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.