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?