Captain No Fun

Yep, that would be me, Captain No Fun. We went to Action City last night for the end of year party for Club 78 and I knit. I worked on my mittens for almost 45 minutes before and I worked on them there. Everyone else was dashing from the go carts to the bumper cars, but not me. I don't know why, but I just have no interest in those type activities. Strange I know.
I am glad I have the mittens well in hand (oops, no pun intended). I have the thumbs to finish this weekend, that does not take long, so I will be able to deliver them on Monday. Happiness and joy. Perhaps this weekend I can finish up the baby sweater too. 2 of my knitters at school are making the top down baby sweater and loving it. They are excited to move on to bigger projects! Little do they know you knit the baby sweater on a 9 and an adult sweater on a 6. Won't they be surprised!
We have our last middle school band concert tonight, it is bittersweet. But it seems that all of my children lack a certain amount of talent in the musical department.
Onward to the thumbs, I can probably get one done before the concert!

Camera Out of Commission

Thank God for CT. Otherwise the Chicks would be "blogless." A little too overwhelmed to blog and the camera is not working correctly. For whatever reason. It appears I can view the photos on the stick, but to actually take a photo, all I see is black with some lines running thru it.
On to the knitting front. The dreaded "Pink Cardigan" is complete. Ends woven in and blocked last Thursday, so The Girl could wear it on Friday evening to the "Fine" concert (who were very fine by the way). On Friday ASJ said I could not complain about the yarn anymore because The Girl looked beautiful in it (I do concur). The Girl is a touch Bohemian, as is the sweater. Wish I had a photo! She also wore it to church on Sunday, and to school yesterday. Here is the kicker.

The Girl "It is so beautiful Mom."
The Mom "Yes it is, I am so glad you like it."
The Girl "It looks like a really expensive sweater you would buy at a store."
The Mom "Really, I am so glad you are over the moon with it."
The Girl "It looks like it would cost at least $50 in a store."
The Mom . . . speechless (not necessary in a good way)

On the needles. Claudia Handpaint sock yarn "Story Days. Pattern from my Interweave Sock Book, Cable Rib Socks, by Erica Alexander. The leg and instep of these socks are ribbed and decorated with a single cable at each side. I Love This Pattern!

Caught in the act!

Can you even believe this one! I sometimes sneak and check the blog at school. I do not post, but sometimes I would check it to see if anyone had posted. One day last week out of sheer boredom, I logged on and posted a comment. Now the blog is blocked to me at work. How in this age of all sorts of computer issues could they catch me so fast? Now I have to wait until I get home to check the blog. :(

On the knitting front, I am through the thumb on the LEFT mitten (and I did indeed make a left mitten) and on the palm. If I work hard tonight after I walk the dogs I may get these mittens done so I can move onto something else soon.

Island Planning (food): The husband has graciously agreed to make his braised ribs for the Island, I think in the salad front I may try to make (his) chicken tortellini salad. I also have a chipotle spread I plan to bring!

Island Planning (knitting/yarn): ASJ we need to get together and order our yarn!

The BIG day

Ok, so the big wedding is over, what a weekend it was!
Friday night the rehearsal dinner went great, we went to Deb's about 5 and got everything started. We had the Nescos all fired up and we were hitting on all cylinders. We served about 37 people including us, the 1.5 rule led to a fair amount of food left over, but better to have too much than run out. We got lots of compliments and no one developed stomach cramps, so it must have been ok.
The big day arrived and what a day it was. I got MMT off to ref her soccer games and I prepared myself for my 10:00 manicure. Meanwhile, the husband found a car he thought was suitable for GBT, so he spent his morning test driving and researching. After my mani, I wanted to take MMT to get her mani and pedicure at the joint by Borders (she missed hers on Thursday because of the whole urgent care visit). It is at that point the boy (hewhoskipsschool---another story entirely) wants (yep I typed an S) to go shopping for shorts for the summer. What now? MMT and I need to prep for big wedding. I dropped MMT off, paid for her manicure and pedicure, zipped out to the dealership to sign off on the new used car purchase for GBT and then back to Kohl's. By this time, MMT is nearly done, the boy assures me it will take him 5 minutes. Yikes, his 5 minute trip was actually 24 minutes. He got 4 pair of shorts and 8 shirts in 24 minutes, which is something like 1 item every 2 minutes, which on any other day would be impressive, but not on the day of the big wedding. Anyway, $127.00 later we are trying to find MMT to pick her up, after wandering and waiting, she decided to call her dad to rescue her!
Once I was home again I remembered that MMT wanted me to sew fake ribbon straps to her dress, so off to Thompson's True Value (one stop shopping). At 2:30 I am sewing the fake straps on her dress, at 3 I begin the process of beautifying for the big wedding. At 3:3o after ransacking my jewelry box (that is a totally misnomer--should be junk box) I realize I have nothing that really will match the new dress, I never did get out to buy new jewelry. This was a problem. The husband convinced me to wear a blue topaz necklace he gave me and in my mind it was green.
Onward to makeup. Remember we are in the middle of a very long drawn out bathroom remodel. The countertop is lost (again another long story) so our bathroom is a wreck at best. The mirror is an old 8 x 10 mirror the husband had in his college dorm room. And I am supposed to beautify with that! I pulled what little make up I own together to see what could be done. I have 4 things of concealer, but not a speck of mascara or lip stick. What grown woman does not own a tube of lipstick? I did the best I could and hoped no one took my picture.
I grabbed my new green shoes and downstairs I went to rally the troops to make sure we are in the car headed for church by 3:40. I slipped my right shoe on, then my left. Yikes! My right shoe is an 8 1/2 and the left an 8. In my haste on Tuesday to buy shoes and get to my tanning, I only tried on the right shoe. I gimped (or should I say limped) through the wedding (thank goodness for Lutheran weddings--22 minutes) and on our way to the reception we stopped and I exchanged my 8 for and 8 1/2.
The reception was beautiful and the food delicious, the only thing, they had the AC on, so it was warmer outside than in, so no one wanted to go inside, we all huddled outside for warmth. We danced a bit, and had a fun time, we were home by midnight. But now my big day is over, other than the Island, I have nothing to look forward to. Since I drained the savings account on a new dress, shoes, tanning, pedicure and manicure, I won't have very much money for yarn for the Island, but somehow, I think if I get into my stash, I will have enough for the trip.
Oh, this is a knitting blog, now that the big wedding is over I can get back to knitting. Speaking of which, I think I will do that now.

Stress

Here we are T-2 and counting for the big wedding. I got different shoes and my current handbag matches fine, so that is done. I tanned and booked my final appointment. I paid a sinful amount of money for the greatest pedicure I have ever had. All systems are go.
Until today.
Yep, I got the call every mother dreads. Hi, this is south middle school, your daughter MMT has been injured and will need stitches. Now! Today, you don't understand, I have a tanning appointment and 12 racks of ribs waiting to be baked.
So off we go to urgent care, 1 hour and 20 minutes later her knee is cleaned and bandaged. Stitches were necessary, but given the location of the wound, not an option. So we are bandaged and going to have a nasty scar (scars actually) on her knee. Just in time to wear a dress to the big wedding. Neat.

T.S.T.K.

T.S.T.K.
An acronym for "To Stupid to Knit." Honestly, I am surprised that the Knitting Police have not come to my home and stripped me of my needles, yarn, totes, etc. But I digress. Let’s look at the problem at hand a little more closely shall we.

We will ignore the fact that said knitter has been under extreme pressure from a source within the household to finish said dreaded cardigan. "Can I wear it tomorrow?" Has been asked of said knitter for the last FIVE DAYS. She has persisted in asking even though she has been informed ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, that 1) the sleeves must be finished; 2) the neckline must be finished; 3) the tie must be finished; 4) ends woven in; and last but not least 5) it must be blocked. I believe that it is a real testament to my patience that I have not sold her to wandering gypsies.

Moving on, I finished the sleeves on Monday evening. I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself. The end was in sight. Tuesday morning, despite that fact that I showered, attended to the children, the dog, gave one child a ride to school, normal early morning activities, I managed to pick up the stitches along the neckline. I have been knitting on this since October people. I was thrilled. Went home for lunch, ate quickly, let the dog out, turned on the TV to watch the Harlot on Knitty Gritty (there was not a blank tape in the house, but that is another story) sat down to knit and watch. Started watching (she was wonderful, did you know 1) she has a dimples and 2) she sounds like she slams down whiskey straight out of the bottle.) I started knitting. Each time I came to the end of one row, it did not look right (that should have been a clue). Mind you, each time I came to that end, try as I might, it did not look correct, I tried picking up more stitches, still it did not look correct. The clock is ticking, Knitty Gritty is winding down, the Harlot was still be funny and wonderful. I then laid out the cardigan on the cedar chest to look at what should have been a completed neckline. NOT. It seems that in my excitement and the usual morning confusion, I had not picked up all of the stitches. There were at least 14 more from the top of the sleeve down to the garter ridge band!

So tonight, after supper, and a choral concert at Delong, I came home put on my comfy clothes, put the Deadliest Catch on and proceeded to RIP OUT the neckline. T.S.T.K.

Lock me up and throw away the key!

When the men with white coats show up to take me away, I will go quietly, I promise.

When I was leaving for work on Friday morning I noticed a package in front of the garage. The Fed Ex man had been here some time on Thursday, we were all too busy with Renaissance at South to realize there was a package outside all night. Inside the box was MMT's dress for the big wedding. So last night she tried it on, it was TOO SMALL. The whole reason we paid $9 to have it shipped here from Green Bay was fact that the 3 was too small and the 7 too big. The 5 was so tight I could not zip it!!! What is up with that? So today after the Farmers Market (with CB) MMT and I trekked off to the mall to return the dress. Just to humor myself I held the 3 and 5 together, they were the same exact size. The sales clerk was like "wow" here is your money back. Sorry. Sheesh give me a break. After a brief yelling match between MMT and I, I convinced her we needed to venture back into the scary mall and find her a dress. She went, not willingly, but she went.
We found a HUGE sale at JC Penney's. All dresses 50% off. Lo and behold we BOTH found dresses! Now this presents a big problem. Remember I all ready have a dress that I have bought matching shoes and jewelry and lost weight to fit into. Yep, I am completely insane. But in my defense, the new dress has green in it!!! :)
Now I have to dash off to Payless and find new shoes and hand bag. (I suppose I probably should not tell you that I took back the original jewelry and handbag before I found the new dress.) It is my hope that the Guild will adhere to our bylaws and visit the crazy member in the funny farm.

I won!

Whew, it was rough, but I wrestled the computer away from the boy long enough to check the blog! Yeah me!
We have a wedding on April 21, let me tell you getting the old body in shape for this wedding is a lot of work. First there was the quest for the dress. I am caught in this nexus zone. I am not young (at heart maybe with a little help from Clairol) and I am not in a wheelchair, so finding a dress was nearly impossible. I complicated the issue by buying a dress that was slightly too small, thus adding the pressure of losing a few pound before the wedding. (Goal accomplished!)
Next I had to find shoes, not too high, not too casual, not too expensive. After 3 stops, that mission as too been accomplised. Onward to handbags. Finding a handbag to match the shoes. Yikes. $28.00 I don't spend $28 on a handbag I use every day! Next stop??? Jewelry. Again, something that looks nice and does not cost an arm and a leg and will match the dress and shoes. I don't think I am cut out for all this.
The worst part is getting the old bod in shape for this affair. In addition to the weight problem, I felt the need to tan so I don't look like a dead smelt that washed up on the Lake Superior shore line. So 3 times per week for the last 2 weeks (and until the 20th) I have to shelp myself to tan. I had my hair cut, I will save some dough this weekend and color it myself. I still have to get my pedicure and manicure before the wedding (the appointments are all ready made). This is worse that the stinking prom!!!
Did I mention that daughter #2 needed a dress for said wedding? That is a story in itself. For all I know, the boy and the husband will arrive at the wedding naked. I have spent all my energy and the family savings on getting myself ready!
Knitting, who has time for knitting when we are at t-2 weeks to the wedding!

Easter is done!!!

I have made it past Easter and the Easter Brunch for one more year. Really is not that hard, just difficult to judge as to how many people will be present to eat our meal. The kids worked hard and was nice to have my girls KMK, KAK, and SSK there to help me out and do it willingly. I am really lucky to have them. After Easter dinner KMK and her boyfriend emptied the dishwasher for me. Then I went and took a nap. When I got up and went to the kitchen the dishwasher was loaded with all the dirty dishes and was all cleaned up. KMK went to a movie and they came back with a big bag of movie popcorn for me. What a way to suck up to the girlfriends mom. There is nothing better than movie popcorn!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and the easter bunny brought lots of goodies!!!

Just another day at the looney bin

I really meant to get to this yesterday, but you know how that goes. What a long week it has been, even though it was a short one for me. The natives were really restless this week, I was told by one of my charges that I lacked the people skills necessary to be the greeter at Wal-mart. Yikes, after this week, I fear he may be right. Today, the only thing that prevented me from writing out more lunch detentions was that I ran out of the forms. Long week, I think so. So as I was feeling all sorry for myself I thought I would treat myself to the Yarn Harlot's blog. After reading her post from the 4th, I no longer feel sorry for myself and if she can find humor (or humour as she spells it) in her day, I can too. However, I have yet to figure out what were funny parts of my week.
I managed to get the black and white mittens cast on, but that is about all. I am almost done with the body of the baby top down, this baby stuff is too cool, it goes so fast. There won't be much knitting for me this Easter weekend, end of quarter and I have grades due. So I will just think about and talk about knitting with my knitter friends while preparing the Easter breakfast for church.
The bathroom is textured, primed and painted a lovely shade of ice blue. Next up: the floor. Still no word on the tops for the cabinets.
Happy Easter everyone!

Holy Week + A Cold = No knitting

or ( = Knitting + Errors)
or (= Knitting +/= Bad Judgement)

Holy Week (I work for a church) plus a cold (first one all season long, figures it would come Holy Week). Not ideal knitting circumstances. Okay I did not take Nyquil and knit. That is just a bad combination. Not unlike knitting and margaritas, and we all remember how that turned out. Also, I did not attempt to knit on the dreaded pink cardigan, (so far so good, I am closing in on finishing that puppy off and I do not want to mess it up now). So I decided I needed to knit something. Felted bag for the island . . . because we are going to practice needle felting. I looked at the pattern, thought it seemed a little too small, I will make it bigger. This where I think my whole problem started. I cast on way too many stitches. And now after knitting approximately at least 8 to 10 inches, I have decided that I was delusional with a high fever with how many stitches I needed. No black hole here (refer to Harlot Book). So now I am going to have to rip the whole bloody thing. Either that or felt a bag large enough to be a bed for Miss Sadie. There is not enough hot water in the world to felt it down. Next cold, no knitting at all.

To knit or eat bread with cheese?

While lunching at Cafe Latte on Saturday with the Guild the discussion came up. (CB and I were sharing the salad sampler and spead platter--yum!) As we discussed, planned and dreamed of our trip to the Island, the dicussion turned from knitting ( fav topic #1) to food ( fav topic #2). We came to the conclusion that what more in life do you need than knitting, cheese and bread? We could survive on the Island for weeks if we had both. Also, you can participate in both activities at the same time (unlike knitting and drinking!).
As for knitting, the green top down is done. I cheated and wore it to church today even though it is not blocked. But I wanted to wear it once before the weather turned nice (spring is coming right?). I did not cast on the mittens I need to make for a friend at school, but I did cast on a top down baby sweater. It is making me wonder, why don't we just knit baby stuff? I am on my 2nd ball of yarn, the sweater is 1/2 done and who cares if it is running big, babies grow! How fun is that?
I pulled out my new sock yarn and I am again optimistic that I can become a sock knitter.

The husband worked on the bathroom most of the day, the walls are now textured and ready for primer. The cabinets are here and beautiful, the tops, are not. This week we are planning to prime and paint. Wish us luck!

Let me run my fingers thru your fibers Baby!

Oooooh! Words cannot express. But I will give it the old college try.

Coffee at Starbucks before we leave rainy Eau Claire. Happy B-Day Annie & Mom.

Color Crossing: Wonderful little yarn store in Roberts. Who knew. Totally do able trip from EC. Lots of yarn. A totally delish purple color of Katmandu (we did not let CT buy it). A lovely book selection. I picked up Interweave Press new sock book. What fun. Wonderful patterns.

Cafe Latte: The MN people were hiding in their warm dry homes to we got a Kick A** parking spot (yeah CT). Lunch at the GA Cafe, always delightful. I wish they would share their recipes.

The Yarnery: Two doors down from the GA Cafe. Koigu! I only left with three skeins of Koigu in what would call a very vibrant color. BUT . . . they had Fleece Artist Sock Yarn. WOW. I could not decide what color to get, I finally decided on a beautiful moss green.

Borealis Yarns: (St Paul) A new store for us. We were totally psyched (attached coffee shop). The first thing I spotted as we entered was a basket full of Cherry Tree Hill Sock Yarn. I fell to my knees in wild abandon. Then as I was up to my arms in sock yarn, one of the sales people very casually mentioned that if I went to the back room there would be a whole wall of sock yarn! Be still my heart. Throwing caution to the wind I literally ran to the back room and low and behold. A whole wall of sock yarn. I would like to mention that it really was a joyous experience to stand there with my cup of coffee and fondle yarn. I picked up a couple of skeins of Claudia Hand Painted Sock Yarn. The sales girls were lovely, and encouraged us to go, where we said we would never go again.

Three Kittens: Under new ownership! Wow what a transformation. We will definitely go back there again. More Koigu in an awesome green speckled color. The color I really wanted they only had one skein of, but they gladly took my order and will send it to me post haste when the shipment arrives. The yarn was neat and orderly and was their book section. Unbelievable. I can't believe it was the same shop.

Next cities trip "Depth of Field Yarn." And we check on something called the Yarn Garage . . .