Ok, so here are some generic directions for the poncho. Knit a swatch. Find your stitch to the inch. Multiply that by 30. Round to the nearest even number. Cast on half that number, pm, cast on the other half, join, pm.
Round 1: knit
Round 2: k1, M1, knit to 1 stitch before marker, M1, k1, slip marker, k1, M1, knit to 1 stitch before marker, M1, k1.
Repeat these two round till desired length or till you run out of yarn. Don't forget to leave 4-5 times your round length for binding off.
Block and enjoy.

Need a better example? My Recycled Silk poncho is 3.5 stitches to the inch on size 10s. I cast on a total of 104 stitches. I used approximately 278 yards. It definitely would look more like a poncho with more yardage, but it looks like a nice capelet at this length.

Having said all that, I'm gonna frog it. I really don't like this yarn and don't want to wear it as a poncho. You heard me all complaining about it last time I blogged, but I forgot to mention a couple of other things. It smells bad. Like musty old people. And it breaks. Yeah, because it was spun so poorly. One skein broke 5 times while I was knitting it. The other skein only broke once... while I was winding it! So gonna make a bag or something with it instead.

I started a muffler for Pastimes. That is Classic Elite Blythe. Baby camel hair!!! It is very lightweight and soft. You have to be tender with is as it snaps like a brittle twig, but I haven't had any problems with it yet. Ruffles, grrrr, is coming along slowly. I am knitting 10 rows a day on it so I'm slowly making progress. Can't wait to be done with it!!!

Hail me, the Tard Queen!

I was going to say something flattering such as I'm such a good blogger, but I thought I'd be honest. hehe. I did some more improving on the blog. Finally added 3 more patterns. Yeah me! Photo to the left shows my in progress poncho. I'm not sure how the pattern will work out for others, but I guess we'll see as peeps try it out.

Yarn review time! Recycled Sari yarns. Mango Moon is delightful. Soft and magical. Wonderful to wear and work with. Tibet is so scratchy in the hank that I haven't even tried it. It feels like rough rope. I bought some of this recycled silk shown here the other day. Shop owner said that it was much better than Tibet. My only hope is that it will soften greatly after washing, cuz right now... ugh! It has garbage spun into it. Like paper, grass, thread that obviously did NOT come from sari remnants. It is terribly scratchy. As I play with the knitted portion it does feel like it is softening, but hey! Save yourself some agony and go for the good stuff, Mango Moon.

Here is my other WIP. I know, I know. I said I would be done with it by now. It's killing me. It is so. boring. Mind numbing even. I am working a little bit on it each day. I think the pattern maybe a little off though. It already is very long and still have half my 3rd skein left. It calls for 4 skeins. I'm 5'10". 4 skeins and I could wrap it around my neck 3 times and it'll still drag on the floor. Ok, so I don't know that for sure, but it really is long already.

Good news. I haven't purchased any yarn in like 4 days. And I didn't even buy it. LYS gave me a skein of Classic Elite Blythe for writing a pattern for a little collar and knitting one for them. Now if I could only get them to do that with Queen Mab. The scheming begins, lol.