5,940 Stitches Wasted

No that I was counting or anything! Really. Denial is a powerful thing, so is stupidity. I started my second sock on Friday night. I finished the first one at MJ's Knit Fest. An annual tradition, where I won a gift card to the local LYS (so did the other two chicks in attendance). So I cast on the second sock on Friday. On Saturday I picked it up intending to make great progress. It wasn't striping like the previous sock. "It will catch on," yeah right. Last night in a fit of anger I ripped 5,940 stitches and started over this morning. Grrr. However, now with only two more sets of 10 to go, it is striping correctly. Back to my knitting!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

Well it appears to be over, (the holiday, not the snow) and I think I survived. The last 4 days have been sort of blur. On Saturday (the 22nd) we brought our traditional pizza to the swim team after the 12 days of Christmas practice, then we came back home to wrap, bake, clean and do laundry while waiting and worrying about GBT on the road coming home from Houghton. She arrived about 6pm after 6+ hours on the road in the fog and freezing rain. To celebrate, we took her to our fav restaurant, Cancun. (Thanks guild girls we really enjoyed dinner!). Sunday (the 23rd) despite the nasty snow and forecast for more snow, we loaded the 'burban, put it in 4 wheel drive and off to Hayward we went. Kids, dogs and presents in tow. It took us 2 hours 15 minutes, which is only 15 minutes longer than normal, which is not bad considering we stopped in Rice Lake for gas and a diet coke for me. We spent a snow filled day watching the Packers (grrr-can't believe we lost to the Bears twice!) and the Vikings (yeah-one more loss and no plays offs for them--he he he). Christmas eve was spent eating, watching TV, eating and knitting. I am almost done with the blue and black mittens for an ECA stars player. They are really pretty, I hope she likes them. Yesterday we raced home and made Christmas dinner for the MIL. By 6pm last night I was shot. Ready for the holiday to be over.
So here we are back to reality today. I just sent the boy off to swim practice, the girls are lying on the couch watching TV and I am, of course, cleaning up the house, doing laundry and trying to find time today to knit.

Going Green?

Explain to me why I decided that small gifts to non knitters could be wrapped in newly knit dishcloths . . . . F.O.R P.E.T.E.S. S.A.K.E.!!!!!!!

Christmas Knitting

No time to blog, shop, knit, bake, knit, clean, knit. You get the picture!

Ask ASJ how many pairs of Norwegian mittens she knit for Christmas. I am in awe . . . I would be sick of knitting them too if I were her.

A little ASJ in all of us

Rather than work on my socks for the KAL that were supposed to done in October or work on my 1/2 sweater I decided to cast on some fair isle mittens (a little comfort knitting). I thought to myself, let's try ASJ's method of knitting the mittens on a circular needle. Teaching an old dog new tricks can be difficult, but I set out on my mission. After I completed the twisted German purl cast on I thought-- I can do this. It took me a few rows (ok, through the cuff and into the mitten) to hit my stride, but I eventually got it. I finished a lovely magenta and grey snowflake mitten today during the Packer game (it should be noted though that knitting during the Packer game is not a good idea). The ASJ method makes a better mitten, there is not that line or seam where the needles meet. I think it will take me through the 2nd mitten to really feel comfortable with the new process, but I am optimistic.
Yesterday, ASJ and I (with MMT in tow) made a quick trip to Color Crossing in Roberts for yarn (it was a guild sponsored event even though only ASJ and I went, we had orders from NK and CB). They recognized us as part of the "chicks" when we walked through the door (I think that is a good thing right). The place was hopping with knitters, weavers and other crafty people checking out the holiday craft fair they were hosting. We bought our yarn, (ASJ bought some Kathmandu, I was well behaved) some home made soap, stopped at the Baldwin DQ and were home by 3:30. A great way to spend the afternoon.

Brrrr. . . . Baby it’s cold outside!

Igloo sweater today man. Gotta keep warm. Each chick has knit one of these babies and let me tell you they are wonderful in this frigid weather!

Christmas knitting! Oy, I don’t know how it happened but I think I am behind. I am currently whittling away on a cabled sock for my sister. I turned the heel last night, and I still have one sock to go. However, I have a really, really bad feeling about this sock. Two stitches have mysteriously disappeared. I don’t know where they went. I have searched and searched for dropped stitches but I can’t find any. I thought maybe the dropped stitched were hiding in the cable. Nope . . . where did these two stinking stitches go? How on earth did I manage to lose them? So I knit on. Hopefully the Bad Knitting Fairy does not come up from behind and smack me one. Only the socks have me worried. I have been laying in stores of slippers, scarves, dish cloths, etc for non knitters on my gift list.

The Christmas Knitting means I had to put down and stop knitting on my EZ baby surprise sweater. ASJ and I will teaching this class with a friend who is a knitting master (who we will lean on heavily). So I figured I had better whip one out quickly before the class starts in January. So I will have to knit fast post-Christmas to get it done. Maybe I can finish it in a weekend.

If you check the right hand side of the blog you will see we have determined we are going eastward to Green Bay for our knitting trip in February. If you know of any great yarn shops or restaurants along the way or in Green Bay let us know so we can plan accordingly!

Wrap yourself in wool and stay warm!

Village Knitter or Village idiot?

So first I had the yucky yarn hat and mittens, 2 sets no less, now Aunt D gave me a hat her friend had knit her that was too big, she ripped it out and wants me to knit it again for her. What am I some sort of knitting machine? At least this project is easy and the yarn is quality natural fibers. But why couldn't she bring it back to said knitter friend? Sheesh!
So the big holiday/hunting season is over. I saw a picture of CB's buck (yep our little CB is a hunter). I guess she is such a crack shot, she shot one of the prongs off the antler. Who knew? We will have the last of the turkey leftovers for dinner on tonight and then Thanksgiving 2007 will be officially over. Then on to the next big holiday----yikes!

Yucky yarn v. natural fibers

I realize I have not posted in several weeks, it seems a few things got away from me. First there was the knitting of the hat and mittens on the yucky yarn, then there was the knitting of the second set of hat and mittens on the same yucky yarn.(notice there were no pictures taken of either set of hat and mittens) Then there was the death virus revisited, combined with the football banquet, egg roll sale and end of quarter. That was a bad week. Then there was this week, it was a better week, MMT turned 15, the boy started swim and GBT came home for the week for Thanksgiving. I have put that all the bad knitting memories of the yucky yarn behind me. Onward to bigger and better knitting projects--projects on natural fibers.

A friend of MMT's ask me to knit her a scarf to match these funky flip mittens she bought. While on the yarn hop earlier this month, CB used her yarn shopping abilities to help me find Cascade 220 to match (as best we could) the scarf. It took all 3 stores we visited to find 4 skeins of Cascade 220 for the project. I matched the pattern in mittens and knit the scarf, I had so much yarn left, I knit her a hat too. (modeled by GBT)

So now that I have knit for everyone on the planet, I can get back to my half sweater and second sock for the sock knit a long that ended Oct. 31. I think I will cast on some mittens, a little comfort knitting for me after the yucky yarn mittens.

Preparation is the KEY!

Yes, bad blogger, I know. I will say that on my list of blog’s to check (only eight) only three lately have been regular in their blogging. I think it’s catching. Visit Cursing Mama! She is very regular blogger her postings will make you laugh. The Harlot, naturally. And finally Knitorious (this woman works and goes to school.) Oy. We are shameful. Speaking of Knitorious . . . I received a package from her last week, I won her contest! Hmmmm. . . . Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn and a lovely little sachet. Thank you Vicki!

We stopped in Roberts on the way to the cities to visit Color Crossings. (Okay, let me inject here that as we went from yarn shop to yarn shop we were followed by other knitters that we knew from EC!) A hidden gem, truly it is! Did you know they have handpainted Cascade 220?? Beautiful!

Detour to Stillwater after listening to NK rave about "The Fun Sisters" store. Purses, sure we like purses. We had the time, why not make it a quick detour. So we did. CT practiced restraint and bought nothing (she did mention that her husband would not believe the fact she went into this store and bought nothing).

The trip to The Yarnery was wonderful as usual. Thank you Sarah, sorry we missed you. I stocked up on sock yarn. As usual. Heaven forbid I should break of my bubble. Koigu, Fleece Artist and Claudia sock yarns for me. ASJ picked up a cute little circular needle storage thingy. And CT (the one who is not knitting any more socks) picked up some Cherry Cordial Claudia sock yarn. Very pretty! Hopefully I will finish my socks again this month for Socks in the Cities! Nothing like incentive to make you knit FASTER!

Then off to Borelais. Okay, here is the big question. Why is this store not on the Yarn Hop? I love this store. They have walls of sock yarn! Walls people, whole walls of sock yarn! I digress . . . check out this store. They carry yarns I have not seen anywhere else. There is also a coffee shop attached. Take a right whilst in the store and WALA, you are in a coffee shop. Pick up a latte and go back to fondle more yarn. NK purchased some lovely knitting totes . . . you need to check out this store!

The trip was awesome. As Knitting Activities Director however, I think I dropped ball somewhat. Really where is this mysterious yarn shop in Woodbury? ASJ mentioned while we were at lunch. So we thought on our way home. Let’s swing by it. Really, how hard can it be to find, even though we don’t have an address, a name, nothing, we got nothing. Still we drove around, in the end we gave up and went to the Dairy Queen.

I am planning the trip for February 2008, an overnighter. I still have not decided what direction we should go. New territory??? North . . .South to Mad Town? Or shall we go West where there are more shops than we can hit in a two day period. What’s a chick to do? Thoughts, suggestions, comments are welcome! Have a shop to recommend, leave us a comment.

Power Knitting Shoppers...or is it Knitting Power Shoppers?

The trip to the various yarn stores in the cities was a success. Especially if you count a great lunch at Cafe Latte' and a stop at a (new-to-me) Dairy Queen! Was I thrilled to find that, or what!?! Four crazy women (one of whom pulled the silent-laughing trick at least twice), maneuvered their way through three yarn stores (tried to find a 4th store, but found a DQ instead) and a purse store, and we were even home for supper.....now that's power shopping at its finest. CB bought a new purse at the designer purse knock-off store, so she's sporting a new bag and looking quite stunning, I must say. I'm totally loving my new circular needle holder, and I'm inspired to finish my fair isle mittens, so I can start on some more. I've kind of ditched the scarf theme for the time being, and am back on mittens. I figured it would happen sooner or later, but I did get bored with my scarves, and now they're just there to be picked up for mindless knitting. Still working (no, laboring) on my socks.......and I did NOT buy any more sock yarn! Tempted as I was, I didn't get sucked in, even at the 15% off price. We got all the yarn swifted, so I can't wait for the next trip!

Princess Half-done

I think I need a new Indian knitting name. Princess half-done. My half sweater is half done (or does that really mean 1/4 done?) My socks for the KAL are half done. Perhaps someone with one arm and one leg will enjoy them?? My papers that need to be graded are half done. My laundry is half done (only because I had to go back and re wash what I had already washed-so should count for all done) But, the porch is DONE! Done I say, trim and all! I foresee many Guild events in the porch next summer. Guild meetings, ribs and porn nights, mojito knitting sessions, oh the possibilities are endless.
As for the trip to Chippewa Falls on Saturday, it was a great little yarn shop, of course they had my favorite Kathmandu! I really wanted to by some bulky alpaca (ASJ and I want Alpacas for Christmas--hint hint). Lunch at Lucy's Deli was very tasty, I am thinking a few short yarn hops for the Guild this winter.

I am really excited for Saturday, yarn shopping and lunching with my favorite buddies. I can hardly wait. Starbucks (by Shopko) 8am for coffee and on the road by 8:30? Roberts, Yarnery, Borialis Knits and 3 Kittens? Lunch, we can't forget lunch (NK and I have already decided to share again)! Call me if you want Guild pick up service.

Four Highschool Seniors does not lend it self to Blogging or Knitting

Or "this is our excuse for dropping the blogging ball." We have all be negligent. But each of has a senior, three of the four were involved in fall sports. Then CT and I were the co chairs for the Pasta Football Feeds (there were eight), and thank God they are over. There has been little time for knitting or blogging. I have finished my socks for the KAL. I have not posted their photo as of yet, but they are complete!

November 3 we boogie to the cities for the day for some much needed "guild" time, yarn shopping and our favorite restaurant. Not coming soon enough. Actually considering I just spent a small fortune on The Boy’s photo’s (he is totally gorgeous), I am shocked I have any money at all for yarn.

I haven’t really started any BIG projects, mostly small, socks, mittens, scarves. Although I do have the Interweave pattern for that totally cool shawl (I am contemplating it). CT had to knit with really bad yarn (ask her about it) and now that same person wants her knit to knit more with the really bad yarn. NK is almost done with her sweater (Chief Half Sweater). And if you read ASJ's entry, she is up to her eyeballs in scarves!

Tomorrow evening we have "Purly Gates" ASJ and I have taken that group on with the support of CT and NK (NK even volunteered to bring the treats). Thank you! It was one of those groups at our church that would have fallen by the wayside with the resignation of our "Yarn Teacher" Pastor. And the ladies in the group did not want to disband, so we did the honorable thing, took a step forward, and said sure. We can do this. Sit and knit. No problem.

Socks,Scarves, and more Scarves

So, as I participate in the sock knit-along, I realize that I'm just not a huge fan of knitting socks. It's tough to not like knitting socks. I love sock yarn, I realize the portability factor of the sock-in-progress, but I have to admit, I haven't found CB's passion for socks. Not even a partial passion. Mittens are ok, I dig the felted stuff, but I haven't completely found my knitting niche.........or is that knitting kniche? Until now. At this moment in time, I'm a scarf knitter. One of the reasons I like scarves is that one size fits all (or most, anyway), so I'm not relegated to the infernal knit-and-rip for which I'm so famous. Also, it seems to go well with my a.d.d. knitting style. So, this past week, I spent all my knitting time making scarves. I have now completed 6 scarves since August, and I have 3 more cast on, just waiting for the right moment (I have to be in a scarf mood) for me complete them. The scarves are being knit for the "Scarf Project", a community event which calls on people to knit scarves which are distributed to the Cancer Centers in town. The scarves are then given to people undergoing cancer treatment. The nurses bring the container of scarves into the chemotheraphy rooms, so that patients can select their own scarves. My mother-in-law received a scarf last year, and she told me that it warmed much more than her neck - it warmed her soul. Previously, I didn't much enjoy knitting scarves, since I found them to be a little, well, boring. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of the fritzy (that's a technical term) yarns. In my "adventures with knitting", after I graduated from scarves into other, more interesting knitting patterns, I haven't truly enjoyed knitting scarves, until now. Now, with each scarf I knit, I pay tribute to my special friend who died of cancer last February. Just like with prayer shawls, I feel like I am knitting a piece of her spirit into each stitch, as I pray that these scarves will bring some comfort and joy into the lives of the cancer patient who receives the scarf. Things do change, don't they? I'm sure I'll be sick of scarf knitting soon, but it's good therapy for me now. Knitting warms the knitter as well as the "knittee" (that's another technical term).

Princess GBT

Again another trip to Houghton. I swore off that drive in August when I moved her up to da UP. But, MMT and I went up for MTU Homecoming and our Princess Picksnclicks is still our little princess. The day was cold, rainy, foggy and down right nasty. I felt sorry for her out there in the dress and heels for the coronation. The beauty of being the princess (they actually said her name as princess, although she has always been a princess to me), she got to leave right after half time, the King and Queen had to stay. Excellent planning on her part.

MMT and I survived the trip, I did have to stop on the way home for ice cream, she could not take the car another minute. We did not get to the little yarn store yesterday, so my knitting fix had to come from working on my sock in the hotel last night and this morning.

I Did it Again!

Yes, I did it again! I knit 2 Right hand mittens! Can you believe it! One would think a person could learn from previous mistakes, but apparently, there is no extra room for growth in this sad and sorry brain. For a brief moment, I thought of ripping out the second rh mitten, but I am so trying to get a new knitting name.........not being very successful am I? So, now I have 2 right hand fair isle mittens, and no left hand mittens, and I have run out of white Cascade 220, with lys having none in stock. Anyone up for a quick trip to Roberts? I do like the Cascade 220 for the fair isle mittens, as it knits a more substantial mitten, and is a bit larger. But, being a proficient right hand mitten knitter (or knitten mitter), does have its challenges, namely that I now need to find friends who have only right hands.

A good weekend for ducks and knitters

Can you say rain, rain and more rain. All we had to do today was to say the word "boat" and the sun went away, the clouds came and then the rain. Our German student must think Wisconsin is the wettest state in the union.
As for me, I knit. I knit on the ^#* mittens yesterday while watching the Badgers squeak one out. I finished them up today, they are as ugly as we thought they would be. I still have to knit the ^#* hat from the ^#* yarn. Pray for me, please. Today during the Packer game I worked on the teddy bear (or half) sweater. I am through phase one, ready to enter "a new set of rounds" according to the pattern. I now know why it took NK so long to knit this sweater. It is easy enough, but lots and lots of stitches.
I have my sock yarn, pattern, needles all set to go for tomorrow....the "Socks in the City" knit a long. I can't wait. Good thing I did not listen to myself when I said the pair of socks I just finished was my last pair ever. Ready set knit!

No time . . .

to knit. Helping the boy finish up his college application forms. Ack! I have a headache!

Sock Knit A Long!

Check out The Yarnery Website. They are having a Knit a Long called "Socks in The Cities."

Check out their web page to register. CT and I are in! When you register they will send you a coupon for 15% off a skein of sock yarn and an e-mail invite so that you can post your progress and completed sock on their Socks in the Cities blog.

I LOVE sock yarn!

Miss Blue

This is for Bead Slut. Because she posts photos of Odin for me and I don't want her thinking I am a dog stalker (but his paws are huge!).

Please meet "Miss Sadie Blue Beck." She is attracted to wound yarn that resemble balls. Is also attracted to wooden knitting needles that resemble sticks. I have been fortunate, she has only chewed up (beyond recognition) one size three needle. And truthfully the only yarn she totally messed up on me was some white cotton I had bought for a class. She is a good girl (albeit a bit protective). Part blue tick and part beagle. Does not like small furry creatures that dare to cross our lawn. Does not like unknown people (any strangers at all) encroaching on her people's lawn or driveway (ie don't walk by, she will bark at you like a banshee). Otherwise is most good natured and very loving. The Girl has Miss Blue sleep with her . . . she knows Sadie will let no harm come to her. Awww.

He's here!

Yep, he is here, our German student is here for the next 2 weeks. We are 1 day in and so far so good. I had a whole basement full of kids yesterday watching the Packers and hanging out. Today was their first day at school and it seemed to go ok for all 26 of them. After school ZT, the German and a couple of other boys went to the park (pre downpour) to toss a Frisbee around. It seems Frisbees are an American thing. Who knew? Last night dinner was a bit of an issue, I made ribs. They seem to perplex the poor boy. He seemed totally confused by the whole nature of the meal. Picking up hunks of meat and bone with his fingers did not really appeal to him. Oops! So tonight I am frantically trying to figure out what to make for dinner as not to repeat the disaster of last night. I hope I get it figured out, otherwise this young man may be traumatized by the whole experience of our family. And the real kicker, this is the same family ZT will stay with when he goes to Germany in June. Or perhaps the real kicker is that the husband dashed off to somewhere in Illinois for 4 days leaving me home with 3 teenagers!!! (Why do his store visits always come at the worst possible time?)

No word from GBT yet on the potential Houghton adventure. We should know sometime this week. I will keep you posted, if she becomes Michigan Tech Homecoming royalty I will let you know asap.
Update:
I made tacos for dinner and it seemed to have been ok, he ate 5 or 6 tacos, MMT and I lost count. Yeah me!

Happy Dogs are Here Again

It's high time I contributed a little to this blog, or I will soon get the big boot. I have spent this past week knitting fair isle mittens..... with my dogs happily by my side. They love it when I knit, and stay in one location. They happily chew on their bones, sleep, play, chew some more, and then sleep some more. Of course they know that they must be supportive of knitting, because little dog, Joey, is responsible for eating the thumb off of one of mar-j's mittens. I nearly cried, and then almost killed the dog, but we're ok now that the replacement is completed. I tried fixing the one he partially ate, but it ended up with a big tumor-like lump on it, which was unacceptable to the wearer. So, the dogs have learned not to eat anything yarn-related, and to be quite supportive of all yarn ventures. They are almost as supportive of knitting as the K dogs. But the K dogs like to have a little snack now and again, and mine know better.

“Viral or Bacterial” . . . or “Enough is Enough”

That’s it I am done. No more. I want a Healing Service at my home before all the company arrives this Friday. In the last seven days, all three of my children have succumbed to various illness. Enough already.

• The Girl: Sunday, September 9, 2:00 a.m., fever & vomiting. Her fever climbed to 104.2, however she was coherent. She missed school on Monday.
  
• The Boy V2: Came home at noon on Thursday, September 14. Urgent Care on Friday a.m.(home sick) Strep test came back negative, however the Dr. said he for sure has something bacterial and treated him with a prescription for Amoxicillin.
  


• The Boy V1: Sunday, September 16, 4:00 a.m., high fever and intense headache. Treated fever with THREE IBUPROFEN, did not go down, went up! Went to Emergency Room at 5:30 a.m. They treated the fever first, pumped him with fluids, decided to start with a Strep test (instead of the spinal tap). Positive for Strep. Penicillin prescription, home today.

My husband just called me at work . . . he is home sick. God help me, I think I need to knit five of these!

I won't even discuss, the electrical outage and the flat tire . . .

What a beautiful day!

The Packers won, the sun is shining, what a beautiful day. It is too bad it is a Sunday, which means back to work and the craziness on Monday. Homecoming week, should be even crazier than usual.
Despite all the running around last week, I did find time to finish the purple and white mittens for MMT's carpool driver. The swim team has this great system of upperclassmen giving underclassmen rides. I never have to worry or wait for a phone call. A very nice senior picks her up and drops her off every time there is anything to do with swim. In addition to the gas money I have given this nice girl, I decided to make her some mittens. Just this week, coach said all swimmers must wear close toed shoes, hat and mittens if the temp is below 50 degrees. As I was finishing the mittens it made me try to think of how many pairs of fair isle mittens I have made.... I think it is 14 pairs. (I did finally make a pair for myself this summer, but forgot to photograph them, also I did not photograph the ones I just gave away--oops). I guess that makes me a mitten knitter.
Have a great week guild girls.

Needle Felting 101

Yes, yes, I know, I finished it in June. I am finally taking the photo and posting it. Remember, during the summer things slow down and we spend much time at the lake, in the garden, etc. It belongs to The Girl. And she is actually quite pleased with it. I love the colors and I believe for the first attempt it is not bad at all. For Christmas The Girl has requested "Fuzzy Feet" for her two best friends and then she will embellish as she see fit. Works for me. I will dig thru my stash of worsted and come up with slippers of many colors. That is if I can force myself to put down my socks. This is my new deal with myself. Once I finish one sock I can cast on a totally new different color sock. That way I can totally justify having all these socks on needles sitting next to my chair. Yep, because sock knitting is my thing. Although I am feeling the pull of cables. Simple cables . . . nothing that will make me nuts.

Too tired to knit? I think so

CB asked the question, how tired do you have to be to skip going out after the football game? (a great tradition if I do say so myself--next to the ribs and porn parties) I have a better question--how tired do you have to be to fall asleep while knitting? I was excited this afternoon, first, I am home alone in the peace and quiet for 3 hours after school and second, I don't have ANYWHERE to go tonight. I sat down on the couch to knit for a bit and woke up when the phone rang. I fell asleep while knitting. Yikes that is scary, I could have snapped a needle!
This week will be another fun filled week,
Monday: Back to school night
Wednesday: church
Thursday: pasta feed and swim meet
Friday: football game
With all this activity, when is a girl going to find time to knit? I have to finish the thumbs on the mittens, I am to the heel of the sock and row 4 of the teddy bear sweater (that one will take a while I think). So much to knit, so little time.
Again I ask, how many days until the Island?

Too little time to knit . . .

Before I go on my little whine-a-thon. There were bright spots this week . . . most noteworthy was winning a contest over at Knitorious' blog! Seriously, the woman can cable like no other!

So how tired to you have to be NOT to go out after a football game? Pretty damn tired. After last week it was all I could do NOT to lay down on the street and take a nap. But the first week of school is done, and one more pasta feed done (only six more to go)!

It was the first week of school, confirmation registration (Wednesday Night), pasta feed, Akaloo meeting, Purly Gates meeting (all Thursday evening, two of them at 6:30). Plus work, Friday night football, company coming on Friday and chaos at work. Yuck. My company did leave on Saturday, followed closely by grocery shopping and a wedding. Saturday afternoon The Girl and I made home made meatball and spaghetti for supper, apple crisp for dessert, and a salad with all ingredients from the garden (yummy). Sunday 2:00 a.m. The Girl came down with the stomach flu, a very bad version of the stomach flu. Hubby and The Boy V1 left at 6:00 a.m. for the Packer Game (the WON). I went to church to organize a reception for Pastor Mary (who taught the four of us to knit). When I came home I found my daughter on the bathroom room floor sleeping. Not good. Her temp managed to rise to 104.2 in the afternoon. I finally got some Ibuprofen to stay down and she slept on the couch off and on while I knit this, and watched the game. When her temp finally started to come down, she did manage to keep down some jell-O, and we watched "Phantom of the Opera" on the big screen. I did however miss the guild meeting.
Whew . . . all in favor of a much quieter week say AYE. Motion carried.

In the meantime CT’s son ZT seems to be recovering nicely, as long as stupid high school students don’t smack him in the shoulder (the bad one) and ask him what happened to his shoulder. NK’s dog, Santana seems to be getting better also. NK however is still having issues. ASJ needs volunteer work and I plan on keep her busy.

I did manage however, to finish The Girl’s socks. But I still need to weave in the ends. Knitting time . . . not much. Can we have a Guild Meeting next Sunday???

2nd First Day

So today was the 2nd first day of school. For EC schools only grades 6,7,8 and 9 actually had to go to school yesterday. For the Guild members who had 9th graders it was an exciting day. I was able to touch base with all 3 and they seemed to be off to a good start. Today was the actual first day for the rest of the clan(all but one guild child is at Memorial). I saw MJ in the lunch room,I have lunch duty this year :( , she was looking for her friends. She did find them, so all was not as bad as it seemed. KK2 came to visit me, how sweet is that? MB and MMT seemed fine at lunch all tucked into their groups of friends--eating and chatting. So as far as lunch and the social aspects go, all seems to being going well. ZT stopped by 3 times, other than getting whacked in the shoulder first thing this morning, he had a good day.
As for me, I am exhausted. This working thing is hard work. My 9th grade classes are 30 each and my civics classes are 25 each, so very manageable. It is just my schedule. I don't get a break until my lunch at 12:20, by that time today I was a wreck.
If I get up the energy tonight I will continue on my purple and white mittens, so they are almost done for Purly Gates tomorrow night, it will be so sad to say good bye to Pastor Mary. She taught me to knit and here I am in the Guild and obsessed with knitting.
How many days until the Island?

Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend! The traditional end to the summer, and what a great summer it was. The Island (tornado and all) Toad Lake,Mojito guild meetings, yarn runs to Roberts, but now back to school. This school year is already off to a rocky start. First there was the injury to the boy. In the blink of an eye his whole senior year of high school changed. My heart aches for him. His surgery went great on Tuesday, he opted not to have the nerve block, but seemed to bear the extra pain well. We had one rough night, but since then things have been on the mend. We had his post op appointment on Thursday, we got to see pictures of the surgery (this made me light headed and woozie). The dr again stressed how the boy had made the right choice to have the surgery now and not risk further injury. But the road through rehab will be long, he does not even start PT until October!
With the surgery and mom duties, I missed 1 1/2 days of our 3 days of in-service. I did go in early to do all sorts of stuff, but there is always more to do than I remember. I struggled with getting my first 2 weeks of lessons organized yesterday. I pulled out last years lesson plan book, to find my second day lesson plan for civics said "group activity" What does that mean? Two hours later I had my files out, organized, brain engaged and I am about 25% certain I can do this( I go through this every year--crazy I know). I had to call a colleague last night in a panic over which staff shirt we needed to wear which day. So much for the "first day of school" outfit I bought a couple of weeks ago. But soon (way too soon) I will be back in the grips of working full time. (How do non teachers do it? I know I should not whine, but I am a whiner, what can I say?)

While the boy was in surgery I knit. I worked on the sock off and on, but sometimes the light was not so good in the pre op room and hallway, but I muddled through. In the family waiting room (which at Luther is a misnomer---big old public waiting room in a high traffic area) I worked on the purple/white mitten for MMT's carpool buddy. Several older ladies commented on my knitting and that is was beautiful as they picked up their crochet hooks and started a baby afghan! (ok, that was mean). I have been having trouble with my right thumb, wrist, elbow and shoulder while I have been knitting lately, I have 2 theories, 1--golf. The husband and I went golfing over the weekend (NK I know I should not do that) and 2 sympathy pains for the boy. Either way, I have had to pace myself in the knitting this week. One mitten is done and the other a few rows into the cuff, I could not knit last night after the pasta feed, I opted for beer (technically beers---I had more that one). But I will get back after it.

Finally, thank you, thank you, thank you to the guild for all your kindness this week. Your prayers for the boy were very much appreciated, your yummy food has been a godsend and just knowing you are there is comforting. What in the world did I do before the guild? How did I survive?
Have a good weekend girls, guild meeting at Culver's next time---- my treat!

Back to Blogging

Sadly we have left CT blogging on her own. We have been delinquent. Sorry. Here look at the pictures of my pretty socks! See how the match the impatiens! Simple socks for The Girl. She loves the color and I love them too. If I knit diligently today, I will finish them. But no hurry, it really is not sock weather and she just left to spend a week at her Aunt's. I have been knitting, just not blogging.

I do have favor to ask though. CT's senior son is having surgery on Tuesday. So we need all the good thoughts and prayers you can send for her boy and the family. ZT dislocated his shoulder at the football scrimmage. Not only did he dislocate it, but he damaged his ligaments and tendons, and tore all of the cartilage. No more football for ZT his senior year. Which is too sad for words. He also swims, so let's pray that his recovery is speedy and that he can get in a little swim time. PLEASE. This really sucks big time for his senior year, so we will take all the prayers we can. Here look at my pretty morning glories and think good thoughts and say a quick prayer. Ready, set go! Thank you . . . from your lips to God's ears.

Okay, remember the dreaded pink cardigan. Jane this photo is for you. The Girl in her bohemian type cardigan. Actually, it looks very nice on her, and she loves it. So that is a plus. Unfortunately, she is a bit rough on it and I found a snag I need to fix already. (It appeared at the photo shoot). I am not sure but I think she dug it out of the bottom of her closet before I took the photo. She is a teenager whose clothes most of the time are on her bedroom floor. I would have included a photo of the felted pouch with needle felting but she took it with her when she left. An hour or so ago.

I have another photo (many photos today). My jacket I finished last year. I am in a quandary and am in the need of advice. Simply put, it is too big. Now I have a couple of choices. One I could rip it all out and start over, two I could felt it a bit and pray. Any thoughts or comments are very welcome here. I absolutely love this yarn. Classic Elite Waterspun (discontinued) and a beautiful Schaefer yarn with tans, greens and browns. Really, I don't know what to do. I seamed it all, but I never blended in then ends because I was unsure.

What's on my needles, just socks and my Norwegian mittens. I love my socks though, check these out. Claudia hand painted yarns. I love these colors. Oh and I did finish my cable socks with the Claudia yarns also. See . . . I have been knitting. We have also been knocking back a few of those Bacardi Silver Mojitos. If you have not tried them, you really should they are quite excellent. Also three of the four seniors have had their senior photos takes and they have all turned out beautifully . . . ASJ needs to get her girl in soon, now that her hair has grown out enough from her last unfortunate haircut (her words not mine). Back to school in a week. Oh my did this summer fly by fast.

Long sad week

When last I posted to the blog it was sunny and I was headed off to the football scrimmage, well let me tell you it was quite a scrimmage and it has been quite a week. I was excited for the scrimmage, the boy is a senior and finally has secured his spot on the O line. CB, Ronbo and I watched the scrimmage and chatted. During the final round of the scrimmage they did D first and O second. I almost left the scrimmage to go home and get dinner organized for the guild dinner, but then I thought, oh I will stay in case they run the O again, I can watch the boy. As it turned out, 3 plays from the end of the scrimmage there was a player down on the field. Ronbo (ever the observant fan) said "CT, I think that is the boy down there" CB and I stopped gabbing to check it out. Yes, no, yes, no. Finally the player got up and was helped to the sidelines. Yep, it was the boy. He had dislocated his shoulder. Great. The trainer, said she thought he would be out 2 to4 weeks, but we needed to see the Sports Medicine doctors. So we took the boy on Saturday. The examined him, x rayed him and did an MRI. From there we made an appointment with another Sports Medicine doctor for Monday. The news on Saturday was not good, but depending on the MRI results, it could be ok. On Monday, the MRI results were not good. The season was over and surgery loomed in the very near future. We let the boy decide if how to proceed. Try to re-hab and maybe play a little at the end of the season, try to re-hap and just get ready for swim, or have surgery now and be done with it and re-hab for swim. The football coaches (as did the doctor) felt surgery now was the best option. Waiting to see how the re-hab went in the hopes of playing a little at the end of the season was just extending the amount of time in a sling, also the physical nature of football could (would probably) mean re injury. So on Tuesday the boy is having the repair surgery. He is doing better than mom and dad at this point. Most of the team is treating him great, but there are a few on the team that need to grow up a bit. (That is a mom opinion there).
While the boy and the husband were at the clinic on Saturday I occupied my time with knitting my sock (and laundry). There is one little spot where I lost my mind while knitting and purling, but it adds texture, that is my story. NK gave me the pattern for the teddy bear half sweater and ASJ went with me to get more Kathmandu ( I know I do not need more Kathmandu, but it always seems I do). So I am all set for surgery on Tuesday, I can work on my socks, mittens for MMT's swim pal or the newest sweater project. That should keep my mind occupied so I don't worry too much (CB has helped me through the depression and anger phases of this whole ordeal). However, the injury has over shadowed the real issue----I have to go back to work on Tuesday, 3 days of in-service and then the kids arrive on the 4th. Yikes, my knitting time will be severely affected! But the notion of going back to work is taking a back seat to getting the boy through surgery and rehab. What a way for him to start out his senior year!

I must think I am on the Island

Truly, I must be living in la-la land. For the past 3 days I have "taken the afternoon off" and knit. I hurry to get my mom stuff done in the morning, so I can sit on the sun porch and knit all afternoon. I have concentrated on the green and tan mittens I started and ripped out on the Island. They are now down, thumbs and all (man do I hate thumbs). So now I will have warm hands this winter and they will look great with my tan coat. I plan to work on my sock until I get my next project started, the teddy bear sweater that NK made.

MMT is at her very first high school swim meet in Stevens Point. It is a relay meet and not worth the drive to Stevens Point to spend 5 or 6 hours to watch her swim a leg in a relay. They have a big relay meet here next Saturday, that is good enough. We are off to Carson park for the football scrimmage, what a great afternoon for football. My ribs are done, salad is waiting to be put together, corn ready, so everything is all set for the post scrimmage guild dinner.

BTW, GBT has called every day since she moved, she used the gift card from NK for a desk for her room. She is happy to be back in Houghton.

So What do you think?

Sorry this took so long, I felted the bag over a week ago, but getting it done took some time. First there was football, we had the scrimmage on Saturday despite the crazy weather. I came home from the scrimmage and attacked the purse. First I cut the edging off the inside of the purse (under the flap). I re finished it with a whip stitch edge, then I attacked the bottom of the bag. MMT did not like the bowl nature of the bag, so I took some of the bulk out. I stitched the bottom flat. I attached the handle and the button loop. So here it is the final finished product. It looks ok. Not fab, just ok. Needless to say I don't think I will ever try another one of these, it will be a one of a kind.

I took GBT back to Michigan Tech on Monday and Tuesday. I had 10 minutes of happiness while dropping her off, I found that Houghton has a cute little yarn shop. Now I have even more incentive to make the 5 hour drive! I can see GBT and buy yarn. While I was there I bought a pattern "for the good of the guild". It is a fair isle pull over sweater. It may be the 2008 Island project!

Nightmare on Sharon Drive

It all started about a week ago. ASJ, MMT and I went on our mini yarn hop. While I was snooping through yarn stores touching the yarn and dreaming of projects for The Island, MMT found a display project, complete with the pattern. She said, "mom, do you think you can make this?" I said, "sure, no problem." "Really mom, don't try to knit it if it will make you crazy" she said. I like a fool said "I am sure I can do this." Yeah right.

So we proceeded to buy the necessary materials to get started. That night I bragged on the blog how I was going to start a 3rd project, even though I had 2 started already. So off I went, into the unknown. I don't even know where to begin....

I cast on the bottom and followed the instructions and so far so good. The bottom of the handbag was getting bigger and the process made sense. Then came the tricky part, adding the first row of diamonds. I survived that too, although the knitting light was starting to click on, the directions made very little sense and it seemed the number of stitches were off. But some how I muddled through.

Now the fun begins. The first row of diamonds, this is where everything went sour. The directions made no sense (not even to my mechanical engineering student daughter). I tried to knit the diamond as per the instructions, it was lopsided and looked more like something from a Dr. Seuss book. I tried drinking and knitting a diamond (remember the mojito guild meeting??) That did not work any better. Finally on the way to visit UWS, I fudged the math and made a diamond that seemed to work. So I was all set, to finish the body of the purse.

Unfortunately, this thing has a flap, again the directions made little or no sense, except to say it would be floppy and ugly when it was done. You got that right. So I worked on it, until it appears that I have completed the bag, flap, edging and all. The pattern called for an I cord strap, but MMT and I decided to make a mini multi-directional scarf for the handle, lets hope it looks good when felted. So here is the handbag pre-felting, we are off to NK's to felt tomorrow, so stay tuned to see how this episode ends.

PS: MMT had a friend over and she thought it looked more like an over-sized hat, thus the picture.

Aunt Mary

My Aunt Mary lived to be 100 years old. She was a sturdy woman, tall and shy in a bold sort of way. Aunt Mary never had any kids (she said she married too late), but she was a great aunt. We used to visit her and she would let me eat watermelon pickles, she even taught me to make them. The last 20+ years of her life she lived in a senior apartment complex in Frederic, her husband Eric died in the late 1970's and she expected to follow him in just a few years, she lived almost 25 years in her tiny apartment. She lived in her own until she was 99 1/2, when she fell and couldn't get up. We moved her into the care center in Frederic and upon her arrival she took over the spot as "oldest resident". Once she achieved her goal of living to be 100, she waited a respectable 6 months and then quietly joined her beloved Eric. Aunt Mary lives on in our family, not because the husband and I became her chosen caretakers during her later years, but because she was cool. She was a saver, such as she had every napkin from every wedding, funeral and graduation in a drawer (with the lunch menu jotted on the back). She had all sorts of treasures crammed into her little apartment. The reason I bring up Aunt Mary, is that I learned to knit so I could make mittens like my grandmother and Aunt Mary. My grandmother made sure none of us ever had store bought mittens (oh how I wanted those pretty, but not warm store bought mittens). Grandma made us new mittens every year without a pattern (she would just say, here hold up your hand). She used size 1 needles and Red Heart yarn that she bought on sale at the Ben Franklin. I had a flair for losing my mittens, so I got an idiot string. She let me cut the idiot string when I went to college, the mittens dragged in the food in the cafeteria line ( a bit of an issue for both myself and the person behind me in line). I still have 2 pairs of my grandma's mittens. They have become precious mementos of my childhood. But Aunt Mary, she could knit these pretty 2 color mittens with beautiful designs. My grandmother never even attempted them. I always wished Aunt Mary would knit me a pair, but as she aged her eyesight failed and she had to give up all her needlework and knitting. When we moved her out of her apartment, I found these beautiful mittens. I doubt Aunt Mary used a pattern for these, aren't they beautiful? I tucked them away in my "Aunt Mary" box. (I did not know how to knit when she gave them to me.) This weekend was basement cleaning (need I even say YUCK?) But I pulled out my Aunt Mary boxes and look what I found. I have learned to knit and I love to knit mittens (perhaps it is genetic?). I doubt mine will ever be as perfect and beautiful as Aunt Mary's, so I will keep trying.

Wednesday afternoon yarn hop

ASJ and I had the best yarn adventure today. ASJ has pulled a CT and is running out of yarn on her current project. So I felt I should go with her, since she helped me this spring while I was in crisis. We left shortly after noon for Borealis Yarns in St. Paul, as an added treat MMT decided to join us. ( I am such a proud mom, her first yarn adventure!). I did not know until we go on the road that we had to (or should I say got to) stop at the Yarnery for CB. (yippee, they have Koigu). $65.00 later (I bought yarn for 2 pairs of socks, this from the woman who was only going to knit one more pair of socks, 2 pairs ago). We moved on to Borealis Yarns to find the yarn AJ needed, they only sort of had what she needed, so they sent us to 3 Kittens. (this is becoming a yarn hop) 3 Kittens did have something that will work, not perfectly, but with a little ASJ creativity it will work in a pinch. Off to Color Crossing in Roberts! They were able to help ASJ even more, so the entire trip was a total success!!! How fun for a 1/2 day adventure? We even stopped at the Baldwin DQ, and filled up on less expensive MN gas ($2.83 a gallon---and I think that is reasonable compared to $3.14 here) and made our yarn delivery to CB by 6pm. What an afternoon.
Now I am going to start a new project (NK are you proud of me--I have 2 projects going and going to start a 3rd). MMT had me buy a pattern and yarn for a felted bag.

PS: We checked and the hop is on for this fall--probably the first weekend in Oct. Mark you calendars now girls.

Bon Jovi!!!

It is 11:30pm on Saturday night and I just got home from BON JOVI!!! My dear Guild friend CB gave me a ticket to see Bon Jovi. GBT and I had a wonderful time and I will be forever in her debt for such kindness.
PS: Since we had to get there so early to get decent seating, I had time to knit on my socks. I bet I was the only person there knitting!

Fashion Show

I finally got someone to take pictures of my finished projects. The 2nd top down cardigan. I used a worsted weight variegated yarn I got at Threade Bear during the closing sale.

The KPS hooded vest. I used Cascade 109 I got at Pine Needles in Cable Wisconsin.

Finally the Koigu socks, my first pair of Koigu socks. The Harlot is right, if you are going to knit socks, Koigu is the best.

Send Me Back!

I arrived home on Sunday after two weeks at the lake (whimper). I want to go back. I am still trying to acclimate to working. UGH!

Two weeks was lovely, the weather was not the best at times (another tree fell after sustained winds of 40 to 50 miles per hours), the water was not the warmest (cold north east wind). But it was vacation. I was not at work. I am tan (fading fast unfortunately) and stressed.

Not much knitting at the lake. Yarn and sand (not so much). I did knit on my socks (both pair), read extensively, (Gregory Maguire, "Mirror Mirror" and "Lost"). Don't bother with "Lost." Bad book, very, very bad book. Mirror Mirror was only slightly better. "The Navigator" by Clive Cussler, "The Boleyn Inheritance" by Philippa Gregory.

I did miss my friends/guilders immensely! We really need a night out on the town soon. Before school starts as soon as we all get back in the same city! How about August 27 we go out to eat and such . . .

GOOD NEWS . . . the furniture arrived after five long months! So far so good. I love it. I did go out and buy some new drapes (clearance) and a new drapery rod. Sadie Blue got a new bed (to keep her off the new furniture) and she likes it. Of course that might have something to do with the fact we all keep tossing treats on it willy nilly (CT hope the pups are feeling better).

Back to laundry. . . we still have many, many loads to go!

Dumb Knitter

Good thing there wasn't an IQ requirement for the Guild. I would never have made the cut. Even if the bar were set real low, I'm sure my IQ is lower. So, here's the problem: I have run out of yarn, with only 1 cuff and neck finishing left on my top-down V-neck sweater made out of the pretty pink varigated yarn. The one that I've knit and re-knit several times? Yeah that's the one. And that's only part of the problem. The other part is this: I have no idea what kind of yarn it is, as I can't find the label anywhere, nor do I even remember where I purchased this yarn. (I'm sure it was on one of our yarn adventures, but we adventured into many yarn shops) So, I figure my best option is to cut off my right hand. Oh wait, then I can't knit. Perhaps I could tear out several inches from the bottom of the sweater, making it into a very short sweater like the teenage girls wear, and that would look darn good on me. Well, I have time to ponder this problem as I've taken a little vacay from knitting, since I have poison ivy on my knitting hand and it's driving me nuts. Dumb AND crazy. Quite the combo.

Good days and bad days

That what you get, good days and bad days, today I had both wrapped up into one. Let's start with the good. At 10am I met 3 of my teacher friends at Borders, I taught all 3 of these women to knit this year, and what good students they are. They are already felting and knitting top down sweaters. I did not even attempt my first top down sweater until this year! Sheesh. Anyway, today they all wanted to learn 2 color mittens (fair isle knitting). Now a couple of years ago when NK came up with this hair brained idea, I was the chick who kept saying "I can't to this, I can't do this", but actually I can and I enjoy it. They all decided to knit the January mitten. They all caught on to the purl cast on and the 2 rows of braided purling in the cuff. When we ended out session all 3 were 5 or 6 rows in to the cuff and really doing quite well. We are meeting again on Aug. 1 to share our projects.

Now on to the bad part of the day. It actually started yesterday. Even though I told the boy no, he took the dogs to Lowes Creek to play. The 3 of them played and had fun all afternoon, except Reggie came home limping. So I did the reasonable thing and gave him baby aspirin and put him on the heat pad. When he was no better this morning the husband and I agreed he needed to see the vet. I could hear the little credit card machine in my brain before we even got there, cha ching. It turns out Reggie has blown his ACL. Yes, my dog has a sports injury. Go figure?!?! The sort of good news is he is under 30 pounds, so surgery is not the first course of treatment. Rest and limited activity is the treatment for now. (Didn't I have one on bed rest just a couple of weeks ago???). If in 6 weeks, he is not 100% then surgery is the treatment plan ($1400.00 surgery!!). So far in July I have spent $ 625.00 at the vet. That is a whole lot of yarn money spent on the furry members of the family. I wonder if I can flex this? It is a health care expense---right?

857 miles

857, that is how many miles I put on GBT'S Honda CRV this weekend.
Friday I left for Toad Lake (just shy of 300 miles). I stayed Friday night with Uncle Gene and Aunt Ernie, we had a lovely happy hour on the shores of Toad Lake, took a walk, watched the Twins game and visited (even though I had just seen them). Saturday Aunt Ernie and I played, we canoed, took the boat out for an hour and a half and took a long walk. Then I left Toad Lake for Fargo (80 miles) to meet up with my cousin MaryKay. We then headed off to Jamestown ND (100 miles) to watch her son in law ride broncos in a rodeo. We got home about 11pm. MMT and I got up this morning, drove from Fargo to Grand Forks, collected the boy from UND Aerospace camp and proceeded to drive home.
Friday: 5 hours in car
Saturday 5 hours in the car (1. 5 driving 3.5 passenger)
Sunday: 8 hours in the car (7 driving 1 passenger)
The poor little CRV!

NK: Have fun at Family camp, we will miss you and look forward to seeing you at church next Sunday.
CB: Welcome home from The Island, I yelled at the girl as we drove past your house, I hope I did not scare her!
ASJ: We need to get together to compare vests and to discuss the merits of UND (not!).

Aslo, were we in some sort of violation of Guild bylaws? Can we legally go so long between meetings and doesn't our bylaws state that a majority of the membership needs to be in the same state at all times? We have been pretty spread out the last few weeks!

A little bit of heaven

I am back again! I drove to Green Bay for a quick 24 hour visit with my friend. She was in my wedding all those years ago and we have stayed in touch. We crammed as much as we could into a short visit. The best part was lunch at Curly's Pub (sans a cold beverage) in Lambeau Field. Even though I did not enjoy the drive there and back, it was fun to see her.

Since I lack motivation to do anything around my house, I finished the Koigu socks. I will post a picture of them soon. Back to the top-down-hooded-vest.

Toad Lake and beyond......

We are back, but when I say we I mean only the husband and I. We left 2 of our children in North Dakota. Our vacation to Toad Lake, MN was wonderful. I can't remember the last time that we had such nice weather. Day after day of 80+ degree weather. Perfect for floating. And we spent a lot of time floating. My uncle's birthday was once again very fun. 7 of his 9 children were there to share it with him. On the 3rd and the 4th we had over 30 people for dinner, that is probably the best part. (Although if I can whine a bit, it seems to be the same 2 to 3 people cook and clean up for all the people---but I digress.) GBT arrived late on the 4th, which was great. Over all, the food, weather, fireworks and floating were wonderful. There were only a couple of glitches....there are not words to describe my cousin's new bf Chuck, lets just say that he and his tattoos defies description. My icky cousin from 'Vegas showed up on Friday afternoon and the husband and I got into an argument as to who got to throw up first, that is how bad she, her husband and 2 nasty children are. But it was the last day at Toad Lake, we stayed numb (if you get my drift) and got through it.
We left Toad Lake yesterday morning to head for Grand Forks ND. We dropped the boy off at UND for his week at aerospace camp. We got him settled in the dorm and hit the road for WI. 7 hours later we finally arrived. We hit that weekend traffic just outside of St. Cloud. UGH! It took us over 2 hours to get from St. Cloud to the 694/494 split. The pay back game as we hit the other side of I94 and saw the traffic coming from WI. It was backed up to Baldwin! But we are home now and I get the pleasure of doing a weeks worth of vacation laundry. But I am home alone and what could be better than that after a week of people everywhere.
So much time was spent floating, playing cards and consuming cold beverages, that I did not knit much, very little in fact. I turned the heel on the second sock, but that was all. 9 hours in the car yesterday and not a stitch knit. I was too spent from the vacation.
Here is the best part----I get to make the same trip this weekend. I have to go back to pick up MMT from the horse farm and the boy from UND. Someone pray for me!

Only one in town

I am the only Chick in town. It is very empty without my fellow chicks around. I do not even feel like knitting, but I shall for the sake of the guild. I do not want to let them down. I also have had an expensive weekend. New brakes on one car and a new radiator on the big buffalo van. There goes my yarn money...... Hopefully the guild will be back together and knitting in my back yard jiffy quick!

It is always something

With any luck I will wake up in Toad Lake MN tomorrow. It is not the end of the earth, but you can see it from there. But you know how it goes, it is always something. Today it was the dog, Dax. When I left for soccer last night (btw they won 6-1) Dax just seemed to be in a cuddly mood. When I got home at 10:30 the husband and GBT were very concerned about his health. He was apparently in quite a bit of pain. So first thing this morning I called the vet. After a 2 hour $375.00 visit, we brought Dax back home. He has a form of Lymes disease that causes an inflammation in the joints, it has settled in Dax's lower back. Between 3 of his discs he has calcification and that is bad. He is on 3 different meds, no stairs or jumping for 2 weeks. Try telling a shitztsu that he can't jump. This back issue is something he will have the rest of his life and could cause him major problems. I feel sorry for the little guy as he lays in his bed in a drug induced haze (probably thinking of light blue sweaters and shiny credit cards---oh wait that was me)

Despite that little complication and expense we are about 80% packed and ready to leave for Toad Lake. See you Guild girls after the 4th.

Tomorrow

Here's hoping this will be my sunrise. Chicks off in many directions for the next several weeks. Family vacations and trips. May we all travel safely there and back, and have a wonderful time with our families! See you soon.

Bon Jovi

So Bon Jovi is coming to Country Jam. When I heard this I got really excited and thought, oh this year we will get tickets and go. I was jumping up and down to tell the husband about Bon Jovi coming to the big EC town. He said, oh huh. I will go if I have to. So since then I have been resigned to the fact that Bon Jovi will be in town and I won't get to see him. So today MMT and I were running some errands. I was listening to the radio, but clearly not actually listening. All of a sudden MMT rifles through my purse to find my cell phone. She hurriedly dials the number for I94, "mom I am going to win us VIP tickets for Bon Jovi!" she exclaimed. She must have dialed the number 52 times before the nice person at the radio station said " we are on the line with the winner now". I turned up the radio to hear what lucky person had won VIP tickets to Bon Jovi.
The DJ was talking to the winner and asked if she was excited to see Johnny Rivers at the No. Wisc. State Fair. Johnny Rivers! Who in their right mind would want to see Johnny Rivers??? What if we had won----Yikes. Thanks goodness crisis averted there.

Oh, right, this is a knitting blog, not a blog about my children. I have tried to work on the Koigu sock the last couple of days. The second one (which is going as slow as the first one) is striping very different than the first. I am starting to wonder if I "pulled a Harlot" and grabbed 2 different hand-painted skeins of Koigu.

Right, Privilege or Obligation?

Is applying sunscreen a right, privilege or obligation? I checked with Webster's dictionary and I believe it is an obligation. An obligation we should not take lightly or be hostile about. Something we must do and unfortunately, do well. Because if we don't.........

Let's just say that now I may have lost the privilege to apply sunscreen independently, just like NK. We took the boat out yesterday for the 1st time this summer. It was a beautiful day on Lake Wissota (although I did not get to spend much time actually in the boat, I spent 3 1/2 hrs of the day in the blazing sun on the sand bar---perhaps I should stop there, I am still quite cranky about the whole affair) the kids enjoyed tubing and the day in the water. But due to my in ability to apply sunscreen and MMT's inability to apply sunscreen to my back (and the ordeal on the shore) I have several areas that are torched. Oops. So next summer on the Island, CB and ASJ will be quite busy applying sunscreen to NK and I.

After we finaly got home and cleaned up, I did try to knit during an re- run of Deadliest Catch, I was too fried from the day. I put the vest down and dozed off.

Part 3 "Is There an Intersecting Street?"

"Ummm . . . No Tim, there is no intersecting street. We are on an ISLAND with a view of the lake. There is only one road running in front of the cabin!"

In true Lake Superior fashion, a fast and furious storm blew in on Sunday after noon. OMG. Chaos ensued. Let’s see. Gee, it looks like a storm is coming. I am not too worried because when a bad storm is coming, Cousin Buddy puts he vehicles in the garage. His vehicles are out. Hmm . . . getting a little windy. I will call Ron; have him check the radar for me, see how long this is going to last. Then it hit. The worst storm I have ever experienced on the island. Yikes . . While on the phone, “Ron trees are falling; pray they don’t hit the vehicle. There goes another tree. Are you checking the radar? Check it faster! There goes another tree. Put The Girl on the computer (our 14 year old daughter) she is faster on the computer!” I should mention I was shouting into the phone at this point. (The photo was taken from inside before the storm hit, please note it is not a setting sun, it is 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon).

CT . . . “CB you have to look at this, there are trees all over down here in the back, trees are falling.” I should mention that CT was racing from one end of the cabin to the other looking out windows watching trees fall as though Paul Bunyan was waving his mighty axe.

ASJ . . . “Okay ladies I think we all need to get into the hallway where there are no windows and assume the position.” Yeah right . . . we all ignored her and ordered her to grab the chocolate, the yarn and go to the hallway by herself. She ended up opening the peanut M&M’s (my choice) as the melee of the storm swirled around us. Annie also was the one who noticed that it was raining so hard (horizontal I might add) that the rain was shooting in under the door in the back hall. NK and ASJ threw towels down and kept the flood waters at bay.

NK . . . The quiet one said nothing too much. She watched as the rest of us raced around and ate M&M’s. She looked and nodded as she went from window to window following CT. She very quietly helped Annie wipe up the water.

Storm over . . . As you can see we have a situation. The cabin is surrounded by trees (we may have to re-evaluate that) and no there is no way out. BTW did I mention that this particular tree also took out the power? ACK! Yeah, now what. Three phone calls to the power company (we did manage to get Tim twice), and a very nice man stopped by and said “the line is dead you can cut up the tree.” Umm, that would be a 50 foot tree lying across the driveway. By this time Cousin Buddy’s chain saw blade had broken. Yeah, right. Good thing we have food because we could be here for awhile. Next thing I know while I am conferring with Buddy, and CT and NK are down the road watching the Power Man trying to get the trees off the lines farther down the road, ASJ, our intrepid little friend had wandered down the road a little farther and found another Hero in our midst. Our new best friend Tony Sackett. Tony’s line of work is trees, and the removal there of. “Sure no problem I can have that cut up for you in no time!” (I should mention that Cousin Lorraine needs to be nicer to Tony, her neighbor. Tony was a Good Samaritan in the truest sense of the term.) Tony cut up the tree, we hauled it off (mostly CT & NK, they were awfully good sports about the whole thing) and WaLa . . . we were free (still no power). No I know that this sounds like this went fairly quickly. Not so much. We are talking hours, storm was at 1:00 in the afternoon, and tree removal was at about 6:30 or so. We then went straight to town and the bar. Had a couple of drinks and nachos and went back to the dark cabin. Sat in the porch and waited. The trucks finally came, and by 12:05 a.m. had power. And I should note that the young man who went up the pole had a very fine booty.

And so ends our trip . . . we did leave early Monday morning. I did not even try the pump again. (My friends were awfully good sports about the whole storm thing, they had to use the out house. And are looking forward to going to the cabin again next year! ) We did stop at Pine Needles on the way home and the Dairy Queen in Hayward. As we now as we contemplate our next trip, we will just have to sit and knit in NK’s new backyard!

NK the needle felter

Look at what NK did!!! The beauty of the bag speaks or itself!!!

Part 2 of the Knitting Retreat

Lupines

The lupines were in full bloom. And this particular hillside was blanketed with them.

Senior Citizen Sex
Let it be known that CT does not want to watch movies with Senior Citizen Sex. The movie “Something’s Gotta Give” was not, I repeat, not a hit. Next year we will have to screen all the movies a little more closely. And we will have to finish watching "The Quiet Man." There was a power outage and missed 1/2 of the movie.

Lawnmower Lullaby
Most morning we had our morning knitting session out on the porch. It was beautiful. Sitting in the porch, sunshine, waves lapping at the shore, birds singing. Friday morning the lawn boys showed up to mow. Soon dust was flying, so we decided to eat an early lunch. ASJ stayed out on the porch to knit a bit more. After we had everything on the table CT went to get her and she was sound asleep. It seems that the sound of lawn mowers is very soothing to our friend ASJ and it puts her right to sleep! She slept a little bit and then came and joined us for lunch.

The Frugal Knitter
ASJ’s new nickname. He Indian Name as you may or may not know is “She Who Knit’s Twice.” Due to her propensity to rip and re knit. We decided while she was ripping the sleeve off the pullover AGAIN, she is a Frugal Knitter. If you don’t have much money, just knit it, rip it, and knit it again. This works well for process knitters. However I do feel I should mention that since ASJ did not think that she would be able to gain ten pounds only in her arms, ripping it out did seem to be the correct choice.

To Koigu or Not to Koigu
CT never thought much of the socks she knit. She said it was not her forte so to speak. While on our little day trip to the cities she vowed to knit one more pair of socks, and if it didn’t work she was done with socks. She them proceeded to by sock yarn for two pairs of socks (yeah I know). Any way . . . I convinced her that good sock yarn is a must. “Steph says knit a pair of socks with Koigu.” I say it’s addictive. Sock in progress. She finished it at home yesterday . . . . she loves it. Need I say more?

Alcohol Consumed

Sangria, Parrot Bay Wine Coolers, Margaritas. And all of the knitting still looks good, no gapping holes!

Projects Completed
Annie finished a beautiful pair of socks. I completed a rib warmer! NK ran out of yarn to finish her last two rows of her Teddy Bear Jacket. Not too worry . . . she had more yarn at home! And as soon as it is done it will be on the blog!

Part three . . . tomorrow!