Be back after...

...the Thanksgiving holiday!

Enjoy your and remember to knit :)

Figures it would end this way...

No knitting to show for today but I will post it once it is blocked and lovely. Promise. For now I'll leave you with the Amazing Death Predictor that I saw on Kathy's blog. It will go like this:

At age 75 a group of children will text message you continuously for three years, eventually distracting you while driving and causing a fatal wreck; your fatal wreck.

...I'm cancelling my cell phone so they can't get through! :P

When I was more specific with my info, I got this:

At age 77 you will start sleeping more and more. After six months of this you will be sleeping 19 hours a day. By month seven, you do not wake up anymore. You cease breathing during month nine.

I was amused so I continued to hit PREDICT! and got:

At age 46 a large monkey will beat you to death, using the antiquated art of fisticuffs.

Don't get any ideas, Ms. Rodent. I know how your mind works.

At age 91 you will die from wounds delivered by a blender after trying to make your sixteenth magarita of the day. (And it's on 3:00pm, shame on you!)

At age 45 a tiger will maul you. Don't ask why, but you will be in a Burmese jungle.

So I'm thinking Burma is off the vacation list.

At age 57 you will die while partaking in a particularly intense meditation session.

Well, they say everything in moderate, right?

Almost there...

So, I have attempted many types of knits only to get stuck and not be able to work through it without the help of an actual person. LYSs are too far and my schedule just didn't allow for it. Now I had the help pf two friends and things are coming together. I wanted to take a little something for a friend's new baby. I started something and stopped. Then came across the sweetest little pattern in the One Skein book. Baby Bolero. Here it is, needing some finishing work that should get done tomorrow evening. I'll post details when it is all done.

What became of your first FO?

That was the question seen on the Knitty board. I still have mine. A 2x2 rib scarf made with Debbie Bliss alpaca silk in teal with an eyelash yarn...because I wanted 1 fuzzy scarf. Friends call it my snufalopagous scarf and I love the feel and warmth of it. Keeps the cold winter wind and chill off my neck and chest. The colors are gorgeous and not as drab as the pics portray. I am at the mercy of my finicky camera.

So, maybe the Universe is not quite so bad afterall...

A friend called me this Thursday evening and as we chatted about different topics, it became clear to me that the funk I had been feeling all day was a little worse than I thought. I've been dealing with a few things, mostly health and $$. I'll admit that there are days where staying positive is a chore, but I do try to keep things light and happy. Not always successful. Not on Thursday night, certainly. I choked on my words a few times and my friend was helpful in trying to be supportive.
I told her of an important appointment that I was only able to get in early December. I explained to the appointment lady that I would make myself available if she had any cancellations. They are rare. In any case, my friend and I closed the conversation with her suggestion. Go to bed and meditate on quieting my mind and let the powers that be know that I would love to get a call moving my appointment up.

I did just that and woke up leaving most of yesterday's funk on the pillow. It was about 11 when I got morning's chores and calls completed and I hoped in the shower. Through the shower water and the closed bathroom door I heard the familiar sound of my cell phone vibrating. Yes, I'm one of those...a vibrator, so sue me. It comes from being in classes 6 days a week for 4 years and not wanting the phone to ring in the middle of lecture and getting the look.
Anyway, it was the appointment lady asking if I could fill a cancellation for next week! (insert little bug-eyed smiley here). Yes! Definitely! And thanked her no end. I jumped in the shower feeling so jubilant. Finally, the universe cutting me a break. I'll take it.

I headed up to campus to check my mail box and bumped into an ex-professor of mine. I filled him in on the appointment thing and chuckled. I went back to his office and he showed me a DVD he wanted me to watch and promptly leant it to me. It is something I had wanted to see for a while and it was so appropriate to things going on with me lately.

I finally got home and focused on the mailbox contents. How did I miss this? There was a good-sized envelope with an address and name I didn't recognize. I sat a comfy chair and tucked my legs under me. Yes, bad posture. *slaps her own hand* I opened the packed still not understanding who, what, why. Examining the wrapped contents, a dreaded feeling washed over me. OMG! Did I join an SP round and FORGET?! OMG! Did I flake on someone?! I was panicked at the thought of potentially making another person feel icky and flaked upon. Then there was the note with the best handwriting I've seen in a while. It said TESORO. I opened it and nearly cried.

A RAK! A RAK from the lovely Carrieknits all the way from California! So many lovely things. I was practicall yteary-eyed as I opened each one. Yes, I'm enjoying hormonal moments lately too. Wonderful. Isn't life grand? Not Wanna see inside? Me took, let's...

Carrie wrote me a sweet note on a pretty card and sent me more of the same blank plus others she picked up at an art museum in Oregon. Next were two movies - Girl With A Pearl Earring and The Business of Strangers. Awesome! Movie night! Them there was a pretty green sport weight alpaca yarn. A.L.P.A.C.A...*sigh* Then Carrie sent me some Chasing Rainbows mohair boucle in grays, blues and plum with a note tucked inside for a suggestion of a 3x2 rib scarf. My first boucle! I'll have to see if there is enough for a skinny scarf. And lastly is a ball of Lorna's Laces yarn she had leftover from making One Skein's cable footies (I have that book). My first Lorna's Laces! Enough to make a sweet baby hat in prescious muted colors of blue, plum and rose. The Boo wrapping paper contained yummy chocolate treats that help ease my funk away. No picture of the chocolate...I ate it while unwrapping the other goodies. I'm not dumb! :D
Thank you, Carrie, for your tremendous and timely generosity!
Maybe the Universe isn't so bad afterall? *smile*

Shoe Pr0n...Dansko on parade....and cheap!

I've known her for 18 years. We celebrated my 21st birthday together and she was one of my first official roommates in college. Her daughter's middle name is a version of mine, in my honor. We wanted to live closer to each other FOREVER but I was in NY and she in CO. Then she came to PA and it was only 6 hours away. We were thrilled. That was 2.5 years ago and now she is moving to Dallas where hubby found his dream job and I'm so happy for them. She knows that I will visit yearly at least. But why, oh why did she not mention that the ONLY DANSKO OUTLET was only 15 minutes from her PA home? They sell half off their retail price. I just found this out 2 weeks ago. I could have been hoarding shoes for 2.5 years! Oh, and I am a champion shoe hoarder. Blue ribbon and everything. I get it from my mom. Not purses though. I don't hoard purses. They just don't get me all giddy.

When I moved to the beautiful Finger Lakes region in Upstate NY over 4 years ago, my friends helped me load the moving truck. I can still hear my friend Anthony in my memory to this day. He carried out a dresser drawer. While walking he looked down in the drawer at the contents and exclaimed, "How the @#$% many black shoes do you have?!!!!" "Wha?!" I replied. "They are all different for different outfits...etc." This from a guy that had exactly one pair of brown shoes, one black and a pair sneakers. That's it. No way could he have understood the difference between flats and heels, smooth leather and suede, casual and dressy. Forget wrapping his brain around boots. The bottom of his bachelor closet was pathetic. Thank goodness he is married now and his lovely wife has remedied his lack of shoe choices. Don't get me wrong. I don't have tons of frivolous shoes, but I do hoard when shoes that I like and are good for me are on sale. SO I decided to invest some grad gift $$ on shoes that I could wear for years.
On to the SHOE PRON...woot!

Front row: Brown oiled box clog, Black oiled box clog. Each were $60.
Back row: Olivey-tan shoe $45, Dress pump in black leather and a deep rich gorgeous red/wine. Each $68.

If you are not nearby, you can also buy throught www.danskooutlet.com. They have a few more styles at the store, than listed online. But, as these are factory seconds, the best to do is make a special trip, try them on and hoard away. Go ahead. I give you permission. ;)

My So Called Scarf...the instructions

This is NOT my pattern. It can be found here: http://www.sheepinthecity.prettyposies.com/archives/000079.html

But I have made a few and folks who are confused with the stitches often ask me to help so here goes...
In this example, I am only casting on 10 stitches (via longtail cast-on) just to show you how this goes.
So go ahead and cast-on. I’ll wait... Oh yeah, click the pictures to make them bigger.

Row 1
Knit the 1st stitch. (Call this stitch 1)
Slip the next stitch from the left-hand needle to the right as if you were purling and leave it there. (Call this stitch 2)

Knit the next stitch. (Call this stitch 3)

Take your left-hand needle (LHN) and from the front put it through stitch 2.

Now take your working yarn from the back and loop it over the right-hand needle (RHN) counter clockwise.

Okay, now take your LHN that is resting under stitch 2 and lift stitch 2 up and over stitch 3 and the yarn you just looped over the RHN.

Now drop it.

Should have 3 stitches on the RHN now, yes? I know its a lot of words but once you do it you’ll understand what I describing.

Let's repeat this sequence with the next stitches...
slip stitch 4 purl wise, knit stitch 5, stick you LHN under stitch 4 from the front, loop your yarn around your RHN, lift stitch 4 up and over stitch 5 and the looped yarn and drop. Now you’ve done this stitch process twice. Keep going until you are at the last stitch on the left-hand needle and knit it. You'll notice that the stitches bunch together in 2s. That's what it is supposed to look like:

You have completed row 1, so flip your work and let’s tackle row 2.

ROW 2
Bring your yarn to the front because we are purling. Purl two stitches together by slipping your RHN under stitches 1 and 2 on the LHN.

BEFORE you drop the stitches, I want you to poke your RHN between stitches 1 and 2 so that you can purl stitch 1 again.

Now drop the stitches. Still with me? If yes, you now know how to knit the entire purl row. It is exactly the same all the way across. So when you are done with row 2, flip your work and tackle row 3, which is the exact same as row 1. Then you get this...the lovely cross-hatch, herringbone-like pattern!

That’s all there is to it. Easy, once you are not confused by the stitches. I wish I could make a little video for you, but I’m not that equipped. Let me know how you do :)

I'm back!

More on this later...have to answer a few burning questions first...see next post above.