Whiskers On Wednesday

Poor Sophie. Sasha always uses her for a pillow. She'll literally just plop down on top of her where ever Sophie has gotten comfortable. Doesn't matter that Sophie found her comfy spot first!



Sometimes being the little sis can be tough! (I know, I'm one too!)

Major Fibromyalgia Flare lately. Intense pain. I'm trying to be grateful for what I can still manage, but, -OUCH-. It hurts. I also have my sleep clinic appointment on Friday, I'm still not convinced that they can help me but I'll know more after this consult. I guess I'm skeptical because the options of sleeping pills (which never work for me) or just knowing what "stage" of sleep I "can't" get to doesn't make me feel confident of any resolution. We'll see I guess.

My youngest is also going to have to have some tests done for some dizzy spells she's had off and on this past year. Major stress. We'd appreciate any prayers or good thoughts you could send her way. Her MRI is in May so hopefully we'll know more after that.

Off to go hear my Kitties Purr and sneeze from all the cat hair. If anyone knows of a good way to pick up cat hair, I'm all ears.

Knits & more Stash

I picked up this lone skein of Happy Feet DK at the CC Fiber Festival last weekend (Colorway 54). It's the perfect color for some fingerless mitts for my girls. I must've been in a "baby blue" kind of mood, because at The Yarn Patch I picked up another skein of Tofutsies in a pastel-y color as well (#800-Fancy Footwork).

This next one was just too pretty to pass up:

The color's aren't easy to get accurate with my camera (they're darker in real life) but this is a yarn called "Jolie" by The Great Adirondack Company. This colorway is called "Amazon". It's 74% cotton/26% rayon and SOOOOOO soft! I picked it up at The Yarn Patch as well. I'm thinking it might be a pretty lacey scarflette for my Mom. Something simple that just lets the colors come through.

I finished another pair of simple socks.

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici - Alexandrite Colorway

Size 1 magic loop

64 st cast on.

Pattern: Just simple stockinette!!

I'm a tad worried on how well these will wear. The yarn is VERY soft, so I'm guessing they might wear thin quickly (and might pill pretty bad) once they're on the feet. We'll see. I'm sending them to my Mom because they ARE so soft. And, as with most yarns, the reviews are so mixed, there's no way to tell how they'll really hold up until she uses them.

I made this a few weeks ago but forgot to post about it:

It's for my youngest daughter. Just a simple crocheted shrug. I probably could've gotten away with making one size smaller because the yarn does stretch a bit. But she'll grow into it.

Pattern: Selma's Shrug

Yarn: Dale Of Norway's Svale in White

I think I used a size G hook.

She liked it, but now she wants one with the sleeves a bit longer. She likes the one in the SnB Crochet: Happy Hooker book so I'm going to work on that for her at some point. Probably by the time she's NOT wanting it anymore.....you know kids and how fast they change their minds....and how slow this old Mom is anymore!!

*In other news: The Big Guy and I are keeping to our schedule of walking a few times a week in our neighborhood with the "killer hills" and all (ouch). I've been sticking to it despite the pain from my Fibro/Auto-immune problems and that means I pay dearly at times (especially at night). But I have to work on making that dadgummit scale go in the OTHER direction for a change. We've been very blessed because in the past by this time in April, it's already hot, horribly humid, and just plain ICKY outside. This year it's still been cool and breezy, so we're going to get out and enjoy it as much as possible.

My SIL was kind enough to let me check out her Weight Watchers booklet that lists all the points. It's pretty discouraging when you first realize that ONE thing you're eating NOW is more than half the points you get for the DAY! Big eye opener. We're studying that with the intention of working on our eating habits as well. The Big Guy is already down 7 lbs just from walking (he does it at work too) Me so far: Zero. He's a brat.

Cumberland County's Second Fiber Festival

(Here's the post from the 1st one.)

I let my girls play hooky from school so I could go to the Cumberland County 2nd Annual Fiber Festival this past Friday. Unlike last year, this year they were able to sell items - so of course I was super jazzed about bringing home loads of good stuff. Well....there wasn't a whole lot of difference from last year's displays (I missed the bobbin lace ladies this year- that's so cool to see) but I feel this is just going to get bigger and better as the years go on. It's still building upon people even knowing about it and I think the organizers knew having it just on a Friday was going to be tough on vendor's as well as visitors. I've already heard 2010's will be on a Saturday so that's good news.

Here's some Tamari balls...

Some items from another yarn shop...
I wish I could've gotten to speak to the ladies spinning. I was there pretty early in the day and they were just bombarded with people around them the whole time we were there. It was still fun to watch them. It puts me in a trance....

Here's my Mascot:

Is that cool or what? Just call me Oscar most days. I'm Mrs. Grumpy to the max anymore....

I wanted to smuggle this sheep out of there, he was soooo soft and snuggly. But I don't think they would've let me..

I left the event spending only $13 on yarn and $18 on a shawl ornament for my Mom. I wish there had been more yarn for sale! The pickings were so slim we actually made a yarn shop run right after leaving there! I had to get a better "fix" I suppose. That made me a little sad, but still, seeing all the beautiful items, learning about other forms of fiber arts, talking to people...it's still loads of fun. I may look up the embroidery guild here in town to see about classes one day....the ladies there were very supportive and encouraging! I kept saying how bad my eyes were and they all pulled out their "magnifiers" to show me I'm certainly not alone! That gave me some hope.

Happy Knitting!

Whiskers On Wednesday

All the running around and exercising I've been doing caught up with me today. I'm plum tuckered out.

Sasha says "me too!".

Noro-ness

Now that Winter's almost out of here, I finally got The Big Guy's Scarf done. Well, I did get lazy and leave that smidget of Pink in there so I guess maybe it'll be My scarf! In my defense, it was pure fiber fatigue that made that happen. I was just in a daze knitting it I think.

I love the effects of Noro, and I love scarves (well, wearing them, not always knitting them), but boy was this a labor of love! This was supposed to be done around Christmas-time I think. When I had posted about it on my blog previously, I know I wasn't thrilled with how my colors were blending the first half so the second half I cut & spliced away and used other colorways that were in the stash too. Soooo, basically this is a mish-mash of probably 4 colorways.

It IS pretty tho. And, I'm just SO GLAD IT'S DONE!

Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf

Size 7 straights

Cast On 39 Sts.

Colorways: ??? (Someday I'll find those labels...)

I hope everyone had a beautiful day yesterday. We sure did. Usually it's raining here for Easter but this year it was the most gorgeous day! We went bike riding and just had a total blast out in the sunshine and cool air. Later, The Big Guy made an awesome Ham with other goodies to go along with it so we were feeling very blessed with how our Easter turned out.

My Mom's cat "Baby" finally came home too! She'd been MIA for a couple of days without checking in! Boy is she grounded now! LOL! But we're glad she's home, she's my Mom's heart.

Happy Knitting

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone has a Beautiful Day! We're going to have sunshine this year instead of rain so we're very happy about that. The girls are getting Easter Baskets even though they SAY they're too GROWN UP for one. I say you're never too old for love...

Happy Yarn

It only took me about five or so purchases over time (I'm really exhausted these days!) to finally realize that what I was "seeing" when I was ordering yarn from indie dyers on etsy or elsewhere, wasn't what I was "getting" when my purchases arrived. It's most definitely my monitor since the colors were different from all sources, which left me sadly disappointed. These certainly didn't look so Easter Egg pastel-y when I ordered them.


They're pretty, but the pink was too "orangey" which I didn't personally care for, and the purple was too light. They don't look accurate NOW to me in that pic, so see? I need to adjust my computer! Or only buy hand dyed yarns if I can see them in person!

So, that's when my youngest and I decided to try the easter egg dye method. It was fun, but our yarn turned out more tye-dye looking, and while some people do this on purpose, it wasn't what I was after this time around.

I then ordered a few acid dyes from Knit Picks and over-dyed these three. I used Sapphire Blue, Lilac, and Vermillion. I know the next picture is blurry, but the deeper colors are more what I wanted so I'm once again a happy camper!

The purple is more uniform now, with a slight varigation which I love, and the red one is like a deep red/burgundy (it looks more brown on my monitor here! ). Very pretty! I'm ready to order more colors for sure. This was a lot of FUN. I did have to invest $15 in a stainless steel pot from Ross, The Big Guy wasn't in the mood to go thrift shopping for one pot! Neither was I though, I was glad to get it over with, I just wanted to get on with the dyeing.


Here they are wound up (please don't ask how long it took to wind the blue one by hand -massive tangles and all-, remember that's the one my loving Kitty's got ahold of and made "yarn spaghetti" out of! It's in two balls because there was a huge knot in it too.) But, it DID turn out GORGEOUS! The Big Guy already claimed that one. He wants socks or something out of it. Sure beats the Teal Green I got from the Easter Egg dye! (Which bled way too much IMO, I know I used lots of vinegar (stinky!) but for some reason it wasn't holding well. I'll stick to acid dyes).

Socks and more socks. Someday!

Whiskers On Wednesday

Hmmmmm.....Bookends? Siamese twins?

Bed HOGS???? YES!

10 On Tuesday

I joined 10 on Tuesday a bit ago but this is my first time posting. This weeks 10 is
your least favorite foods. I just imagined myself making that face and wanting (no, NEEDING) to spit it out...you know the one!

1. Bell Peppers - will cook with it for flavor, but won't eat it.

2. Mango - ugh. Gags me.

3. Lobster - but I love shrimp.

4. Bean Sprouts

5. Licorice Ice Cream -too much of a good thing can be baddddd.

6. Calamari - or anything with tentacles.

7. hard boiled eggs - unless mixed up & used for egg salad. I know that's an odd one.

8. brown rice - I know I should eat it but I don't like it

9. Fruity Chocolates - coconut, lemon, & other fillings.

10. Anything Slimey. Like some seafoods.

I could probably think of more. I am a VERY picky eater but these came to mind first.
Happy Tuesday!

Koodies

It's funny. I've read about people being so sick with colds & flu's for the last few months and I've felt VERY fortunate to have avoided any of that so far.

Then this week The Big Guy got sick and spread his koodies to ME, and I didn't even get a KISS for it to happen! Bummer.

We just have colds, it could be worse I know, but I can see he feels as miserable as I do, and yet he won't stay home from work to REST, which in turn, STRESS-ES me out! Thank goodness it's Friday or I'd have to whack him across the head! I told him to stay home today, but nope, he's not here.

Not a lot of knitting happening, I have a couple of pairs of socks going, but I did drag the BIG bag out of the closet and pulled out my sadly neglected Soft Waves Afghan. (It's been on my sidebar for almost a year now). Because nothing really will change yarn-wise or space-wise in the closet if this doesn't ever get done.

I went from 30% up to 40%, and now I'm probably at 60%. It's getting harder to work on because it's getting so heavy so I think it'll end up being more of a little "lapghan" size. I'm SO ready to be done with it. And as slow as I'm going now I can't believe I got as much done on it before I stuffed it back in the closet!

Dang, I'm going to be one cranky old lady if I keep getting so impatient with everything anymore!

One fun thing for me has been watching the "One Hit Wonders of the 80's" on VH1 the last few nights. Oh the memories. Even sick I can shake my booty when I hear certain songs....LOL!

Cranky. Sick. Koodie-ville. TGIF.
Back to my hooking....