It is finished!

I am done, I cast off the top down cardigan about 10 minutes ago. I sort of spent my whole afternoon working on it, but now it is done. I do have to weave in my ends and block it, but the knitting is done!

So much to knit, so little time.

I am not a big fan of the holidays, I usually get really crabby by Christmas. This year was no exception. With the death virus, 3 basketball tournaments and 3 swim meets the Saturdays before Christmas. Things were a bit tense at our house. But now Christmas has come and gone. The gifts have been given, (some exchanged) the cookies eaten and the cards have stopped arriving. The best part of Christmas 2006? Well, there was that solo on Christmas eve by AJ's brother, there was the prime rib on Christmas day, the new wedding band is going to be pretty cool. But the best part??? The knitting. I have had (taken?) so much time to just sit and knit. It has been so relaxing to curl up on the couch with GBT and MT and knit. My sweater is coming along nicely and this one I think I may wear. My mittens are 3/4's done and will be beautiful (even if I do say so myself). I have made 3 trips to yarn stores in 3 days, attended a guild meeting and MJ's holiday knitting party. What more could a girl want?

I simply could not resist

I ordered it for the lake. I really could not resist. It was on sale!!!! A knitting board game. I mean . . . really . . . I had to have it.

Holiday Knitting

Merry Christmas! While the rest of the world is stressing out making some big meal and worrying about holiday guests, not us. I am wearing my "Chicks with Sharp Sticks" shirt and spending the day knitting with my daughters. GBT is on her 4th or 5th try to make mittens that flip for her "boyfriend" by the time she finishes them, they will have broken up. MT is working on her bandage for the lepers. They may find a cure before she finishes. I am working on the top down cardigan and a pair of mittens. I can not think of a better way to spend the holiday.
I hope Santa found everyone and brought each member of the Guild exactly what she wanted.

No Reptiles Allowed

From the BEACH SIDE (CB)
We were going for walk. (ASJ and myself. make CT & NK go for a walk at least once a day. Force them. Yes they whine and complain, but they do comply.) We decided to walk on the beach. Once the decision was made to walk on the beach CT & ASJ needed to go back to the cabin, it was something like needing sandals or sweat shirts. Not sure really, which it was. Anyway, NK and myself stayed down on the beach to wait for ASJ & CT. Suddenly screams were heard. Now these were not little sissy screams, these were Big Girl Screams. The kind that makes your hair on the back of your neck stand up. I very calmly turned to my friend NK and said one word "snake." Unbeknownst to myself or the rest of the guild, apparently CT has a deathly fear of snakes (completely understandable if you knew the story), and apparently I had forgotten to mention that every once in awhile you might see a snake around the end of the drive sunning itself (in my defense I had no idea she was afraid of snakes or I would have mentioned it). Now . . . .

From the CABIN SIDE (ASJ)
CT and I were happily skipping up to the cabin to change attire. It was a beautiful day on the Island. The kind of day that makes a person want to scream with excited anticipation of all the joys this particular day will bring. The kind of day which arrives with great chilliness, which is slowly burned off by the summer sun. The sky was brilliant, the air was crisp, and we were vacationing sans children (not one of the 12 anywhere in sight!). Anyway, I was giddy with excitement and we were deep in conversation on our way up from the beach. We had just crossed the road and were on the driveway, when CT began screaming. And we're not just talking screaming, but a deep blood-curdling scream that pierced the air and engulfed both of us. I took a split second to jump back and look around, expecting a bear, or a man with a gun. Not seeing anything like that, I asked "what—what—what— what????? A bear?" CT shook her head "no" and tried to speak but couldn't. I asked again if it was a bear (my thought process is not quite as clairvoyant as CB's) as her screams gave way to gasps of "a, a, a, a sss." By this time I could see that she was in distress (takes me awhile, but I eventually catch on) and was hyperventilating. So, I started saying "exhale ----exhale----exhale----a snake???" Oh, then her head bobbed. So, I looked around, and I couldn't see a snake. So, I said, "I don't see a snake." (That worked well) She pointed toward the road, amid gasps of "snnn.....th th th there." So, I walked back to the road, and as I came to the spot where the driveway to the cabin goes over the culvert for the ditch, the screams returned, together with sobs and jumping up and down while pointing. Bless CT's heart, she didn't want that snake to get me! I said, "It's gone." CT didn't quite believe me that the snake was gone, so I walked in the ditch on both sides of the driveway. Now, I'm not a big fan of snakes either, and screaming kinda scares me, so I made sure there were no more snakes. By this time CT had gained control and was merely crying and saying "no, no, no, no, no..." Then she explained the reasons behind her deep fear of snakes, and I not only understood, but I was right with her on the fear part. So, we went to the cabin and took a very long time changing our clothes, or footwear, or whatever it was we were changing. On our walk back to the beach, I went ahead of CT, with my eyes totally focused on the ground, looking for that one snake which inhabited the Island. That snake had gone into hiding and will most likely never be seen again.

The moral of story . . .
We will be checking in the future before CT strolls down the driveway to the beach that said "snake" is not sunning it self on the end of the driveway. We already have a detailed plan of how we will walk down to the beach to protect our friend CT (actually it looks a like football play).
P.S. I also feel that I should mention that there have been times when said "snake" (sure if you want to believe there is only one snake on the island, I’ll back you up) has sunned it self on the step, for the shed in the back of the cabin. Forewarned is forearmed!

Two weeks before Christmas

Two weeks before Christmas and all through the house
Not gift wrapped or cookie for my spouse.
The children made lists with such care,
but going to the mall, I do not dare.
The cards are still in a box,
next to the yarn for some socks.
The tree is up, but not an ornament in sight
thank goodness the fake thing came with a built in light.
I feel rushed and confused,
my credit card I will abuse.
Perhaps this year my letter will get to St. Nick.
Lord knows I need him to arrive quick.
Perhaps I should get to work, not a moment to spare,
The holidays will come with great fanfare.
So no more complaints or fear,
the holidays of our Lord's birth are near.
To the mall I will go,
children and husband in tow.
Gifts I will give,
to those with whom I live.
So shop, bake, address and mail times four
because the holidays are upon us once more.

It's Coming

Ready or not. It is coming. And I am unready. Not even close. Oh well. So it goes. Shopping and baking, wrapping and sending. It all needs to be done. It will happen, just not sure when or how. Somehow it always does manage to get done. So I'm going with the flow (it's my new CB is now Type B Persona!) The Boy wants a cable for his XBox 360, The Girl says she really does not need anything (I know, not normal for a 14 year old), and The Boy Version 2 wants a Nintendo WII. Yeah right. This is so shades of the Teacher Barbie debacle of 1996, (I shudder to think of it).

The Christmas Knitting is actually going quite well, that could be because I started in May. Socks and slippers. Easy, squeezy. I love socks and slippers.

Though it is not a good photo (I will try again) this is one of my favorite Christmas ornaments. It has been in my family for three generations (if you count my kids four). I have three of them, similar, all made by my Great Aunt Ruth. When they were first married, money was short so she made her own ornaments. The three I have (I treasure them) are all that remain. They carry so much history. They are resoundingly simple. Egg cartons, painted gold, with beads glued on. In each one a treasure is hidden. The one above is a little white decorated tree (made from some brush she had available). The second holds a gold angel and the third a simple red glass ball. These are what I hold dear. There is one for each one of my children. And not so oddly enough, my children understand how important they are to me. They have heard the stories of these ornaments for years. How as a child, every year I watched them go on the tree. I could tell they were important by how my mother treasured them. How thrilled I was the year she gave them to me.

Well I need to get busy. Make a baking list and felt some slippers and hope they dry by Friday!

T-SHIRTS

Love the t-shirts, thanks for designing them CB. You are ubber talented. Now we have less to pack for the island. We can all match. I will be wearing one when we do lunch and to the next guild meeting that should be held very soon! We shall have to discuss this in detail.

Yarn is like Tupperware

You know how it goes, you have leftovers and you can find the container, but not the lid. You have a lid, but no darn container for it. What is up with that? I discoverd that yarn is a lot like tupperware. I was kniting back and forth, back and forth on this top down cardigan, (I must be feeling better) I decided to start a pair of mittens. So off the my yarn cabinet (built for me by my son) I went. I have no yarn!!! I have scraps of Galway from a jillion pairs of felted clogs. I have left over yarn from mittens, but not enough to start a new pair. I went to my secret location (if I post the location, it won't be secret anymore) and still no yarn for a new project. What is up with this nonsense! What is wrong with me? I need help from the Guild. The only answer is.....a yarn adventure!

News

The Beach

Oh yes, the BEACH. I remember all too well the warm summer sun and the island pace. Gotta love the Island Pace! Anyway, I'm ready and willing to try stick my feet in the lake. I think if I wear all of my knitted feet items, I'll be warm enough for a couple of seconds. And, I really think that what G-ma Beck wants for Christmas is to winterize the cabin for us. A nice wood stove would work well. I'd definitely give it a try! We could snowshoe and knit, snowshoe and knit etc. Thanks for all your blogging CB. I'm really on to this stuff now (gasp, choke, strike dead because of lying). Love ya all,
AJ

The Beach

Remember the beach . . . since my only winter sport is knitting I am not that enamored of the below freezing and bloody frigid (damn I need more socks) cold. Brrrr. Somebody turn up the heat!

Knitting this weekend was pretty non exsistent. Between homework projects that needed supervising, work (Saturday), and please explain why to me when I was sick I promised the The Girl I would take her and her friend to the mall on Sunday???? Anyway, my weekend was shot. My Christmas knitting is giving me the evil eye (at the very least it is looking at me in a very petulant manner). So back to slippers, socks, hats and mittens I go. The cardigan is will have to wait.

The works in progress have left. I am trying to get something else on the side a bit more stimulating, but it is being difficult. So instead of taxing my brain any further I going back to knit.

CT . . . hope you get a good night sleep, and feel better in the morning. ASJ, we need to get you on line!! NK, talk to you tomorrow. Good night girls!

Can't Take Them Anywhere

Because it was requested . . . a memory from the first ever "Out Of State Yarn Shopping Expedition."

Imagine the shock & disbelief (not really, but it sounds good) as we glanced down the length of Needlework Unlimited (as seen in photo) and saw two chicks (neither with the first name of Cindy), one on her hands and knees, grasping and grabbing at yarn spilling and rolling across the floor of the shop, and the other bending over and giggling. Every time she bent over, yarn spilled out of her arms and rolled across the floor (apparently she could not find any HANKS of yarn to buy). Really, can you see it? NK looked like she was going to pee her pants she was laughing so hard, poor ASJ was trying her damnedest to corral the yarn as it rolled every which way across the floor.

What was a guild member to do? Now let me back up a bit. This happened to be the "Yarn Hop" weekend. There were literally hundreds of knitterly types flocking to seven yarn stores in the twin cities. You get the picture, the store was crowded. Now CT and I (with all the tact we could muster), yelled across to them to ask them kindly what on God's green earth they were doing. I mean really, we were hoping this would be an annual event. It certainly wouldn't look good if they would never allow us back in the store, let alone the state.

CT and I scurried across the store as quickly as we could, because they already have enough people gawking at them. We needed to get the situation under control. It took three of us to corral the yarn If I remember correctly we picked up a couple of balls of yarn and put them in the basket she was holding (because we gave it to her), but because she was laughing so hard, when she bent over, and you guessed, right back on the floor. CT swiped the basket out of her hands, put it in the middle of the floor and we scooped the renegade yarn back into the basket. We then helped our friend ASJ up off the floor. Both laughing so hard they could not speak a word between them.

Oddly enough, the polite staff of the shop did not find this behavior odd (maybe her pirate hat was on too tight) and we were not escorted out of the shop.

Yeah, we will do that trip again next year. We already have our hotel picked out. But we are definitely going to have to split up the bobbsey twins whilst shopping.

Y Turn!

Friday . . . Amen. There were three of us last night at Purly Gates. We were grateful our very intelligent sick friend decided to stay at home and rest. Smart Cookie. However we would have been more impressed if you had stayed at home today (I am just saying . . . ) Any Who.

I have been thinking of the Lake Story to post. I want to do the snake story, but I think it is best that we are all together to do that. After all, two of us were down on the beach, all I said on the beach was "Must be a snake."

However, "The Yarn Store Drive By" would also be an interesting choice. So here it goes . . .

As we traveled north without the encumbrances of spouses and children, and heavy on the yarn, we enjoyed conversation and Dairy Queen treats. (Side Note, ASJ knows where every Dairy Queen is in whole states). Traveling north on HWY 63, we approached Cable, WI. A small village to be sure. As we were tooling along and talking, three voice screaming in unison (imagine my flinching/jumping driving a Yukon XL, probably in excess of 55 miles per hour)

"Pines & Needles Yarn Shop" Y-TURN!!!!! Now knowing my friends (the chicks) desperately need yarn, what could I do, but immediately find the next road (it was a left, and all four wheels were on the road) to turn around and go back. Imagine much laughing and shrieking and such mayhem. Any way, as I prepared to back out on to the highway, I asked my com padres, if the highway was clear, free to go, no traffic. They all chirpily replied "Yes." So as I back out onto the the highway, more yelling, apparently a rather large logging truck had just come around the bend and was heading towards the back of the Yukon where the swift was stored. No wanting any damage to come to said swift (it was last year's Christmas Present from my husband), or the chicks I naturally tromped down on the gas pedal, zoomed back up the highway a short distance, plunged the Yukon to the left into said parking lot of Pines & Needles Yarn Shop
Did I mention the Noro was "Buy One Get One Free."

No Purly Gates for me

Well, I missed Purly Gates again last night, I just could not bring myself to go. By the time I went to the visitation, ms swim meet (@ Chip) and got the girl off to bb practice, I was pooped. I did knit, but at home on my couch snuggled up in not one, but 2 blankets. I have come to the point in the top down cardigan that I feel the need to push onward. I feel like there is "light at the end of the tunnel". Was the guild well represented at Purly Gates last night?
What time is the meeting on Sunday?
Hope everyone has a great Friday!