PITA

I'm waiting for my daughter to come home. It's about a three and a half hour drive. She probably has less than two hours to go. That drive is a PITA (pain in the ass). It's long and boring. I've done it many times myself. I'll be so glad to have her home for the weekend. And safe.

Here are some other things that are a PITA:

1. Britney Spears. Why oh why do we have to hear so much about her? Why won't they leave her alone? So sick of her. I'm not a fan and I don't hate her, I feel sorry for her, but I'm so sick of seeing her face in the news every day. I guess the real PITA is the paparazzi.

2. Hotmail. It's just been a real PITA for days.

3. Insurance. You gotta have it, you pay through the nose for it. But don't make a claim because it will cost you even more money for the damn deductible. House insurance, car insurance and health insurance. We're insured to death but never covered. What a PITA. And that big health insurance company, the first word starts with a B, rhymes with shoe and the first word is a color. They sure talk good in their commercials. But try contacting them for anything or making a claim. Try it. What a PITA.

4. Diesel fuel. OMG, that stuff just stinks. It's more of a PITH (pain in the head) when I smell that stuff. Instant headache.

5. U.S. postal service. What's with them? I mailed something and it took 8 days to get there. First class mail. In the U.S. I swear media mail is faster. So they have been a PITA for me lately worrying about that package.

6. This yarn. It bunches and twists and bunches up some more. It's been a real PITA to work with. But yet I keep knitting with it. I'll never use it again.

7. Income cuts. Yikes! That income cut from last spring is still a PITA. So tired of scrambling to pay the bills each month. But at least I have a job.

8. Gas and heating bills. What's with the price of gas? It's going up again. And home heating bills. Too scary to even mention. It's freezing in here, I keep the heat as low as I can stand it and I'm freezing even while wearing extra clothes. It's a PITA to put gas in my car and a PITA to heat my house. It's not even a big house.

9. DVD's. They really are a PITA. I just want to put a DVD in the DVD player and play it. But no, you gotta wait for it to load, then you gotta put up with all that bullshit at the beginning of the DVD, copyright info, etc., no matter how many times you click that menu button you gotta wait for all that crap to go away.

10. Cat puke. Nuff said, just a real PITA.


What are some of your PITAs?

Take Your Downspout to Work Day

We sure had some wicked weather last night and into today. It was freezing cold and I think the wind gusts were up to around 50 MPH. It blew one of my downspouts off the side of my house. I found it laying all cold and lonely in the driveway when I was leaving for work. I tried to fit it back onto the other part of the downspout but it would have no part of it, just couldn't fit the pieces together, it was windy and so cold and dark I said the hell with it and just threw it in my car. It was too cold to do much else with it. So my downspout went to work with me, it got a day on the town. How silly is that? We even went to the gas station. When I got home I managed to work it back onto the other part of the downspout and now all is well with my downspouts again. But it's still cold. Very cold. I have my little space heater on. It's helping to keep me warm today.

I actually cooked dinner today. That's the first in about oh two or three weeks. A real meal that is, not eggs or canned soup or Stouffer's. I made some oven fried chicken and Stove Top stuffing and some corn. It was soooooo good. So while the chicken was cooking I managed to get this fingerless mitten done.

I don't know. I just don't really like it, had so many problems making it. The yarn keeps bunching up, and the pattern is just written so weird, you have to jump all over the place to keep up with it. But I will make the second one and probably send it back to school with my daughter this weekend, she can give it away to a friend. Yes! My daughter is coming home this weekend! I'm excited. I'm looking forward to seeing her. I miss her so much and she misses home a lot.

I received this little beauty yesterday from an on line order I placed. So soft and pretty.

It's not a big ball of yarn, should be just enough for a pair of fingerless mitts. Time to try a new pattern. It's merino and angora. So so soft.

Gotta go clean up the kitchen. One of the pitfalls of cooking . . . dishes. Then I'm on the couch for the night. I'm going to finish season one of Grey's Anatomy that I rented from the library the other night and then American Idol. A good night of couch and tv and knitting!

Snow, snow go away

I finally finished the hat, yay me! I found the pattern on Ravelry, "Palindrome Hat". I used Lion Brand Wool Ease in frosted white, it has little strands of some kind of nylon or something that make it looks "frosty". It feels nice and warm. Here it is (don't you love the cat in the background?):

Now I can move on to something new. I've started another pair of fingerless mitts, I just love them. I want to make them in all kinds of patterns and colors and yarns. A fun quick knit. Here is the latest pair:

This yarn is weird though, it's like "bunchy" for lack of a better word. I don't know if it was spun really loosely or what. I just keep pulling on it to straight it out. But the little mitt feels really soft and I like how it's turning out, so I'll keep soldiering on. It seems to be snowing every day lately. So sick of it. But these little mitts are a bright spot in this LONG winter. I'm going to go visit Mom today and show her what I've made, I bet she wants a pair! That's OK, I'll make them for her, anything she wants, I'm just so glad she's home.

And speaking of winter, I bought these slippers from Avon. Aren't they just so darn cute? I love them, just had to show them off.

The Big Box of Yarn

There it is . . . the big box of yarn! Look at all that yarn. Isn't it gorgeous? Don't you just want to sit and knit 24/7? I do! Where did it come from you ask? One of the readers of this very blog is a former knitter. She has gone on to new pursuits and doesn't have time to knit any longer. She is doing photography (for a yummy cookbook which I can't wait to buy!) and needed the room to store her photography equipment. She offered to send me the yarn and in exchange I would knit her some fingerless mittens. I have mailed the fingerless mittens to her and am hoping they have arrived. I'm so paranoid they will get lost in our wonderful postal system. So, there you have it . . . the story of the yarn. With all that yarn she sent me, I feel like I should send more fingerless mittens, and maybe I will!

Just look at these cute needles! They are for big needle knitting, and they are absolutely adorable.

It's been like Christmas all over again going through this yarn! It's wonderful to know there are some truly generous people out there.

I finally got the fingerless mitts done that I was making for myself. I had put them aside to get the gift mitts done.

Finally, it's Friday Sweet Friday! The work week is done. I stopped at the library on my way home from work and picked up a couple of books and some videos. I got season 1 of Grey's Anatomy. I've recently gotten hooked on that show and I want to see how it started. I'll be knitting and watching videos this weekend. Peaceful and relaxing!

Have a great weekend!

My Sock Disaster

Yes, I've tried socks. Disaster. I tried knitting a sock last spring. It took me forever to get done what I did. Not sure if it was the pattern or I'm a slow knitter, but it took forever for this disaster to get as far as it did. I did the cuff, turned the heel, and once I did that the damn stitches kept sliding off the needle. It was frustrating. I'd pick it up try to fix it, put it away, try again a week or two later. More sliding off the needle. I finally gave up and cut the yarn and put it away. Wanna see it? Here it is, if it was finished it would fit a giant. I put a regular sized sock next to it for visual contrast.

So your either laughing at me or crying with me. This is why I haven't tried socks again.

Moving on. I got this yummylicious yarn in the mail yesterday. I ordered it through Sonny & Shear (link over at the right if you are interested, wonderful customer service!). Look at that turquoise color! Is it gorgeous or what! Can't wait to use it. I've never tried this yarn and am dying to get at it.

The tan one will probably become mittens. Oh the decisions I must make on what to do with this yarn. It's gorgeous.

Playing With Yarn

Brrrrrrrrrr, it was so cold yesterday, so I stayed in all day. All day. Didn't go out once. I only opened the door to grab the newspaper and closed it real fast. This staying in thing was kind of cool. I played with yarn most of the day! I decided to bite the bullet and do some two color knitting. I think it's fair isle? I think two colors is fair isle and more than that is intarsia, or is it the other way around? I did two colors. It took me an hour to knit this little square, I think it's a snowflake.

Just never mind those screwed up knit/purl rows at the top and bottom, it was just to practice working on the colors and . . . reading a chart. Talk about screwing up. Left, right, main color, contrast color, knit, purl, left, right, rip out the row, do over, swear, read left to right, then right to left, and so on, arghhhhhh So I fiddled with it and fiddled with it and finally knit the 13 rows in the little practice chart. That's it . . . 13 rows. Took an hour. But, I did it! I'm sure I didn't hold the strands correctly to do the back as they were quite tangled after a couple of rows, had to untangle them and continue.

Here is how the back looks:

It was a learning experience for sure and I will practice it again. Maybe I can do it in 59 minutes next time. I'm determined to learn this.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

OK, so my son calls me last night to give me the latest update on my granddaughter. It's not cancer, a tumor, no malignant or benign or radiation, nothing like that. Wanna hear what it is? This is so weird . . . she has Cat Scratch Fever. Yep, it's a real disease. They got a new kitty a few months ago and she got scratched by it on her hand and it caused an infection which spread up her arm and caused the nodes or glands or whatever it is in there to swell and look like a tumor. She's been in Children's Hospital for the last few days (don't ya love how I'm updated? grrrrrr). The only way to treat it is with IV antibiotics, no regular oral antibiotics will work. Not sure when she'll be coming home. This is just the strangest thing. Now I can't get that damn Cat Scratch Fever song out of my head. But she's going to be ok and that's all that matters.

I went to a local landmark yesterday, one of the last surviving dimestores. They are going out of business, just had to go and pay my last respects, I love that place! I will sure miss it. They had all kinds of oddities in there, and yarn, mostly the big box brands, but it was so fun to look around in there. I bought these two skeins. They are purple, a beautiful pretty purple, but I just couldn't get the camera to show the beauty of the color.

And next to the dimestore is a bakery. Just had to go in. I just HAD to. I bought these yummy pastries.

mmmmmm, a donut with blueberry fililng, a chocolate and nut and cream filled cannoli and a cherry square. There are no calories if the picture is in black and white! I ate the cannoli this morning. It was so good I think I died and went to heaven.

Such a wonderful treat with coffee on this absolutely frigid freezing good to stay inside and knit kind of day.

Big Box on my Porch

This was on my porch when I got home from work today . . .

Of course I opened it. (Yes, it was addressed to me!) . . .

Lots of goodies inside . . .

Poor little box was so cold on my porch. I couldn't get it into the house fast enough. I am floored by this yarn. I will tell more in a few days. Stay tuned!

It's supposed to be really really cold this weekend. A perfect weekend to stay inside and knit and knit and knit. And I have plenty of yarn to knit with!

I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who have offered your kind thoughts and prayers for my granddaughter. We still don't have any test results back. The waiting is awful. I feel so bad for the poor child. But she's hanging in there. Last summer she wanted to learn to knit, but it was a busy day and I didn't have time to show her. Hopefully all will be well with her arm soon and we can have a girl day of yarn and knitting and I'm sure there will be some lunch involved and Reese's peanut butter cups.

It's always something

Just when things were going well, something had to happen. It just HAD to. My granddaughter has a tumor on her arm. They don't know yet if it's cancer, malignant or benign. All kinds of medical terms floating around my family AGAIN. We just got Mom home. Anyway, granddaughter is 11. She had an MRI which is inconclusive, next is seeing the surgeon, maybe a biopsy, then surgery, and god only knows what. This just phucking sucks. If any of you out there are praying people, please keep her in your prayers.

I finally got IN the yarn store today. Got a parking spot. I just needed one skein of yarn and some DPNs. That's all I got. I don't get paid until Friday so I couldn't buy much. It was fun to touch the yarn and dream. I need to go back next week for some yarn for a swap. I'll go during the week again so I don't have to deal with that itsy bitsy parking lot.

Life's Little Twists and Turns

Did you ever have something happen to you that's just . . . well remarkable? I must be having some good karma lately. I'll write more about this in the future as I am still floored over it.

Anyway, I've been making another pair of Cabled Fingerless Mitts which were from a knit-along I did. This time they are for me! I have one done. It turned out nice and it fits good.

I'm using the Patons Decor I bought the other day when I HAD to have a yarn fix. The colors in the picture don't do it justice.

I bought some little stitch markers from an Etsy shop and they came today. Look at them, they are so hilarious!

How could you not smile when using these? They go up to a needle size 11 (US).

I went to knit day yesterday with my friends from Saline. Kind of a long drive for me, but it was worth it. It's always nice to see those ladies. I got some work done on my hat, which is a good knit and chat knitting project. And tomorrow is my other knitting group, I haven't been there in so long, I'm really looking forward to it.

Postage Stamp Sized Parking Lot

My daughter left to go back to college today. It was so sad. We cried our eyes out. I'm really going to miss her. It was nice having her here for five weeks. Now I have a damn cry headache, can't get rid of it. So, in order to try to cheer myself up I decided to go the the LYS! A real LYS! I haven't gone in a while. I get on the freeway, drive there, and then when I get there I remember . . . tiny microscopic itty bitty parking lot. Nowhere to park. Nowhere. I look on the side street, no parking except way at the end of the block. Circle around again. No one left. Not one dang stupid frikkin' parking space. I didn't feel like parking way down the street. So I said the hell with it, and I left. So Neighborhood Knits if you are reading this, please somehow do something about this lot. This isn't the first time I've had this problem. I decided to drive to Joann's instead, I needed a yarn fix . . . bad. I've been lusting after this yarn for a while . . .



I had a 40% off coupon, so I bought it today. I started another pair of fingerless mitts with it. I just love those things. So cute, and fun to make up and they work up quickly. Perfect kind of project for me. I was happy with my yarn. I also bought a pom-pom maker thingie, as I have a hat in my queue on Ravely to make and it has a pom-pom on it.

I've made some progress on my hat currently on the needles. It's going so slow, I haven't had much knitting time the last few days. I got the cables done and now I'm in the 2 x 2 ribbing. Nice mindless knitting, good to take to knit night.

The hat is called "Palindrome", I found it on the Ravelry site. I can't get a real good picture of it, but can you see all my cables? Yay, I'm done with them now!

Tomorrow I'm going to just sit and knit and get used to the peace and quiet around here again. The silence is deafening.

My 10 Things List

My daughter is going back to school tomorrow, so I've been busy helping her get ready to go back. Not much knitting lately . . . sigh. I miss my needles. Nothing much to write about today so I'm going to do the 10 things weird about me list or whatever it is. Don't know if I'll make it to 10, but I'll try.

1. I love the smell of book stores. I could go in and just breathe deeply for hours.

2. I am extremely shy. Always have been.

3. I hate letting my car get below 1/2 tank of gas.

4. I'm sad if I wake up in the morning and I don't have one of my kitties sleeping with me.

5. I eat cereal every morning for breakfast. I love it!

6. I always have Ravelry open on my work computer, and check in and read forums all day long. It makes the work day easier to get through. I keep it minimized when I'm busy.

7. Every time I buy a new to me magazine I want to subscribe. But I set it aside for a while and think about it, and usually I don't subscribe. Besides, when I do subscribe, it seems like the issues that come in the mail aren't as good as the magazine that made me want to subscribe.

8. I drink caffeine free Diet Coke by the gallon. It's a food group in my life. Same with chocolate, gotta have some every day.

9. I only polish my toenails in the summer, no one sees them in the winter, so why bother. I never polish my fingernails, they get wrecked so quickly.

10. Wow, I made it to 10. Let's see . . . I love reading blogs! One blog links to another, then another, then another . . .

I Miss Knit Night

Another Tuesday night went by and I missed knit night with the girls. I really miss it! I haven't gone in so long. My kid is still here on her winter break. I just can't seem to drag my butt out of the house when she's here. It's not like she's five years old and needs a babysitter. She goes back this weekend. Then hopefully life will get back to normal. I miss knit night conversation, I miss all the pretty yarns and projects, and the conversation. Did I mention I miss the conversation?

I've been working on a hat. My first project on circulars done in a circle! So far so good. It has tons of cables on the part I'm working on, the brim. I have one more cable section to do, then it's 2 x 2 ribbing until I get to the decreases. I swear it takes me about half an hour to one round of the cables, I'm so slow at it and paranoid I'll drop a stitch. I'm using Wool Ease. The color is called White Frost. It's got these little irridiscent threads running through it, makes it look kind of sparkly, like frost. And it's going to be for me. With all the Chrismas knitting I did, I'm finally making something for ME!

Otherwise, nothing new and exciting. The Holidays are over (thank god). Back to full time work, except not this week. I'm taking Friday off to help the kid get ready to go back to college on Saturday and it will be our last official day together for a while. Not sure when I'll see her again. Travel could be wicked between here and there for the next couple of months if we get snow.

There's no place like home

Mom is home from the nursing home! Hip hip hooray! She sounded so happy yesterday when she called to tell me. There's no place like home! This is the best news ever. A great start to the new year!

I finally got back to knitting Fetching. I just had the second one to do, then got sidetracked with another pair of fingerless mitts. They are so soft and fuzzy. I love them! The color reminds me of a Granny Smith apple. I need to take a break from mittens for a while. My wrists just ache in the middle of the night and get numb and it wakes me up. This happens when I knit mittens. I think it's all those extra little tugs where the DPN's meet up. So, if I lay off mittens for a while this will go away and I'll be fine. I'm now making a hat (for me!) on circular needles. My first project in the round on circulars. I'm excited! Something new to learn!

I was in Target yesterday buying oh such fun household goods, like detergent, soap, etc., when I came across this little piggy bank. I wanted it so bad. It's just so damn cute. It called out "buy me", so I did. It was in their dollar merchandise. So this little piggy now lives in my house. I will feed him spare change and dollar bills until there's a nice little amount built up to go to the LYS and buy something special. I wonder how long this will take.

Baby it's cold outside, brrrrrrr

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, it's been so cold the last couple of days. I can't get warm. I did go out and buy a new winter coat. I love it! It's so warm and toasty. I wore it yesterday when it was 7 degrees when I went to work. Of course I had to pump gas . . . of course. I did not feel in the least bit cold pumping gas. Love those after Christmas sales! Now I have the perfect excuse, as if I need one, to knit some accessories to wear with it.




I did get the fingerless mittens done I was doing as part of a Knit-Along. They are for my daughter. I love how they turned out! I used Bernat Naturals Cashmere. That's the first time I used that yarn. It was very nice to work with. She loves them too. I think that's all the knitting I'll be able to get done for her before she leaves to go back to school. I've sure made her plenty of warm cozy things. They get so much more snow where she goes than we do here.




And while I was out shopping the other day I needed to buy a new calendar. I bought one with pictures of the Great Lakes to hang in the kitchen/dining room area where I hang a calendar. All the calendars were 50% off. Good deal! Then I saw this one, the Stitch N Bitch page a day calendar. Couldn't resist at 50% off, so I bought it. It will keep me amused with yarny things for a year.





Now I can get back to knitting the pair of Fetching I started for me. I can't wait to get them done as I'm really looking forward to wearing them.

Happy New Year!

Here it is . . . 2008. What did you do for New Year's Eve? I stayed home and watched a movie and knit. Enjoyed every minute! Once I saw the ball go down, it was off to bed for me. We were supposed to get a ton of snow, but that didn't happen here. We got maybe 2 inches, some areas got a lot more. It sounds like the roads were quite treacherous last night. I'm glad it missed us this time.

My daughter got me this yarn and knitting items for Christmas:

I've been wanting to try some new dishclothes some time in the future so I can use that little booklet to try a new pattern, and I can always use point protectors. I'll figure out something for that yarn someday.

My son got me this book for Christmas:

So . . . since Michaels had all their yarn and knitting supplies for 30% off I had to go buy some felting wool. Not sure what I'll make with it, I'll probably try something small to begin with, I've never felted before. And since I was at Michaels I bought this yarn:

I'm going to start a knit-along and make some fingerless mittens with it. I'll be casting that on later today. Such a pretty pink. These will be for my daughter, she loves pink this season. I want to get them done before she leaves again for school.

I also bought another set of size 6 DPNs and a clicker counter thing for keeping track of rows. A knitter can never have enough of those. That stuff was also 30% off. I love a sale!

I finished the Fetching I was making for my daughter:

No matter how many times I take a picture of this the color never comes out correct, it's a real muted pink/purple mix. Pretty yarn. It was a Sensations brand from Joann. I've also started a pair of Fetching for me:



Bright green huh!!! These are so cool. I love them. I used Sensations Angel Hair from Joann to make these. I've got one done so far, I'm taking a break to do the knit-along then I'll get back to the second one. This yarn is pretty nice to work with, I've never used it before. I can't complain, it knits up nicely. And oh soooooooooooooooo soft to the touch. These little mitts will be nice and warm. I modified the pattern a little bit and added some extra rows in the middle as I have large hands and didn't do the picot bind off as in the pattern.

I guess that's it for today. I haven't gone to the LYS yet, I've got enough to keep me busy for a while. But I am looking forward to it!

In the meantime I want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!