Accident Prone Knitter

Some FO's

2007-10-24T22:56:00.000-04:00

I haven't disappeared, I just got sucked into the black hole that is Ravelry. Anyone else have that problem? I joined up with some area knitters on Ravelry and have started getting together with them on the Thursdays my usual group doesn't get together. MFB and I joined a gym and we're working out at least three nights a week and it's also hockey season.

I have finished two projects and am actively working on two others. My niece who is in her second year at the University of Toronto has asked me to make her a pair of Fetchings. I made these with Cascade 220 Superwash and it is 813. I'm also working on a Farrow Rib Scarf Pattern from the Little Box of Scarves out of the same wool.

The scarf was put on hold when I realized that the Penn State Mens Ice Hockey team had their annual fund raising auction and I needed to come up with something in about two weeks time. I tried two different patterns, and then found this Kureopatora's Snake Pattern. I used Cascade 220 Wool color 8505 white and Cascade 220 Heathers color 9449 Blue. I picked these up last November on a trip to URI for a hockey weekend. The colors are a perfect match for Penn State blue and white. Loved the pattern, most people have made this with Noro, not with two different colors. Let me tell you, weaving in all the ends was a bit time consuming.

I've started my Clapotis but no decent pictures at this time.

Now on to sports:
First off is the World Series. It's the Sox vs the Rocks - Colorado Rockies that is. What the heck is happening to them in the first game? Too much time off is what I think, but I'm no baseball expert.
NFL - My Denver Broncos are not having a great year, however they did beat the Steelers on Sunday - JUST. That Jason Elam is money.
NHL - My Colorado Avalanche are doing better than MFB's Toronto Maple Leafs.

ACHA Hockey - That would be Penn State Icers who won their first four games of the season. The teams they played were ranked much lower than the Icers. The next weekend they were away on a long bus trip to Illinois. I listened to the broadcast and it was not pretty. Penn State went into the weekend ranked #1 and played the #2 ranked team. They lost both games, and the rankings flip flopped. This past weekend we hosted Ohio University Bobcats who were ranked #4 and is a long standing rivalry. Friday night we lost in a shootout and then we won Saturday.

This coming weekend we host Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Friday night and then play Scranton on Saturday and Sunday. It's a short road trip for me so I'll be making the trip with a friend and her two little girls. MFB gets to ride the bus!

Some more travel plans for me the two weekends after that. More on that later as I can't take anymore of this Rockies game. MFB just reminded me, it is the first game of the series.

2nd Finished Pair for Summer of Socks 2007

2007-09-19T22:22:00.000-04:00

... and just in time too. SOS2007 ends this Friday at midnight, I just made it. I started these on August 15 and finished tonight. This was my first time knitting two socks at a time on two circulars. I liked the method as there's no chance of suffering from the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.

These socks are the Wild Kat pattern by Deby Lake knit in Tofutsies color 723 "Put Your Foot Down". I cast on with 3.0mm Addi's and finished with 2.5mm Knit Picks 24" circulars. I enjoyed the pattern and the yarn has grown on me.

Next up is Fetching and a scarf for my niece while we travel to Canada this weekend, and then the Second Wave Clapotis KAL starts on Sunday.

Two weekends from now the annual "We Interrupt This Marriage for Hockey" season begins.

Again with the catching up

2007-09-12T22:14:00.000-04:00

Back in July Lesley at Twig's (mis)Adventures in Knitting nominated me for a Rockin' Girl Blogger Award but because my schedule this summer has been something I don't care to repeat next summer, I never even mentioned it. Having been nominated by someone like Twig, our charming hostess of the Hockey Knitters Knit-A-Long, phenomenal blogging skills, knitting skills that I can only aspire too, and author of some of the funniest comments known to MFB, I must say I felt honored. Just the other day Jenna aka A South Park Republican nominated me as well. I just recently discovered Jenna in the last couple of months, she has a very funny unique "voice" if you will and she even traveled through a town I used to live in this summer - and treated me to some wonderful pictures that made me homesick.

I want to pass the nomination onto all of you out here but the thing is I'm supposed to pass it on to five specific Girls.
#1. Angie at Dipsy Doodle
#2. Francesca at Fluffbuff
#3. Ava at When a Door Closes
#4. Brigitte at Wrapped Around My Finger
#5. Knitty Otter

And ten others of you out here.

On the stash front, my friend Lori gifted me with this Mountain Colors Bearfoot during the summer. She picked it up when she was in Baltimore for a weekend. It's the Alpine colorway and I sooooo love it. Thanks again Lori!

Remembering

2007-09-11T09:25:00.000-04:00

It isn't pretty...

2007-09-09T21:00:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago Wendy had a post about a light tent. When I saw that, I asked MFB if he would make a light box for me. MFB, always looking for a new project, checked with one of his co-workers who is a photographer and videographer and this is what MFB came up with. It isn't pretty, but it was far less expensive than purchasing one. Have I mentioned that he spoils me?

Here is one of the pictures I took today.
The Yarnographers forum on Ravelry is pretty neat and it's helping me learn some things about my camera. I have a long way to go, but it's a start.

Wild Kat progress

2007-09-07T12:21:00.000-04:00

I'm home sick today - I don't do well with colds as I seldom get sick, but this one has ripped through the office like wildfire. One coworker last week, and two others this week - I thought I had enough anti bodies built up against my coworkers during the last two and half years but I was wrong. It's sure to be a beautiful weekend and here I am - a mess of a head cold. Heavy sigh! Luckily it's this weekend where I had no particular plans, rather than the next two weekends where we have cookouts and road trips.

So the bright side is maybe I can catch up with my friends blogs out here and show you what I've accomplished on my socks. I prefer to concentrate on the bright side so here we go.

I've turned the heel on the socks and am working on the gusset now - but - and it's a huge but ~~MFB and friends who've seen me - no wise cracks please~~ - I think I have to rip back to the gusset pick ups. Last night was my second get together with two local knitters I met on Ravelry and some of their friends. We've had a good time the last couple of weeks but last night my cold was developing and trying to remember the specific directions from the internet was confusing with the socializing. I spotted an error on one of the socks several pattern repeats back where instead of a SSK, I did a K2Tog and PSSO but I don't think it's going to cause a huge problem. This two socks at a time is cool - but the gusset decreases have to be done differently than what I'm used to and that is throwing me a bit.

I started this pattern with Addi Turbos and ordered some Knit Picks circulars for the portion of the pattern where you switch to smaller needles. I've read so much about both I thought I would give them a try. I'll be buying more Knit Picks. They are just as nice as the Addi and even with the shipping, are less expensive then the Addi. The tips are pointier as well and that is a plus with the Tofutsies yarn.

Last Saturday morning MFB and I decided to go to Harrisburg for the day for some odds and ends. That morning what should show up in the mail but my cell phone rebate - thank you very much. So of course I added a stop at Colonial Yarn Shop in Shiremanstown where I came home with some Cascade Superwash for my niece who visited the other week and asked for a Farrow Rib Scarf from The Little Box of Scarves and Fetching. The other is this lovely Lily Chin Gotham color 3399. It's 48% pima cotton and 52% merino wool. I plan to use it for the Gusset-Heel Gansey Sock. I think this yarn will really show off the stitches.

Socks on Circulars

2007-08-26T21:22:00.000-04:00

I've spent a good deal of my time this week working on my projects in Ravelry. Talk about an organized database - it's great. I've found some neat patterns for some of my stash so I'm pretty excited. One of the many groups I've joined is Mid Penn Ravelers, where I've connected with a couple of local ladies and we plan on getting together this week at our local Starbucks. Should be fun.

I decided last week to try socks on circular needles when I found this tutorial and after a couple of false starts I'm now 3 1/2 pattern repeats into my Wild Kat Socks with Tofutsies. I like this technique as the lace pattern seems easier, when I'm not watching a movie, to remember. No second sock syndrome either. The Tofutsies isn't nearly as stretchy as the Tess Designs and it's a little splitty, but so far I like it.

A couple weeks ago MFB and I went to Pittsburgh for a getaway weekend. Our first stop in the city was scheduled to be Knit One. Well, when we went through all those cars a couple months ago we left the road atlas in one of them. So when MFB picked me up from work that Friday, he had a surprise for me. Meet our friend MIO, or as I sometime refer to him, @$$h()!e. I have wanted a GPS for several months now. I have, and have enlisted several of our friends to, harass MFB ~~to the point that I have been almost hysterical with laughter~~ over the need for one. Now what am I going to tease him about?! The instruction manual isn't real informative, but I was the passenger so I learned. The tunnels into Pittsburgh were closed for the weekend but I couldn't figure out how to get the thing to "avoid" steps in the route so it was pretty funny and the nickname was born.

We made it to Knit One and what a store. Very friendly, helpful, knowledgeable staff. The shop was spacious and airy and had a wonderful seating area with magazines, so after about 15mins of waiting for me in the car MFB came in and was quite comfortable. I went looking for yarn for the Second Wave Clapotis KAL. I came away with this from Autumn House Farm. This is Summer Silk, 50% Silk 50% Rayon, in the Rose colorway and I have 800 yards. Come join us there we start in September.

Can you believe August is almost over? I'm so not ready for Fall or Winter.

First Pair for Summer of Socks 2007!

2007-08-16T20:17:00.000-04:00

I am so excited to have finished my Monkey Socks! As the post title says, this is my first pair for Summer of Socks 2007, she says like she may be able to finish a second pair. I started these around June 26 and finished them August 15. I love these socks, the pattern, the yarn, the color and the feel. I did make one modification - I added 8 stitches and divided them by 2 stitches per pattern repeat. I've never modified a pattern before, so I was excited that logic worked. This is Tess' Designs Supersock and Baby in the Peach Melba colorway.

New project, deep breath, teaching myself to knit two socks at a time on two circulars. I purchased two Addi Turbo circular US 2 24" needles at my LYS and cast on last night. Starting this at 9:00pm last night was not a good idea. You know the saying, read all the instructions before starting? Why would I do that?! So - ripped back out this evening and will start over.

I joined the Tofutsies Sock Club a couple months ago and have already received two of their limited edition colors and three patterns. I'm actually going to use the first ball of yarn I picked up at Maryland Sheep and Wool and I'm doing the Wild Kat pattern.

I received my Ravelry invite a couple weeks ago and as a couple of my friends here have said, it is the black hole of time! LOL The database is fantastic - it's such a great search engine. If I haven't found you yet and you're there, let me know.

Keep kind thoughts for me will you? I don't know how this circular needle sock knitting thing will go. After I ripped out this evening I discovered I had the needles around my neck, not like a noose ~~YET~~, but like a necklace.

Woodpecker update: MFB put cheap pinwheels up. The next morning - you guessed it - the little ph is back. MFB then put up a magnifying makeup mirror and covered up the holes with galvinized steel. (poor embarrassed porch) Since then we haven't seen any new damage, but - the roof is low and MFB is tall. He had to move the makeup mirror over about a foot - he forgot it was there *giggle* Keep your fingers crossed!

The Story of Three ... Conclusion

2007-08-09T23:49:00.000-04:00

This all started the other day when I said I'm haunted by the number three.

My cell phone was almost three years old. Battery needed to be recharged almost every day, the face of it had a big crack, and it was heavy and bulky. The cost of a new battery was about half the cost of a new phone so I started researching phones. I found one that was perfect, MP3 player, 2 megapixel camera, the new 3G network so it would be fast when I decide to add a data plan once hockey season starts. After leaving Colonial Yarn MFB and I met up at the cell phone store and I showed him what I had decided on. MFB knows a lot more about electronic items than I do as I'm more interested in fiber, so I generally defer to his recommendation. This being said, I was all excited to show him what I found and proud of my research. He hadn't made a decision on the new phone he wanted but we went ahead and purchased the new one I wanted. He talked me into getting the flashy red model. I went to work getting to know the phone.

The next day I discover there is no voice activated dial which I assumed was standard as it was on the old phone. We confirmed that the phone I bought could be returned within 30 days - and the saleslady asked if we still had the box, because if we returned the phone without the box, we would be charged a $25 packaging fee. We were glad she mentioned that as the box was sitting in the trash. So, back to the drawing board. Two days later I returned phone #2 for phone #3. #3 is not flashy red and the camera is a 1.5 megapixel, but I really like this one.

Moving on now, MFB and I have done a lot of renovating of our 125 year old home. We found some kitchen taps over the 4th of July weekend we both liked but I had to talk him into purchasing as they're a little modern for our house but a very clean design. We bought them from his favorite toy store, but it happens to be about an hour away from home. The next day he has the water turned off and the old taps out then opens the box and there is this scratch on the plate. This is a good brand name and was pricey enough to perturb us. He went ahead and installed this and we thought we'd live with it. The taps didn't work right from the beginning, dripped just bad enough. Two weeks later we bought set #3, installed it then returned set #2.

You're still here? Well then I am going to show you the other yarn I picked up at the Colonial Yarn Shop in Shiremanstown. This is Claudia Hand Paints in the Red Wagon colorway. It reminds me of watermelon. 100% Merino Fingering Weight 175 yards/50 grams. I haven't decided which sock pattern yet.

The Story of Three - Part 1

2007-08-07T21:05:00.000-04:00

This is the story of three, or as MFB refers to it, The tale of Two Volvos.

The Volvo S80 we've had for the last four years reached about 160,000 miles and we were considering replacing it after we replaced the mass air fuel sensor for the second time. The discussions became more frequent after we discovered the oil leak it had was the master seal. Then one day I said, the car smells of gasoline, and he said no it's oil. Really, it smelled like gasoline. We contacted a wholesaler we met at the car show a couple months ago and started shopping. We spent a couple of weeks of test driving. One car with twin turbos that he loved and I - not so much. I love speed and performance but thought this might be a little too fast, and wasn't fond of the body style. I almost changed my mind when I saw these really cool cubbies in the front doors that were perfect for storing traveling knitting projects. But I can't buy a car simply because I could hide stash in it, right? RIGHT?

What we bought was a 3 year old Volvo S80 with a low pressure turbo. Fast, extremely comfortable, and enough after market goodies to keep you know who busy on the weekends for the rest of the summer. I actually wasn't with him for the test drive or purchase as I was out of town on a business trip. It came home with him on a Wednesday night. I got home on Thursday night, and Friday after work we take it to Grove City. It was comfortable and roomy, just what we were looking for.

On Monday I drive it for the first time and as I leave work to head home, the check engine light comes on. MFB drives the car, and the light goes out. After some work at a dealer we take it back to the wholesaler. He calls us two days later and the problem is going to require surgery that may take two weeks. In the same breath, the wholesaler tells us that they have another car which is almost an exact twin to the one now in the operating room. They offer to take the car they sold us back and to sell us this twin as a straight across trade. They did everything they could to make the situation right and we are very happy with the 2nd new car. The customer service this wholesaler showed us is something one doesn't always see these days, and now we see why customers from all over the Eastern states travel to buy vehicles from them. That's my story of three Volvos in a month.

I didn't mention it but the wholesaler is almost two hours away in Manheim, near Harrisburg. The day we went to pick up Volvo #3, we drove MFB's Stratus and I took my knitting with me - naturally. While he was swapping out the XM radio for the second time, I sat in the wholesalers office knitting. All of a sudden, MFB said "didn't you want to go find that yarn store on the West Shore? Why don't you head out?" So head out I did, after finding out that Volvo #1 did indeed have a fuel line leak along with the oil leak - Hah!

I needed a GPS to find this yarn store and of course I didn't have one. I called the yarn store, she gave perfect directions but do you think I could follow them? I drove past the exit by a good 10 miles, and ended up calling the store 3 times. These are the times where I wonder where I would be without my cell phone. I finally arrived at The Colonial Yarn Shop in Shiremanstown and came home with a couple of yarns that I can't find at my LYS's. Here's a skein of Colinette Jitterbug in the Jay colorway. It has a sock pattern on the label but I haven't looked closely to see what it is.

The Story of Three to be continued.

This is War

2007-07-31T21:03:00.000-04:00

We interrupt our regularly planned blogging topic to post this Public Service Announcement. A couple weeks ago I came home from work and found wood chips on the deck, and wondered what MFB had been up to. Later that evening I noticed these holes in the support beams of the roof over the deck. Then over the weekend I heard someone knocking outside and we saw this going to town on the support beam. Tonight we came home to another set of this pattern of holes.

We are now in the planning stages to end it's reign of tyranny. Yes I know we live out in the country, that's why we have mice, bats, rabbits, herons, hawks etc. We also have telephone poles, groves of trees and barn wood. But noooo, the woodpecker has to pick our house to either nest in or just be destructive. Woody the Woodpecker is now on my last nerve, and MFB has declared war. Sure he was all cute and fun when we were kids, but now I understand why he had that annoying cackle.

I'm a woman on the edge my friends. I keep telling myself there's no reason to resort to violence, I know there are other ways to get rid of pests. Let's just hope that we can get rid of the little ph before it brings down the roof.

Decompressing

2007-07-28T18:08:00.000-04:00

Where has the summer gone in the APK household? Mine has been drowned in work hours due to a staffing shortage and special projects on top of my usual duties. I'm lucky as I enjoy my job, but I'd say I was close to burnout. Luckily things started letting up a bit this past week, and by the end of this upcoming week things will be settling down.

MFB definitely handles more than his share of the domestic duties normally, and during the last couple of months has taken on 99.9%. Thanks for looking after me and things this summer MFB, you're one in a million!!

OK my knitting friends - thanks for all the compliments on the start of the Monkey Socks from the last post, and I'm sorry I didn't thank you all personally via an email or kept up with you all. That should be changing over this weekend though, as I am currently sitting on the deck with my MP3 player (Bob Seger at the moment Old Time Rock & Roll), glass of orange juice and club soda, house phone and cell phone. The phones are with me so that I don't have to leave the fresh air. Nothing better than the fresh air and sunshine (today very overcast though) to recharge.

I finished the first Monkey Sock last week and took it with me to my knitting group. I have a feeling a few other ladies are going to be looking for some of this Tess Designs yarn as it truly is a joy to the touch and wonderfully dyed. I'm currently working on the ribbing of the second sock.

Tide to Go® to Grove City --

I have to tell you a quick story of a weekend away last month with a little fiber at the end. Our best friends live in Canada and so of course we don't get to see them often, but we made special plans to meet in Grove City PA. It seems Canadians flock here as most of the cars we saw had Ontario plates. Why that tourist hotspot? (snerk) Outlet Mall shopping of course. My girlfriend (I'll call her B) is in her final year of residency and our spouses know when their spouses are working hard and the going is rough, the tough go shopping. I was wearing white pants and during one of our rest the tootsies breaks, must have sat on something. We didn't realize this until I made a restroom break after lunch where B tells me "you have something on your arse". No worries, I have Tide to Go® My attempt to remove the item was decent, but my friend the doctor decided this required the expertise of an MD. We were in luck, there was a forlorn looking folding chair in the large sized restroom and so she sits down and all of a sudden I see the doctor in her. I'm told to "bend over". So here I am with my ~~dainty~~ white pant clad behind sticking in her face and she's operating. Anyone with a camera? I hope not. Ladies are walking by doing their best to ignore, but one looked particularly surprised. Now my friend and I are not what our spouses would call shy. I looked at this lady and said, "Don't worry, she's a doctor," and B says, "You wouldn't believe the things I've seen!!" Priceless. The weekend was unforgettable and exactly what the four of us needed.

There was a yarn store there I wanted to visit but I think the store I found wasn't the one I was looking for. I think what I found was a more of a gift shop, and it was CLOSED on a Saturday for a family reunion. Couldn't have been a yarn store, eh?

So here's the fiber. We return home from a fantastic weekend with our Canadian friends, and in the mailbox is a package from a new Canadian friend I've met. First at her blog, and then in person when I stopped in Kniterary, the yarn store she just recently purchased in Whitby Ontario. She sent me a lovely note and this terrific Canadian sockyarn which is 74% Superwash Merino and 25% Nylon in Winter Skies colorway, which was dyed exclusively for her shop. I was admiring it when I stopped in her shop but didn't purchase it. Thanks so much Martina, it was such a wonderful surprise. I plan on starting this on the first day of winter. It will remind me of the warm greeting you gave me in your totally cool (I love your store) shop!

Next post could be a bit longer - stories of why I'm currently haunted by the number three. Oh - and pictures of stash enhancement, because even though I've been working, I've been shopping.

Monkeying Around

2007-07-11T21:45:00.000-04:00

I've been too busy to post or to catch up with friends. But I have found some time to knit. After finishing the P socks last month I had a hard time deciding what sock yarn to use for my first Summer of Socks project. I did a swatch with my Tess' Designer Yarns Supersock yarn I picked up at MDS&W this year and fell in love with the yarn and the vivid colors, which I think is their Peach Melba colorway. At first I thought I would do just a plain stockinette sock, but I saw the Monkey pattern that so many were knitting and thought I'd see how this yarn looked. I really liked the look but found the pattern a little tight after the first two pattern repeats so I ripped it out and started again with eight extra stitches. The extra stitches did the trick. I'm almost done with the heel flap now - this is another fun pattern.

We've been extremely busy over the last month. Mostly with working long hours (67 last week to be exact), a quick trip here and there, a major purchase, friends and family down from Canada and a surprise from a friend in Canada. If we aren't on the road this weekend, I'll be trying to catch up with everyone.

Memo to Twig: I am so LMAO over the Axe comment and I have to apologize that I haven't sent the package off yet - hopefully this weekend.

Happy Birthday MFB!!!

Finished Pomatomus Socks

2007-06-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

Right I finally finished them, they're not pretty but finished they are. See what I mean. I started these back in September and picked them up again about a month ago. Maybe my tension changed or I can't count pattern repeats. This certainly lets me know something I need to work on. Oh well - the socks are for me and I don't think the difference in height is going to bother me - much. I'm going to wear them in a couple days so I'll see how I feel about them then.

I've been working some ghastly hours over the last couple of weeks, but work may start getting back to a more normal routine later this week. In order to recharge our batteries MFB and I headed down to Lancaster PA for the weekend. We had a blast and great weather and even found a small restaurant between Intercourse and Bird In Hand (those are names of farming communities with a large population of the Amish) where we watched the cows grazing. On the trip down we stopped at Knitters Dream outside of Harrisburg and I picked up a small Laurel Burch bag. Jessica gave me the idea as she had picked one up when we were there together back in March. It's going to be perfect to take sock projects on the road.

I can't decide which sock yarn and pattern to use for the start of Summer of Socks 2007 so I am doing some research. In the meantime, I picked up a WIP I started several months ago and ripped it out and started over. I'm using Noro Kujaku Color #5 and am making an evening bag. Originally I cast on over 200 stitches, this time it's about 120 stitches. It's fast going being as it is just (edited) ~~stockinette~~ garter stitch. This yarn is 85% Wool and 15% Polyester. Can't say I'm overly fond of the feel of it but it's a good project to be working on to tide me over till the SOS.

It's a good thing MFB is no longer in need of cane or crutches, because I've taken over use of his cane. Yes somehow I've done it again. Injured a tendon on the bottom of my foot and hopefully I'll be limping around for only another week. If you want to see what I think is a real cool xray showing screws in MFB's ankle click here.

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

2007-06-02T21:18:00.000-04:00

(warning picture heavy post)

I actually spoiled myself on Friday of Memorial Day weekend by taking a few hours off in the morning. Lori and I got together for breakfast and then hit our LYS for their annual Memorial Day weekend sale. The store opened at 10:00am, which is when we arrived and there were already knitters leaving with bags full of their goodies. The doors opened 10 minutes before we arrived. Not to worry as I still came away with what I went for. Solid color sock yarn, I have some instructions from Twig on Mosaic socks and the blue and white will make nice warm Penn State hockey socks. The multicolor was ~~an impulse buy~~ a well thought out plan for a pair of socks. When I left Lori was still shopping.

I worked for about four hours and then MFB picked me up and we headed north to Canada to visit his family for the weekend. It's usually about a seven hour drive and if I'm knitting, then I'm a happy camper as it makes the drive go quickly. About two hours into the drive and my knitting, I was to the point of picking up stitches on the gusset of the P socks when I discovered I didn't have the fifth needle. OH NO!! I searched and searched. No luck. I accidentally left my MP3 player at home, and my camera in the back seat of the other car, and my knitting needle - who knows. Shortly afterwards MFB heard "I'm bored, you must amuse me now." We managed - somehow.

My SIL and I were going to do our version of a yarn crawl but she had to cancel as she was hosting the family barbecue the following day. Several months ago Martina had passed along some information to me about Myrtle Station Wool and I was bound and determined to find it, which we did. In my experience this shop is a little different. I was browsing stock in the owners actual living quarters - bedrooms. She has a lot of stock, but I had my heart set on more sock yarn and I fell for this Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Maya color 7019. I'm excited to see how the color striping will look. I also asked her for a some #2 needles forgetting that in Canada when you ask for #2 Canadians think millimeters, and not the #2 that I needed. The good news is it never hurts to have an extra set of needles, eh? The shop owner was very helpful and friendly, so much so that when I got out to the car MFB told me I had been in there for an hour! He's a good sport, but I've also gone with him when he's being fitted for hockey skates and that can take some time.

From there we headed into Whitby for the shopping highlight of the weekend. I mentioned Martina, well this was my chance to actually meet her. A couple months ago Martina did what I think a lot of us dream of. She bought Kniterary! I emailed her about a week before and told her I hoped to stop in as we would be up visiting family. This shop is wonderful. I don't know how to describe the interior color but it was a light green color somewhere between lime and neon, bright, cheery and the perfect backdrop for Martina. You know who had some stops to make in the area and after meeting Martina he went off on his own. If any of you have read Martina's blog you'll know that she's had some changes in her life recently, a few rough patches, but I have to say she's found her calling. I even met her husband Jim who stopped in while I was there. The Kniterary website shows that they have Canadian wools and this was of special interest to me. So while Martina and I were getting to know one another she was showing me all her special yarns. And here is what I came home with. The hank of hand dyed yarn is Fleece Artist Kid Aran, 50% Kid 50% Wool. I think it's the Cosmic Dawn colorway. Then two balls of Mission Falls 1824 Wool, 100% merino superwash in the Macaw colorway. Martina suggested a scarf with alternating rows and then braiding the ends together and she showed me some braiding she was working on which was just lovely. All too soon it was time to head out and at the last minute I remembered a set of dpn's and I saw these little packages of tissues and picked up one for my SIL and one for Lori. This was such a treat for me. I enjoyed meeting Martina as much as I enjoyed meeting Jessica. I'll be back Martina! Not just for your wonderful wares, but your company as well.

Our time not spent hunting yarn was spent enjoying family. MFB, his brother, and sister's boyfriend had planned on golfing Sunday morning before the family barbecue but wouldn't you know it - it rained all day. As my MIL predicted, the rain let up some time late afternoon. All the "grandkids" were in attendance which is a real treat as all but one are now over the age of 18 and have very busy social and work schedules. Our best friends (see you later this month in Grove City) who we get to see maybe once a year came out to the family barbecue even though it was about a three hour drive for them, so my SIL had, lets see 19 people in her house. She makes it look so easy.

On the drive home I was able to knit so here is my progress on the P socks, which lost their twinness somewhere along the way, and here is the yarn haul for the weekend.

Thanks to all the family and friends who made our first trip back to Canada since Christmas another one to remember.

The Sock at a Car Show

2007-05-30T22:26:00.000-04:00

While MFB was healing up he wasn't able to get away like I did to MDS&W, and we do like to get away even if it is just a day or a weekend, so on May 19th he was past due to "Git". So git we got and where we got to was the Carlisle Import Kit/Replicar Nationals. This is a car show in Carlisle PA and Volvo was the featured car. We hopped in our Volvo S80 (Photo courtesy of Swedespeed) and joined in on the fun. This is my first car show but we both are sports car enthusiasts.

Rather than parking in the South 40 of the Fairgrounds we parked in the car show and it made the day even that much better. No long hikes anywhere. When it was time for lunch we grabbed the picnic from the trunk and sat in our camp chairs under beautiful sunny skies.

We met some nice people, admired lots of pretty cars and during a couple of our breaks I even took the time to knit on the P sock. Here the sock takes in a Volvo that has over 2 million miles on it - that's 2 million miles and the announcer said the owner drives it every day. I am impressed. (This picture shows that I made it to the heel flap on the sock)

It's amazing how a bunch of greasy old car parts being offered up for sale are as attractive to MFB as yarn and wool were to me when I was at MDS&W. I wouldn't have him any other way. How long will it be before he talks me into going with him to look for an old "Brick" to restore, or as he calls it a Project Car? Probably this weekend.

I leave you (waves at cousin Lonnie and Mark) with a picture of the nicest *smirk* Subaru I could find at the car show. Seriously though by the time we found the Subaru's there weren't that many left. Lonnie and Mark don't like Volvo's and have a Subaru. I couldn't resist Cuz!!

A weekend away - Part 2

2007-05-28T23:08:00.000-04:00

and a little knitting news...(warning picture heavy post)

So Sunday morning we head out to Baltimore to meet up with our cousin Jan. We parked at a hotel at the Inner Harbor and met up and had lots of fun. I didn't really have any memories of Jan as the last time I saw her I was a baby, but within five minutes we were fast friends.

We walked around for a few minutes and guess what we did -yep had to decide what to have for lunch. We decided on a Irish Pub type of restaurant, and the four of us decided to split two Corned Beef Sandwiches. I was quite surprised when the waitress told me they didn't have any russian dressing for the sandwich. The waitress looked at me like why would they have russian dressing. It wasn't until the following day when I was whining about this to MFB and he said something like, "Honey, did they call it a corned beef sandwich or a Reuben". Oh ... yeah. Sorry.

So we sat there outside eating our passable sandwiches and getting to know one another. I found out that Jan lives about 4 hours away from me, and trying to narrow down where she was I asked if she was near a town called Chadds Ford. She said sure and asked how I knew of it and I told her I had been to a yarn store back in March 2006 and she said oh Garden of Yarn? Sure enough, that's the store and she's a knitter too. Something else we have in common. Mark took off for a couple minutes while we were sitting there, I assumed he was making a personal call of some type and about five minutes later he returns and hands me some sun screen. He had noticed I was taking on some sun and went in hunt of some sunscreen. How great a guy is that? Mark you're the best!!

After a couple of hours sitting and chatting we decided it was time to check out the USS Constellation and tour the warship that is docked in the Inner Harbor as a museum. The picture shows the beautiful weather we had and why I needed the sunscreen. Here is a shot of the ships wheel, I loved the wood so smooth and polished. Since I'm a retired cop it's natural that I'm interested in armament and so here is some of the ships 38 guns. We toured this boat assisted with listening devices which brought history to life and while below decks I could picture the ships crew working the guns and living their life on the seas. Every bit of space on the ship had a purpose and life must have been very cramped in the close quarters. Here are the officers quarters ... and here is the crews sleeping hammocks. These ropes looked extremely heavy, but they were deceptively lightweight. I'm glad we took the time to explore this history.

All too quickly my cousins and I had to go our separate ways. With hugs and promises to get together soon, I headed for home to meet up with MFB who was on his way home from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

On the knitting front - yes occasionally I actually finish something!!

Pattern: Perforated Edge Scarf from The Little Box of Scarves I picked up a couple years ago.
Yarn: Berroco Cotton Twist color 8464 70% Mercerized Cotton 30% Rayon purchased at Knitters Dream with Jessica back in March
I had to get used to the yarn as it enjoyed splitting, but the feel of it and the drape are just lovely.
I started this the beginning of March and finally finished it a couple weeks ago and sent it off.

The scarf was a surprise for Lonnie as I wanted to give her a remembrance of our time in Arizona. She lives in Texas but travels a lot and sometimes planes can be cold so I thought I would make her a scarf she could tuck in her carry on if she needs it. The colors of this remind me of the desert and I think the colors suit her.

I hope you all had a safe and happy Memorial Day and took a couple minutes to remember our men and women of the many branches of our armed forces who protect our freedom.

A weekend away - Part 1

2007-05-20T12:44:00.000-04:00

Back in March I had a special weekend rendezvous with family, sans MFB. I never did share the experience here until now.

On Saturday morning March 24th I met up with my cousin Lonnie and her boyfriend Mark (they're from the Houston area) in Washington DC at the hotel we stayed at for the weekend. It was across the street from the Smithsonian. This is my cousin that I reconnected with in Arizona back in February and I had been looking forward to this weekend ever since. I'd never met Mark before and within two minutes of meeting him I knew that this weekend was going to be even more fun than I had imagined.

My drive down from PA was a little stressful just because #1 I don't have a GPS and #2 for some reason I am unable to comprehend the written word. Even so, the last thing I wanted to do was relax so we headed out for some fun.

First stop was a hotel across The Mall to park the car for the day. We went to the International Spy Museum and purchased our admission tickets for the afternoon, from there it was a short walk to Ford 's Theater where John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln and Petersen's Boarding House where Lincoln was taken and quickly succumbed to the fatal shot. Ford's Theater is still used today for performances and I hadn't realized that both buildings are run by the National Park Service. I love going to historical places and having my limited memory of school lessons refreshed.

While wandering the streets I noticed Cowgirl Creamery which turned out to be a cheese shop and had to check it out. The shop had that special tangy smell that tells you this is going to be good. Wish I had brought a cooler to take some cheese home. We thought it was time for a "refreshing beverage" and I remembered that we had walked by a restaurant and I think it was the District Chophouse so we thought we'd give it a go. When we walked in we smelled GARLIC. We sat at the bar and they set us up with a sampling of their (I think) lagers. That's a great way to decide on a beer, I was happy with my choice. Oh the garlic? It ended up being garlic french fries. Yummmeee.

After lunch it was time to go back to the International Spy Museum. This was totally fun. An interactive history lesson on the craft of espionage. They give you some time to decide what your "cover" is for the afternoon. As you wander through the museum there are computer "stations" where you play out your "assignment". I wish we had been able to take the time to do this, but the lines were long at the stations and so we passed. At the end of the museum there's a "border crossing" where the computer interviews you to see if your cover still passes to get out of the country the assignment has taken you to. I've just recently been released from a foreign country - I failed. I really enjoyed the museum displays and history, we must have been there for three hours and could have been there another three. We left there with the knowledge that "Things are not always as they seem."

It was then time for a break and so we headed out for something to drink. A cup of coffee for me followed up by an Oatmeal Cookie, not the kind you eat but the kind you drink. Never had one before but someone twisted my arm. It was good. Refreshed, we headed back out to explore. After awhile we decided we needed to get some dinner and after some discussion and wandering we headed over to Oceanaire a restaurant that Mark and Lonnie knew of. No we didn't have reservations, yes we'd spent the day in jeans with backpacks wandering the city streets and being tourists. Can you find a table for us? The inside of the restaurant looked like what I imagine a well appointed state room on a yacht would look. Highly polished warm wood and most people were wearing suits and dressed for a nice evening out on the town. We had excellent service, although we thought we were going to have to offer the server a chair as every time he came to the table he started a conversation about a watch or flying or fishing. Also the food was fantastic, I had my first ever sashimi and it was unforgettable. One of the interesting server upsell occurrences happened when I asked the server about the root beer float and then I realized they had the little soft ice cream in a dixie cup with the flat wooden spoon that I remember from my school lunch cafeteria days. I had to have the dixie cup ice cream. He brought me a root beer float! I told him no I wanted the dixie cup and then he set that in front of me and he said he thought I wanted both! Hunh??? This was a true dining experience. We left there absolutely stuffed and it must have been 10:00pm.

We walked the six or so blocks to where my car was parked and headed back to our hotel. We drove past the capital and it was all lit up. Just beautiful...do you think I thought to take any pictures that day? No. I'm just a dolt. It sounds like we spent most of our time eating, but really it was time spent talking, getting to know my cousin and her guy better and laughing so much my face hurt. When we got back to the hotel we collapsed.

Next time..day two in Baltimore where Lonnie, Mark and I meet up with our cousin Jan.

I knew I was in trouble..

2007-05-16T18:36:00.000-04:00

... this morning when the first document I found on the office fax machine made me immediately think I wanted to pick up my current knitting project.

Does this mean that I have a serious problem or am I normal?

Knitting motivation

2007-05-15T21:42:00.000-04:00

Wheeee!! Here's my Pomatomus Sock progress. The marker shows where I started when I decided I better get back to this fun pattern. I think I finally have my knitting motivation back. It must have gone on vacation when I did back in March. Motivation had a longer vacation then I did, that's for sure. These almost look like they are going to be identical twins, if so, how in the world did I manage it? This is made from Opal in the Petticoat colorway.

MFB is steadily healing up. He ditched the crutches a couple weekends ago for a cane and even the cane has been abandoned. When he told me the surgeon said he should try going without the removable cast boot, I asked him if he told the surgeon the advice was a week and a half too late. Now, if I can just keep him off the baseball diamond and golf course for a couple months so the sprain can heal. Bad news, we drive past both every day to and from work. Patience is required in these situations. Do I have patience? Yeah - not so much.

I love the show Boston Legal, especially William Shatner as Denny Crain. This has absolutely nothing to do with knitting but has everything to do with hockey. Tonight Denny is threatening to engrave his name on Lord Stanley's Cup! The nerve.

Entrelac and the Sheep on the Bus

2007-05-13T21:44:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone has enjoyed their Mothers Day weekend.

I have actual knitting content. With many thanks to Knitty Otter and her wonderful instructions on Entrelac, I have two samples that will become dishcloths. This was my first try using 6 stitches per diamond. I used Sugar and Cream cotton in the Buttercream colorway. Here's my second worked with 8 stitches per diamond, again in Sugar and Cream but I can't remember the colorway. I didn't block either of these yet.

I signed up for which starts up in June. When Jessica asked me about it at MDS&W, I told her I didn't think I would. Keep in mind that just about everything I picked up in Maryland was sock yarn and I have Trekking, Regia, Sockotta, Froelich and Knit Picks. Does this sound like someone who shouldn't join? In preparation for this I decided I better finish up my Pomatomus Socks from Knitty. I set aside the P Socks back in the winter when I was working on some charity knitting. The more I think about Summer of Socks the more I'm looking forward to it.

Thinking more about my story about the sheep on the bus at Maryland Sheep and Wool, I did find another blogger who was on that bus and she does have a picture of the sheep on the bus.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

2007-05-08T21:52:00.000-04:00

Whew. How strange life is when the shoe (or cast) is on the other foot. MFB has graduated to using a cane instead of crutches and has a lot more freedom. He changed the spark plugs on my car and did some "puttering" outdoors so he's happy to feel his independence returning. He's still feeling my hovering which frustrates the heck out of him, but we're gradually moving back to a normal existence.

So much so, that he insisted I go to Maryland Sheep and Wool. Well since he insisted ..

Saturday morning I was on a charter bus arranged by my LYS and the bus could not get there fast enough. I was surrounded by good friends and new friends. Two of whom I know better than the others kept me company for about the first hour and then they took a nap. Me, no. Picture the commercial with the two little kids trying to sleep the night before going to a large amusement park known for the Mouse but "I can't, I'm too excited!". MP3 player and knitting to the rescue. One of my traveling companions was knitting socks from Tofutsies, which I have been wondering about. It felt so smooth, that I added that to my small list of must finds. Before we exited the bus, our trip organizer gave us the same wise crack as last year. Don't buy a sheep or a rabbit.

My friend Lori had suggested a couple places to go and so we thought we'd hang together for a short time. First stop - the dreaded t-shirt line. I didn't pick up a shirt last year and had regretted it. I didn't realize there was more than t-shirts! Along with my shirt I got a bucket hat and mouse pad. While waiting to pay Jessica called and she came over to meet up with me. I was really excited to meet up with her again as I so enjoyed our time together in March. Once Lori and I paid for our things, Jessica confirmed our thought that the line across the way was for STR. This was the first item on my list and away we went. Jessica kept us company while we stood in line to pay and actually took a picture of the three of us and as she relates - I do believe this is the first pix of me on the web. Jessica rocks on doing the self portrait thing doesn't she?

Lori took off on her own, and Jessica and I caught up for a little more and then she was off to meet up with others with plans for us to meet up later. Away I went to explore. I found the Tofutsies I wanted, and then at Lori's suggestion off to Tess Designs and bought, yes sock yarn. Then off to find some Koigu. The rumor was that the special Koigu vendor wasn't there due to a broken leg. There was a good deal of sympathy being expressed for the poor thing, and then funny comments about how there seems to be a lot of leg injuries lately with pointed looks (Lori) sent my way.

I treated myself to a lime fizz and headed out for where I thought the knitbloggers meet up would be in hopes to meet up with Bridget. I asked several people if they were she, with no luck. Later on I found out that there was some confusion about where the meet up was and so we missed one another. I met up with Jessica again and she introduced me to Kim, Risa and Risa's shy daughter Kat. Fun times.

By this time I had procured everything I came for. Not ready to head for the bus, I headed back out under the darkening and rumbling skies to explore. I found a tent that wasn't too crowded and wandered and found something special. Told myself, I already have everything I came for and walked about 20 yards away. All of a sudden I was back inside the tent. Asked how much it was and walked out not more than 20 paces when again, all of a sudden I'm back inside the tent and out I walked with it. This isn't lace weight and they only had 200 yards, but I'm thinking something delicate (which I am not). Lori suggested some Victorian looking wrist cuffs with buttons. That sounds promising.

Are you still here? OK then I know you might not believe this as I didn't think to break out the camera but..

While loading up our bus we saw two women lead a sheep to a charter bus with New Jersey plates on it. In the luggage compartment of the bus sat a dog crate. This I did not want to see. What we ended up seeing was the sheep being led up the stairs to join the passengers of the bus. Then the bus took off. I can only assume that the bus was headed to NJ. Probably a long drive, eh? Probably a smelly, noisy drive. If you don't believe me check out Kim and Roberta's blogs.That's everything I came home with.

A very memorable day, spent with terrific people - my day couldn't have been any nicer. Made all the more special because my husband is healing faster than I had imagined.

Surgery Update

2007-04-12T20:51:00.000-04:00

MFB had his appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday and surgery today. The surgery went very well and he had two screws successfully inserted. He's home and has only taken one pain killer in nine hours. I'd say he's doing pretty darn good. PT starts on Monday so we are very optimistic for the long term prognosis. Will he golf this summer? I'm thinking probably not till next summer.

We both want to thank everyone for your kind wishes, prayers, suggestions of exorcism, good luck charms, blog name change, jokes and better karma. As Steve read through everyones comments, and emails we received from our non blogging friends, he laughed a lot and thought how lucky we are to have friends out here who care. Laughter is truly some of the best medicine.

It's been a crazy week for us as we're not used to the care someone needs when they are on crutches. Did I mention that he's tall? 6'3" to be exact, so when he wobbles on crutches I imagine him toppling over. He's very independent and always on the go and doesn't like to put his feet up until the evening. The boredom will probably kick in around 11:00am tomorrow as he's not allowed to go back to work until Monday at the earliest. Help??

Here's something I hadn't seen before - xrays are now digital. How cool is that! The surgeon was showing us the xrays and the computer imaging was neat. We're going to get the xrays on disc at his post op appointment - the blogosphere may never be the same. Speaking of blogs check out his pre op blog post for a taste of his humor.

Thanks again everyone. Individually and collectively, you're the best!!

The taller they are...

2007-04-07T22:09:00.000-04:00

While MFB was at his LHIS (local home improvement store) enhancing his stash, I was at home actually catching up on some blog reading and planning my post on my DC and Baltimore weekend. One of the many thoughts running through my mind was "Cool, it's been a little over a year since I fell and broke my foot. A whole year."

Fast forward a couple of hours and MFB is up on a ladder measuring the cathedral ceiling line for the crown moulding he came home with. All of sudden the ladder slips out from under him and he falls 6-7 feet straight down. Between the two of us we have more than enough medical knowledge to be truly dangerous, so after convincing myself he'd be better off up off the floor I helped him to the couch. His ankle hurt like a b... well lets just say it hurt - a lot. I grabbed an ice pack and some anti inflammatory and we waited a few minutes for the shock to subside. The pain wasn't subsiding and the ankle said it wanted to have an x ray.

These are the times that I hate that we live outside of town. Even though I was driving through some light snow squalls, the roads were fine - it just seems to take so long when someone is in that kind of pain. The meds I gave him didn't kick in till we got to the hospital but to tell you how bad it was he actually let me put him in a wheelchair. Once the meds kicked in we did our usual cracking wise as that's how we deal with stress. Things like "maybe you shouldn't be drinking water, they may have to operate" (he said that to me years ago the first time I broke my ankle while he was drinking coffee and eating cookies at the nurses desk). Then I asked if anyone had cookies. Later I said "now the shoes on the other foot, eh? Oh that's right, it won't be on that foot for awhile". (pretty bad one there).

So later on the ER PA comes in and says "it's broken and you need surgery so they can put a pin in". Darned if she isn't serious. My prayers were answered though as it's not shattered. My initial thought was to operate tonight but they don't do that and he wouldn't have that anyway as it's hockey tonight. The PA offered him some pain meds but the meds we have at home were enough for him. I asked her to still give them to him and I would take them as he was going to be a pain in my behind. Again with the cracking wise

I thought his xray was blogworthy but you know how doctors are, eh? Here he is in a splint and it's so strange that it's on his leg and not mine.

Monday morning we'll call the orthopedic surgeon he prefers and hopefully we can get the surgery scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday. Looks like I'll be his chauffeur (I asked him how to spell that and he said driver *laugh*) for awhile.

....the harder they fall.

Actual Knitting Content

2007-04-05T23:18:00.001-04:00

Back in January I had a post about a shopping expedition while on a road trip to Delaware. This was a day where looking for a yarn store I ended up taking my friends from Newark Delaware to Maryland and Pennsylvania when the yarn store ended up being less than 5 miles from our hotel. I've mentioned the initials GPS here, eh?

OK, so on that trip I picked up my first ever skein of Lorna's Laces. I fell in love with the colors of the yarn and then a couple months ago I saw the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf pattern. I cast on for the scarf right before leaving for Arizona and this was my travel project. One of my friends favorite color is periwinkle and we got together for dinner tonight where I surprised her with the scarf. I love the texture of the pattern and of course the yarn is really lovely to the touch.

(There's your provenance Peri)

It's COLD here, ya'll stay warm.

Batteries Recharging

2007-04-03T22:49:00.001-04:00

Writers Block? Nah ... OK well, maybe. Twig sent me an email yesterday checking in on me and as I told her I was looking for inspiration for a post. I haven't acknowledged any comments or read any of my friends blogs. Baaad Blogger. Sorry friends.

So last night I sat down to download photos from the camera and the rechargeable batteries died in the middle of the process. Ahhhhh...inspiration. Cell phone is two years old and the battery won't hold a charge. Last time I wanted to use the bluetooth the battery was dead. Sunday I needed my Palm Pilot to take with us to make notes at MFB's favorite store, and it was - you guessed it- so dead the thing wouldn't even turn on. My internal battery has been in the same condition, seriously in need of a recharge. It seems to happen to me this time of the year, I feel unsettled if you will.

Here is what helps to get me through this.
And this.
These scenes are from about 100 yards from our home. Perfect place to go for a walk don't you think?

MFB has been really busy the past couple of weeks. About a week after I returned from Arizona he was asked to broadcast Notre Dame hockey's post season. First stop was the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit where Notre Dame won the CCHA National Championship. Next stop was Grand Rapids Michigan for the Midwest Regional NCAA Championship where Notre Dame lost the championship game. Had they won, they would have gone to the NCAA Frozen Four National Tournament. He's been doing a lot of traveling.

While MFB was in Grand Rapids I was in DC and Baltimore with family. But that's a special post for another time.

Oh Knitting? Knitting has been done, I'll post a picture soon. One of my current projects is a gift so no pictures on that for a little bit.

Off topic memo here with thanks to MFB for a great line:

Note to Mouse:

Yes I know that we evicted your family member in a violent way this winter and you probably learned by example not to show your existence inside our home. But as MFB mused this afternoon, does our front yard appear to be the Hamptons to you? Are you planning on summering here?

to be continued ....

Arizona Update

2007-03-11T16:32:00.000-04:00

Where does the time go? Mine went where the Antelope play. Where the wind can power water. Where a teddy bear can look like this. Where Ike Clanton comes to life in Tombstone . and the beautiful state my family calls home.

I flew from Pittsburgh to Phoenix via Memphis and came home with great pictures thanks to Ike (my brother) who spent some quality time with me sharing his techniques. The pictures are wonderful but cannot compare to the beautiful memories of time spent with family, made all the more special by a favorite childhood cousin who flew in from Houston so we could reconnect. Along with these pictures I came home with some handcrafted wood work.
My family met the gentleman who made these items with a scroll saw when we went with my parents who were looking at a home they wanted to purchase. He gifted me with the Colorado plaque and my Mom with an Idaho plaque. I purchased the hunter profile plaque from him.

How do I sum up my trip to visit family? I can't thank my Sister In Law in particular enough for her gracious hospitality. My brother drove through the night to get home from Yuma to spend more time with me and take us to Tombstone. We celebrated my Dad's birthday and rejoiced in my Mom's recovery from two surgeries in the last four months. We ate tons, drank a little, laughed a lot and I learned a new game.

A couple days after returning home I drove down to Harrisburg to meet up with Jessica. Several weeks ago she sent me an email letting me know she would be traveling through PA and suggested we meet. She is a knitter and a hockey fan - so right there we had a couple of things in common, how could I resist. This was a first for me. Meeting another knit blogger just because we'd "met on the internet". I had a terrific time getting to know Jessica AND she let me touch her hand spun sock yarn. Beautiful stuff Jessica. I drove her up to Knitters Dream a yarn store North of Harrisburg that is run out of a ladies house. It's a nicely stocked shop and the owner couldn't have been nicer. I came home with two skeins of Cotton Twist yarn - but do you think I remembered to take a picture of Jessica? No. The camera was in the car too - call it a vacation hangover. After a couple of hours Jessica had to head home and we parted with promises of meeting up again - maybe in NJ. Jessica thanks so much for suggesting the meet it was a great time. Remember how the owner of Knitters Dream said she had placed the store on a Yarn Diet? That cracked us both up.

The following day was Sunday where I found myself being driven to Youngstown Ohio with some friends so we could catch the Championship game of the ACHA National Tournament where the Penn State Icers were playing. MFB was driving there when I was headed home from Arizona, so it had been almost two weeks since I had seen him. The Icers lost the game to finish in second place for the season. When I got to work on Monday I wasn't sure what State I was in but I appreciated the ride.

I'll leave you with one last picture of AZ. This is Texas Kate who puts on a trick riding show in Tombstone.

First Lace

2007-02-20T21:41:00.000-05:00

I'm calling this my first lace project here is Branching Out in the blocking stage - this was a week and a half ago. I have to say I'm happy with it - if anyone reading this is looking for a pattern to learn lace on this is it.

Here is my finished Herringbone Rib pattern from Li. This is the second I've made - the first I donated to a charity auction - this one is mine. I love this!! Soft, warm, lonnnnnng and wide. I can wrap and wrap and wrap. It's not blocked as I couldn't resist wearing it when we ended up having serious cold, snow and wind last week.

Here is how we spent our Valentines Day evening. I made it home before MFB and started shoveling the snow and when he made it home he took over. I made the coffee and a tasty beef cashew stir fry (I use raw cashews) and he gifted me with a MP3 player. Happy Dance. Yep no chocolate, flowers, or candy for me. You give me an electronic necessity and I'm a happy knitter!!

Why necessity you ask? I'm sitting in a hotel room in Pittsburgh. I fly out to Arizona and have to be at the airport at oh dark thirty. Last year when I flew to AZ, my carryon contained a laptop, a walkman, recharger, batteries, about 12 CD's, plus two books on cd courtesy of the library, a magazine, paperback knitting and five friends. There's restrictions on the size of carryons so the friends decided to purchase seats for the flight. This time it's me and in my carryon I have laptop, MP3 player, the good book, and knitting. I think my back will be happier than it was last year.

Last year was three hotel rooms, girlfriends car, my rental car, two houses and two airplanes. When I got home I was bragging to MFB that everything made it home with me. Then the library told me I hadn't returned one of the books on CD (unabridged mind you - $$$$). "Are you sure? I know I returned it", I said. They searched through two small community libraries for a week and couldn't find it. They hadn't asked me to pay to replace it - yet. Then two weeks later there was a message on my answering machine saying they had received it in the mail from an airline cleaning crew, and they had no idea how the crew had come across it. Man, did I feel guilty. On my next knit night (we meet at the library) I explained to the librarians that I knew exactly how the crew got it. We all had a laugh about it and they were so gracious about all the work they went through to look for it. I told MFB, Remember when I said how everything made it home with me? Well - I lied". I mentioned to the ladies at the library the other day I was flying to Arizona this week and wanted to check out some books. (Yes I was teasing). Oh airline cleaning crew? You're the best!

Everybody have a safe week - I'll try to pack up the warm weather and bring it back with me and share with you all.

I'm still here

2007-02-11T15:18:00.000-05:00

I just haven't had the energy to do much blogging as my work schedule has been pretty draining the last couple of weeks. Thanks for your very nice emails checking in on me my friends, I sure appreciate it.

On the knitting front I finished the knitting of Branching Out about two weeks ago. I decided to try to block this myself, it's currently soaking in cold water in the washing machine. One of my friends from my Knit Night, waving at Billie, told me how to go about this. I'm very nervous about this so wish me luck.

I hope to finish my second Herringbone Rib Scarf from Li tonight and wear it this week and block it over next weekend.

Moving on to how I've been harassing MFB over the last month or so and how it lead to a .....well you'll see.

I've been none to subtle around home about wanting an MP3 player for a trip I'm taking to Arizona in less than two weeks. When I saw Carrie's post where she briefly mentioned a GPS that also has a MP3 player and I believe it also works with a blue tooth I thought hmmmm, portable GPS w/MP3 player - SAWEET. On our recent adventure in Delaware my harassment started to include the GPS. I've even enlisted friends to amp up the harassment. Conversations such as "If you were to buy a GPS any idea what brand you might get" or an email from friends in Canada "We just bought a Gold Wing but we decided to get one without a stereo because we thought we'd get a GPS and a MP3 player, any idea how much they are down in states?" these two instances in particular were priceless. Then during the Super Bowl there was a commercial where a guy is opening a road map which explodes in the car and I say "that wouldn't happen with a GPS" unbeknownst to me that it was a commercial for the exact GPS unit. He's been a good sport for the most part about all this - his usual retort is to send me an email linking to a Volvo he wants which has a GPS built in. I think a portable one makes more sense - ~~for when MFB abandons me on the side of the road~~ rental cars or traveling with friends who don't have a GPS.

What all this lead up to is this:

On the last home game of the Penn State Icers that I am able to attend this year - last Saturday- I decided to pick up a program for a souvenir of the season. In three programs that are given out there are "stuffers", if you will, saying the program holder gets to go down to center ice during the 2nd intermission to take part in a shooting competition to win a gift certificate. (You can see this coming can't you?) I open my program and I'm one of the lucky recipients. I immediately start looking for a kid who would get a charge out of the opportunity. As I'm looking around the biggest kid I see is MFB and I think of the charge he's going to get out of not letting me forget that I embarrassed myself in front of 1600 people - at least 40 of whom we know. I figure I owe him.

About 5 minutes before his broadcast of the game starts I show him the stuffer and I thought he'd fall over from laughing. He asks, "So, do you shoot right or left?". My retort, "like I would know". I ask him how do I shoot a puck and he says "right hand lower on the stick than the left and as you go through the puck turn your wrist over kind of like a golf shot". OK I think, I play golf, badly, but I play it. He says "try to at least get the puck to the goal line". Yes I know, I asked for that.

I didn't tell anyone else about it before hand. Why ruin the surprise - not him he sent an IM over to the arena announcer (a friend) giving him the heads up. Wanted to give him time to pick out the perfect music for me I guess, how thoughtful. Here's how it went:

They give each person two tries to shoot the puck from center ice down to the net where they have restricted the net to a small slot probably 8"x3" and the puck has to go through there. So I, in my tennis shoes step off the carpet at center ice, I know what you're thinking, and take a nice big back swing like in golf and hit a plastic bin that was sitting on the ice and that made me "whiff" the puck. It went about 3 yards at the most - kind of like some of my golf shots. All I could think of was "try to at least get to the goal line". On my second shot the puck made it down to about the goal line but it was "wide right". I know you were thinking I'd slip and fall but I didn't. Believe me the thought crossed my mind. Later he tells me it works better to wrist the shot rather than take a slap shot. Come to think of it, he hasn't really teased me much about it. As I say he's a pretty good sport.

Almost forgot. At my LYS Super Bowl Sunday sale I picked up a skein of Mountain Colors Twizzle in the Thunderhead colorway. I've been looking at this for several months but couldn't convince myself to get it until now. Why? 40% off!

The Letter for Today is H

2007-01-24T21:18:00.000-05:00

Some of you have done this, already I really enjoyed reading this at Keep Talking. So I asked her to send me a letter. The idea is to use the letter and list 10 things, theories or themes in your life that start with that letter. My letter is "H" at first I thought "how in the world am I going to do this" but I think I'm ok.

#1. Hockey - my favorite sport. It's fast paced, extremely physical, and in my opinion more draining on the athletes body than most other sports. Some may not agree, but the season lasts longer than football, most teams play two - three games a week, and by the time a team has made it to the first round of the playoffs in the NHL they have played 82 games! By the time a team has reached the start of the championship game they have played three playoff series each one the best of seven games so they may have played 21 more games and then the championship game is again the best of seven. That's a lot of banging into the glass, falling on the ice, getting cross checked, slashed and tripped. Ahhh, it's a beautiful sport. If you are not a fan, maybe someday you'll get a chance to see a game where you see a beautiful series of passes and a goal where the puck goes "top shelf". Nothing in the world like it.

#2. Handcuffs, Handguns and the Hoosegow. I know this is three things but it's all related to my career in law enforcement. MFB and I are both retired cops. We spent a lot of years handling the first two and then placing people in the Hoosegow to enjoy the hospitality of the tax payers. We both have several members of our respective families who are or were similarly employed.

#3. Hospitality is the industry I currently work in. I work for a company whose roots are in the ownership and management of hotels. I enjoy where I work and I'm lucky for that. I know there are a lot of people who work at a job that maybe they don't enjoy and I think life is too short for that. On the personal side of hospitality our door is always open to our friends and we have some friends who when we first started working here but were commuting a LONG distance when the roads were bad they always opened their door to us. Friends like this are a blessing.

#4. Humor is what helps get me through anything and everything. Usually I crack myself up over something that I find completely funny and my friends might not. My humor is usually a little dark which comes from my years as a cop. If you have friends who work in any type of emergency services their probably a little like me. I love politics and current events and I listen to talk radio a lot during the day so you can imagine I'm very amused. I poke a lot of fun at myself here and so I appreciate you putting up with me.

#5. Hurricanes have had a huge impact on my life in the last couple of years. Not from personal tragedies, thank goodness, but if you were my thoughts and best wishes for you. MFB travels during the summer reporting on the hurricanes.

#6. Home as in "there's no place like". There's no place I'd rather be. It's a safe comforting place. We've been fixing it up over the last couple of years and in fact have another project slated for this Sunday. We've used a lot of color in this house and it's really the first one we've put this much effort into.

#7. Health is something I have and I'm thankful for that. I have to work on weight loss. Big time. I'm struggling with that. Have been struggling with that for years. Sigh. Need to start eating better and cut out the junk and exercise.

#8. Hospital (like you knew this was coming, eh?) OK I've never actually stayed in a hospital overnight. I've also never just gone to the hospital because I wasn't feeling well. It's usually accident related. Like the last time when I was walking around on a broken foot for two days and was sent for X-rays. How many times to the hospital I'm - why don't you go get yourself a coffee while I figure this out. Really 10 times? That's more pathetic than I originally thought.

Yes moving along, anyone still awake out there?

#9. Husband who is referred to here as MFB. A better guy you won't find and luckily has a sense of humor. He kind of has to being married to me. He's in the media obviously, travels a lot which works for us. You name a sport and most he's probably played. You have a sports trivia question you need answered, he probably knows it. Something broken in the house he can probably fix it. Does he spoil me - Oh Yeah. He's Canadian so you can imagine what it's like in this house when it comes to the Olympics and such. Chants of "USA - USA - USA" to "Go Canada Go". A little competitive maybe? No, a lot competitive.

#10. Heaven is where I hope to end up when my time comes. My Faith is what I rely on to get me through the tough times, and what I rejoice in for the good times. It's hard for me to discuss some things because I don't know how to put it into words, but I have Peace, Faith and Happiness in my life and I wish the same for all of you.

Now for any of you who are still awake, if you want a letter just let me know and I will pass one on to you.

Allow me to suggest...

2007-01-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all your compliments about my Branching Out Scarf. I just discovered that I can't work on it while at the ice arena waiting for a game to start. Having to refer to a pattern and not having anyplace to put it other than on the bench next to me gave me a stiff neck. But since I have a couple of other WIPs in my knitting bag, I just picked up one of my other scarves where I have the pattern memorized.

I mentioned in my last post that I had an interesting shopping experience. I found this store on one of my infamous internet queries. What intrigued me was when I moved the mouse over the "K" just to the left of the "X", I saw the words Lornas Laces. Not available at my LYS or any store I've happened upon. Everyone writes about it, needed to touch it. I called the owner Jody to see if she was open on a Saturday, and she said she was but was difficult to find. I also asked her if she was open on Sunday in case I decided to go by then and she said she was but only by appointment to locals. I told her I was traveling and wasn't planning to spend enough money to make it worth her while for her to come in and open her store on a day off. She said not a problem and that she could promise to be there till about 3:00pm. I just couldn't do that to someone though with how little I planned on spending. Through a circuitous (more about this later because you all want to know about this yarn store) route we finally arrived at knit2purl2.com.

My friends this is not a store front. This is a dot com and Jody warmly welcomed five unknown women into her very comfortably beautiful home and showed us to her brightly lit basement room where she had shelves and shelves of beautiful yarns packaged in clear plastic bags. For my three friends who were not into yarn they went back outside and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, my fourth friend is a knitter and stayed in the company of the fiber. Jody explained to us that she is a dot com and that's why she is open by appointment only. Because of how I located her on the internet I just assumed this was a retail establishment. I told Jody that I was interested in the Lornas Laces and she showed us her supply. Wow. Then I saw some wool that turned out to be Malabrigo. Again something I hadn't touched but had wanted to. Jody took some out of the bag and oh my goodness, this is soft. For me it is much softer than Manos. In the end I came home with a skein of Lornas Laces in the Georgetown colorway for a narrow scarf for the summer. My office gets too cold in the summer from the air conditioning. (I told myself no more sock yarn until I use some of my stash up, but I knew if I found some Lornas Laces I would pick some up, and it's for a scarf so that's OK) I think her prices are very reasonable. If there is something I need and can't find it locally, this will be my first internet stop.

On to the explanation of circuitous route. This weekend had three of my friends staying at my hotel while MFB stayed with the hockey team at their hotel. One of my other friends also stayed at the team hotel. On the way to the team hotel, I discovered I missed a turn when staring me right in the face was a sign that said "Welcome to Maryland". Now I don't have anything against Maryland, it's not like it is Rhode Island or anything. But still. We made it to the team hotel picked up our other friend and headed out for the day. On our way to the yarn store I started doubting we were on the right road just moments before the sign saying "Welcome to Pennsylvania" showed up on the roadside. Granted Newark DE is only a few miles from either PA or MD. Heavy Sigh. This is not the first time I have steered these friends wrong. It happened last March in Westchester. I'm not usually directionally challenged; I was a cop after all. My friends and I think that what happened was when I input the starting name of the road we were on the dreaded G##g!% software which changed Way to Drive and thus showed us as about 11 miles south of where we truly were. Two of my friends had that happen to them when they printed out directions the week before to the hotel. As it turns out knit2purl2.com was less than 2 miles away from my hotel. Can I pick 'em or what?

Home Again

2007-01-16T22:12:00.001-05:00

Thanks so much to everyone for leaving advice on my lace problem from my last post. This is a terrific community of knitters who are so helpful. When I first started here, I had no idea. You all are very much appreciated. I decided to rip the lace out and start over ~~and over, and over, and over~~ again. It looks better, finally. My center stitch does go a little wonky (that's my technical term for it), but it makes sense to me that it has to. With ripping it out ~~a dozen times~~ a couple times, I now understand how I need to count to ensure I have the right number of stitches.

Fluffbuff had this post where she described how she is working on her first lace project and put the instruction of each row on a card. What a fantastic idea. I probably did mine a little differently as I did the old fashioned cut and paste - scissors and tape. This helped me track the stitches and all of a sudden the knitting went, dare I say, smoothly. I was even able to participate in conversations, when knitting, on our trip to Scranton PA and Newark DE .

The trip was to watch our Penn State Icers play some hockey. I didn't make it to the game in Westchester PA as that was the middle of the week. They lost that game in a shootout, but it was a team they should not have lost to. They won both their games that I attended and the second game in Newark was the best I've seen them play this year. For those of you who only hear "WAH WAH WAH" when I go on about hockey here is a picture of some little tykes who played during the intermission in Newark. Even though they're from Delaware the Penn State fans in attendance gave them a standing ovation. Too cute.

I had a small stash enhancement on this trip. It was also the most unique shopping experience for yarn I've had. But that's a story for another day.

I work in payroll. Those of you who are not self employed know what you're waiting on from your payroll department at this time of year, eh? W-2's for us Americans and if I remember correctly T-4's in Canada. Some longer work days than normal and probably a Saturday or two are staring me and my coworkers in the face. If you think of me and anyone else who does payroll, think kindly.

Lace Problems?

2007-01-08T20:16:00.000-05:00

These two items showed up at my house right before Christmas, and yesterday was my first time using them. Anyone else think they could get hooked on ~~playing with a new toy~~ utilizing a very necessary tool for knitters? I wonder how many relationships these have saved? I'm sure many a spouse are thankful their knitter has these. We'll see what MFB thinks the first time he's home when I'm using them. I had no idea the swift was that big! I sure could have used these back in May when I brought this home from Maryland Sheep and Wool.

I used these yesterday to wind the EL Silky Wool and then started working on my lace project. My center stitch looks like it's wandering to the right and left and I'm not sure if it's going to straighten out with blocking or if I need to rip it out. Hmmm. Anyone with ideas?

Amateur Status

2007-01-07T22:18:00.000-05:00

When I first discovered the world of knit blogs I saw pictures on my new friends' sites which I thought were pictures of yarn stores. When I realized it was personal stash - I thought "damn - I am such an amateur." I had a small stash back then. I added to it with a trip to Maryland Sheep & Wool and with a few other trips, and the occasional trip to my LYS. Here's a shot of my stash at the end of 2006.

My friend Lori and I went on what I refer to as a yarn crawl on Saturday. We had hoped two more of our friends would join us but Kim was busy at the Capital and our other friend had domestic duties to attend to. Although she did surprise us and showed up on one leg of the crawl. I had a great time and this what I came home with.

After working with bamboo needles this past year on socks, I have fallen in love with bamboo. I dream of replacing my Inox needles with them, so here is a start and they go with the two projects you see. That's Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool for a lace project Zarzuela was kind enough to recommend to me. It's Branching Out by Susan Pierce Lawrence. Then I have two skeins of Tweedy Cotton Classic to make the Shopping Bag by Oat Couture. I picked up a plastic case to stow my dpns and then a book that has intrigued me for months is Shadow Knitting by Vivian Hoxbro.

Even though I have Amateur Status I'm happy with what I have. My plan for knitting from my stash is making a dent (I'm not saying use it all) in my sock yarn before buying more. I do plan on buying more yarn for lace knitting and for some items out of Shadow Knitting.

I had hoped to have one of my scarves finished this weekend, but I didn't quite make it. Should have one done this week.

Ringing in 2007

2006-12-31T21:57:00.000-05:00

Wishing you all a healthy and the Happiest of New Years.

We're in South Bend, Indiana at this weekend where MFB was broadcasting some hockey games for the Fighting Irish. We're headed home to Pennsylvania in the morning.

The concierge at the hotel we're staying at directed us to Le Peep a favorite of ours and we had a terrific brunch. I overheard a brief conversation from an adjoining table where someone said something like "can you imagine your mother knitting?"

After our excellent meal we drove off and thought we'd explore a little before we needed to be at the Joyce Center. Driving past the College Football Hall of Fame I pulled out my notes of the yarn store I had found on the web before we embarked on this trip. Michigan Street. Same as Le Peep. So we backtracked and wouldn't you know it - the yarn store was right next door to the restaurant!!! Le Sigh. There are so many things I could say about this. #1 I have egg on my face. (I didn't have eggs for brunch - he did) #2 Whaa?? I couldn't smell the wool? (I have a nasty head cold) Not sure if it's a good thing that the store was closed.

I'm not really one to reflect on things a lot, I'm a big fan of the Eagles and their song Take it Easy. But we seriously wish you all the very Happiest of New Years.

Eviction proceedings started

2006-12-27T22:47:00.000-05:00

We live in a 125 year old home that has an exposed crawlspace in the basement. The home has it's charm and some historical roots in the area and we're out in the country. The temperature dropped drastically today. Yes, I'm setting the stage.

Something made me glance over to the top of the stairs tonight and there, ~~ugly~~ pretty as you please, stood a mouse. Thumbing his nose at me he was. He backed into his little hidey hole and MFB asked what was wrong. I don't think I used any colorful adjectives to describe the little...tenant. I may have. MFB went to look and out came the mouse. Definitely thumbing his nose.

I asked and no we don't have a mousetrap. I then asked for the usual other modes of dispatching an unwanted...rodent. Y'know - baseball bat, shotgun, Molotov cocktail, grenade. MFB asked if I was asking him to go buy a mousetrap.

I keep my yarn near the door to the basement and when I said yes he probably should because I could just picture the little...tenant deciding to eat my yarn. MFB said "Well we won't have to worry about him starving then will we?"

When good Santas go bad

2006-12-26T22:04:00.000-05:00

We're home, happy, tired and back to our daily routines already.

MFB's family numbers more than mine and rather than every person exchanging a gift with everyone we have what I refer to as a "Gift Fight". It's a lot of fun. How it works is everyone brings a $20 gift, then we draw numbers. The first person opens a gift, the second person has the choice of "stealing" the gift or choosing one from the pile. The next person can steal any gift or open one and so on. If your gift is stolen you can steal or open another and any gift can be stolen only twice. The first year we brought a gift that was the hit of the party and everyone wanted it. When all was said and done an email with a picture of the victor reclining in his "chair in a bag" with a beer in his head was sent tauntingly to his sister at least once or twice through the year. As I say, great fun. At the end you have a party with a lot of strategy, teasing and memories. Here's a picture or two of one of this years gifts - click on the pictures to make larger if you dare. May I introduce you to the Mooning Santa. He was NOT the most coveted prize. OK maybe he was!

The gift I brought was a small water fountain. I thought for sure at least two people might have wanted it - one in particular. This would have been a sure bet last year, however her guy surprised her with her dream of an Aquarium which I think they said was a 130 gallon TANK. As MFB said - you could swim in it. I filed this miscalculation under "Go big or stay home".

The gift I took home was something I was iffy about when I tore into the wrapping. However, this is my second evening reclining with it. It's a inexpensive massage chair pad with heat (the link is an expensive one). The massage and the heat works. Pretty darn nice gang, thanks!!!

It was a great visit. All the "kids" are growing up and only one is still in high school. One of the kids was out in Alberta for several months this year and he's home now. One of the other kids is going out to Vancouver in a couple of weeks so it was so good to see everyone so happy in a time of transition. I'm feeling old all of a sudden.

We did have a little drama though. We only have one large tin of Tim Hortons coffee left. We left our shopping for Timmy's too late. On Christmas Eve I left MFB while he was getting fitted for ~~a new pair of hockey skates~~ one of his Christmas presents and headed out to pick up one of the boys. Now any of you Canadians reading this know Tim Hortons closes up around 3:00pm on Christmas Eve and doesn't open till Boxing Day. Even with my contact at Tim's I couldn't get even a small tin of ~~gold~~ coffee. OH NO!! We had a happy ending, though. On our drive home on Christmas Day our research told us there was one Duty Free that would be open for currency exchange and GST rebate and we knew there was a Timmy's there. It was OPEN, they had large tins of coffee. All is right with the world and we got everything (except my family) we wanted for Christmas.

Message to MFB : See what happens when you wear your Toronto Maple Leafs sweater? Your team beats the Minnesota Wild!!

Merry Christmas to all

2006-12-21T22:21:00.000-05:00

MFB and I are headed up to Canada for the holiday weekend so everyone be safe and blessed. And as MFB says in his blog:

"Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, joyous Kwanzaa and a safe and happy whatever-other-celebration you observe.

"A special Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States, Canada and all the nations on the front lines in the war on terror. May you be watched over and be safe until you can return home!"

I've been tagged

2006-12-21T19:39:00.000-05:00

THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

I have been tagged by Knitiot at http://obsessivecompulsivecrafter.blogspot.com/

So, without further adieu here is the:

6 Weird Things About Me

#1. I have what, at best, would be described as a bizarre sense of humor
#2. I listen to talk radio all day at work
#3. I've lived in two countries, five states (one twice), one province, and twenty five towns (one twice)
#4. I love to drive, FAST, and in snow.
#5. I can participate in multiple conversations at one time.
#6. I do less domestic chores than MFB

Here are the people I am tagging:

http://knittyotter.typepad.com/otterknits/
http://lorishome.blogspot.com/
http://zarzuelaknitsandcrochets.com/blog/
http://www.millharrow.com/weblog/front_content.php
http://kathleenknits.blogspot.com/index.html
http://mapleontheweb.com/

Edited: I told MFB that I had to come up with 6 things that were weird about me and for some reason he fell out of the chair onto the floor in a fit of hysterical laughter. I asked him what he was choking out and he said "Only Six?" Above are the ones fit for print.

Chalkboard anyone?

2006-12-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

Last week my friend Twig kindly sent me by Mason Dixon Knitting's December 14 post to look at their "My So Called Mini Tutorial" as the post reminded her of our experience back in November when I thought I could help her with the My So Called Scarf pattern.

I glanced at the post as we're all so busy these days. Well I just now sat down with needles in hand and yarn at my side. I have been knitting this scarf off and on for over a month now using two strands of Trekking from the same skein and am now on my second skein.

I've ripped this scarf out once. I just discovered I have done the bloody thing wrong again but hopefully not to the detriment of the scarf.

Row 1 says: "K1 Sl 1" etc...well I slip it knitwise they say purlwise.
Row 2 says: "...purl the first stitch again...." I purl the first stitch on the right they purl the first stitch on the left ....Luckily Kay says Row 2 works either way, thank goodness.

I swear I am not ripping this thing out again. Learning to live with the mistake is ok.

Heah Twig! Thanks again, you're a real pal *laugh*.

Pardon me while I go find a chalkboard to write 100 times "I will not rip this scarf out".

Post Party

2006-12-14T22:14:00.000-05:00

We had our knitting group pot luck tonight at Kim's house. I had so much fun I forgot to take pictures of everything the group knitted for our local charity project. A talented group of ladies knitted up mittens, scarves and hats. Lots of terrific food, some knitting, and a ton of laughter make for a great evening.

Earlier in the day I did manage to take a picture of the two hats I contributed to the charity.

Break on Through

2006-12-13T22:35:00.000-05:00

To paraphrase Jim Morrison and The Doors I finally Broke on Through to The Other Side. The other side of my knitting block to be exact.

With thanks to all my knitting friends out here for their support and understanding, I finished my two hats I hadn't been working on for our local charity. Our knitting group has a get together at Kim's house tomorrow night where we are turning in our projects and I have two. I know two doesn't sound like much but I've never made hats before and so this is an accomplishment for me. I'll take pictures tomorrow.

Speaking of breaking through, MFB's Maple Leafs finally broke their 6 game losing streak last night by defeating Tampa Bay 5-4. He didn't see the game as he was playing hockey.

My Avalanche are on their second game of a 3 game home stand and they won their first game on Monday night by defeating the Hurricanes 5-2. That was a late night for me. At this very moment they are playing St Louis and leading ~~3-1~~ 4-1 in the 3rd period. They really need to win these 3 straight as they are not sitting pretty in the NW.

Disappointment

2006-12-11T21:38:00.000-05:00

DU Pioneers have canceled the game they invited the Icers to play in October 2007. They just found out that the game had to count toward their regular season and could not be an exhibition game. DU's regular season schedule for 2007-2008 was already set.

A lot of us here will be disappointed for different reasons.

Catching Up part 100

2006-12-10T17:23:00.000-05:00

I received an email from my friend at OC Knitiot who reminded me that I hadn't posted since November. I think it's because the only knitting news I have is the lack of news. Maybe I have too many projects on the go both in knitting and in life.

One would think I would have my scarves done by now or the little purse out of Noro but I truly have not finished anything in over a month. Can you tell I'm embarrassed? Here's a picture of the progress I have made on my Herringbone Rib scarf from Li.

Lately I have been concentrating on system upgrades and I found this cool add on if you use Mozilla Firefox rather than Explorer. It's called Clipmarks and rather than bookmarking an entire web site or say a post from one of you where you have your knitting how to's, it allows me to highlight and save excerpts from your posts. It organizes by tags and also remembers the addy of your post. It's great.

What's not great is my Denver Broncos against San Diego. San Diego just moved to 28-3 and it's only the end of the first half. Broncos made a quarterback change a couple weeks ago so you know we are not having a good year. Then there's the NHL teams MFB and I watch. His Maple Leafs have lost seven straight. My Avalanche won at least one game last week, but last night it looked like they decided not to play three periods of hockey (just like the Leafs) and I stayed up very late to watch them loose last night.

Our Penn State Icers had their 13 game winning streak snapped this weekend when they split a two game series against the Windsor/St Clair Saints. The Icers played well against the OHA AAA Senior Major League team and I believe this now puts the record between the two teams at 5-5-1. It was a good battle this weekend.

Here's some news that MFB broke on Friday's webcast: Penn State Icers have accepted an invitation to play the Denver University Pioneers in Denver in October of 2007. That's the Pioneers D1 team who have won the Frozen Four the last two of three years. I'm realistic that Penn State being an ACHA team going up against the NCAA National Champions don't have much of a chance in that matchup but they have a terrific goal to train for. In a couple months my fingers will be flying fast and furious looking for flights and hotel reservations.

Posting this picture may give me the motivation to finish the hat by this Thursday night which is it's deadline for my knitting groups charity project.

Wow I just read through this and it sounds a bit negative. I'm not - I've just been really busy. Work is always a little crazy although I love it. We have some wonderful friends here even though we've lived in the area less than two years and I've been lucky over the last two weeks to spend maybe not a lot of time with them, but cherished time. Hope you all are spending your time with your friends and family as well.

Right yarn for the pattern

2006-11-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

I am definitely happy with this Kathmandu yarn I picked up on my Rhode trip a couple weeks ago. This is Li's Herringbone Rib Scarf pattern, if you like it surf on over there and drop her an email and she'll send you her pattern, I like how the yarn is working up this stitch pattern. I'll try to get a more flattering picture over the weekend if we get any sun. This is my second scarf made from this pattern as I donated the first to an auction fundraiser. The first one was modified by cutting back one pattern repeat but I'm knitting this one without modifications. I may have to get another ball of yarn as I like my scarves really long. The more I work with this yarn and pattern the more I love it. Neither picture shows the beauty of the colors.

I have to motivate myself to pick up my knitting other than two scarves. I haven't finished my second Pomatomous Sock, I have a hat for charity that I must finish by December 14, and the evening bag I'm making out of Noro Kujaku has been set aside. I was making the bag for the usual company Christmas parties one usually plans to attend, but MFB's is on a hockey broadcast night and mine is on the Friday before Christmas which is a travel day for MFB and I to head up to Canada.

So because I think if I try to talk about knitting a scarf too much it sounds kind of like a play by play of an auto race on a oval track (he goes straight, he turns left, straight, left, straight etc...) here's some other things we've been up to.

We painted our boring white bedroom walls Egyptian Nile and this weekend between Penn State and NHL hockey games, we'll START painting ALL the trim in the room white. I imagine this will take us till the end of January to get it finished as there are two windows, doors to the attic and deck, hall doorway and closet opening plus baseboard. It took three coats in the kitchen to cover that boring beige, so this is a job. We plan to sand the furniture and paint it white and put up white crown molding. Our color scheme is the green and white with some purple accents - I know it sounds strange but the right green and purple actually work really well together.

Here's our other project from Thanksgiving weekend and it hasn't turned out nearly as well as we had hoped. This is an old cast iron tub without the claw foot charm. It has definitely seen better days. This is not our first home we have remodeled. Our last we had the master bathroom down to the studs and had taken an acrylic tub and shower out and put in a neo angle shower. MFB decided to refinish the bathtub using a product we had used years ago on an acrylic tub in a small home in Colorado. It had worked nicely back then. This time - not so much. Although the picture doesn't show it well, the refinishing paint so far seems hard as anything but looks like an orange peel painted white. Bless his heart. It was an inexpensive try. I see some serious upper body strength training over the next several months to prepare for removing a cast iron bathtub from a small bathroom with a small doorway. I better start buying up stock in muscle pain relievers.

I leave you with my observations on hunting season. You know it's deer hunting season in Pennsylvania when they CLOSE school for two, count 'em TWO days. When we first moved here it was SAY WHAT? Friends they don't close schools in Canada for the start of hockey season, or in Colorado for First Tracks (ahhh the memories) when your local ski area opens, but we close school in PA for hunting season. I still shake my head over this one. I could go on about this point, but I will spare you. We live on the outskirts of a hamlet if you will, locally known as an outdoor sportsman paradise. What were we thinking? Yesterday at 6:15am I walk to my car and in 20 paces I hear three shots from a high powered hunting rifle and when I say this is the closest I have heard shots around the area, I mean close. It's not even dawn yet. I don't have any problems with the rights to hunt but people this is the Duck and Cover season here. It's a good think that hunter didn't make me spill my coffee as I would have had the urge to hunt him down and give him a piece of my mind. There's not enough blaze orange in the world to make me go in there. By the way I don't think he was a good shot as I had heard three more shots while I was sitting in my car getting my heart rate to slow back down. That's good for the deer but bad for, oh I don't know, houses, cars, people, trees, and maybe the 2-4 of beer I'm sure he had tucked in close.

A slight twist on tradition

2006-11-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

I've seen many a post the last couple of days about Thanksgiving meals and I have to say everything looked and sounded so good. A couple of you ventured away from the quote traditional turkey dinner while most didn't. Twig's tradition is Sloppy Joes and Tater Tots! Twig wins the Most Unique Tradition Award!!

I totally love the traditional turkey dinner but I am also so into a twist on tradition and no apologies.
Here's my story: Last year MFB was away with the hockey team for a Thanksgiving weekend series (as he was for each of the two years before that), but before he got on the team bus he took me to our favorite grocery store and helped me pick out a FRESH 1/2 turkey breast and whatever else I wanted to fix for myself. Even helped me pick out some DVD's. By help I mean I ask "I want to see this one -have you seen it on a bus trip?" He says "Yes - good/bad" or "No -watch it on your own/lets watch together sometime" kind of thing. I had a traditional turkey dinner and even had my own bottle of wine. Don't think badly of him for being away, I'm happy that he gets to do something he loves with a great group of young men. Don't think badly of me for saying I had a very nice weekend on my own.

This year MFB is home for Thanksgiving. On the menu with a long weekend was painting the bedroom and refinishing the bathtub. On the dinner table menu was left over store bought rotisserie turkey, box stuffing for me (MFB has never developed a taste for it), a sweet potato for him, some gravy, green bean casserole, and store bought pumpkin pie. Over the phone earlier in the week Mom and Dad suggested a twist on Mom's fantastic cranberry salad. It's just whole cranberries sliced in my food processor then mixed with pineapple tidbits and no sugar added applesauce. I added a teaspoon of sugar because whole cranberries are tart not sweet. Mom's normal is no applesauce but adds mini marshmallows, sugar, and whipped cream. We have to be more careful than we are with sugar and carbs in our house. We enjoyed our dinner very much.

We were and still are thankful for our fantastic families, his in Canada mine in Arizona, our wonderful friends, and all the blessings God has given us.

I'm also thankful that the prep for Thanksgiving Day dinner was about 15 minutes and clean up was 5 minutes. Why? Why not.

Have a Safe and

2006-11-23T12:05:00.000-05:00

Road Weary Traveler has returned

2006-11-21T21:01:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone for all your birthday wishes. I read all the comments on Saturday from Steve's laptop and your wishes made the weekend even more special.

Warning: I had fun with the camera.

We left Thursday right after work headed to Auburn Mass. and knew we were headed into the teeth of the storm which tragically killed several people in North Carolina. MFB spent most of the 2005 hurricane season riding out the storms and he said that the rain we drove through was worse than the hurricanes. We arrived at our destination safe, sound and thankful.

The next morning we met up with the Penn State Icers and went to Providence College where the team had a morning practice skate. After that we headed out on our own to meet back up with the team in Middletown RI.

We accidentally found our way to Westerly RI where MFB found this perfect cafe with terrific sandwiches and clam chowder. The hostess knew of a yarn store and directed me to Knitwits. It's a beautiful store with a nice selection. I came away with this Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK. It's 85% wool, 10% silk and 5% cashmere. It's very soft and I plan on using this for my Herringbone Rib scarf from Li and Life's a Stitch. The store told me it should block nicely to show off the ribs.

We headed out to our next stop which was Middletown and the hotel and started concentrating on the hockey schedule. This was a two game series against the URI Rams. It was well worth the trip as the Icers won both games 5-2 and then 4-3. I got to know some of the parents better on this trip and they were great fun. In fact one of them brought a gift for MFB and me. A pair of Clarks shoes size 9. Well that's what the box said, but the bottle inside shows a very nice vintage of Blackberry wine!!

During our weekend I hit two more yarn stores, one in Middletown and Knitting Needles in downtown Newport. At Knitting Needles I finally found some wonderfully soft wool in Penn State colors to knit up a scarf for hockey games. It's Cascade Yarns 220 and it's 100% Peruvian wool. Both sets of purchases are very yummy soft. Success.

On Saturday we went to a brew pub for an early dinner before heading back to the arena and I had a Caesar salad with fried calamari. It was fantastic!!! We also drove a short distance on Ocean Road and took a quick pass by the mansions.

On Sunday we headed back to Newport before heading home. We walked about 1 1/2 miles of the Cliff Walk and drove the whole of Ocean Road and took in the sights. We took a ton of pictures and passed by several others out enjoying the brisk ocean air. The mansions we saw from the Cliff Walk were striking. After that we headed home.

I didn't fall off any cliffs into the ocean so the Coast Guard was notified that they could stand down. LOL

At one point during the weekend MFB decided to take one for the team so to speak and the extent of first aid required was the team trainer breaking open some liquid adhesive and the bleeding finally stopped some time after. Messy, a bit amusing but nothing dramatic. For some reason he never let me behind the wheel of the car - most likely for the best. So we're home and back to life as normal.

Wow

2006-11-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

When I came home tonight there was a box sitting outside the front door and it was addressed to MFB. Surprising? Not in the least. I mean we don't have packages delivered every week mind you, but this time of year when he needs things for his broadcasting one never knows. The box was very light weight and the return address said something about a Navy building. So I'm thinking Navy? ??!?? I set it on the counter and didn't think anything about it.

I go about some light domestic chores and MFB gets home about 10minutes later bearing our favorite Chinese takeout for dinner. He hands me the box and to paraphrase says it's for me.

Isn't that a terrific picture?
How about this one?The gift wasn't someone's knitting it was thenew camera to take the pictures with! The first picture is with flash and it definitely added color. This is the Noro Kujaku that I am making an evening purse out of and the second picture shows truly what this purse will look light in the low light of say a company Christmas party.

I've wanted a new camera for quite awhile. Yep - I'm definitely spoiled. Thanks honey it's a spectacular birthday present. I didn't mention before this but it's my birthday this weekend.

So this is the weekend I'm in Rhode Island with the giver of the perfect birthday present. We leave tomorrow after work. As I've ~~whined about~~ mentioned before I have some angst about Rhode Island. We think my actually going will turn the tide on the fact that my middle name is Bill, as in Doctors Bill.

OK friends - if I have not posted a new entry say by Tuesday night one might consider that either the Ski Patrol or the Coast Guard should be notified. That should cover all elevations, no?

Drat I just spent the whole evening getting to know my new camera and I still haven't renewed my driver's license or packed. Off to the website to renew my DL because when I stopped by the licensing bureau the other day I was told they don't actually renew them there, you have to do it on line or via mail. I mean really, a DL office and you can't renew? I won't start on that issue. I'm too busy smiling.

Everyone have a safe and fantastic weekend.

Hissy Fit Averted

2006-11-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh. The joys of computer problems. OK not so much a problem as one little setting that I couldn't find which kept me from accessing the web all weekend. MFB was out of town with the hockey team and provided what assistance he could from the seat of a chartered bus that and the excruciating call I made to tech support and still I had no success. I could have used the desktop, but I'm a creature of habit and prefer my laptop. You know who figured out the problem faster than the tech support person he contacted this afternoon. Thanks You Know Who!

I cast on the Noro Kujaku for the Herringbone Rib scarf pattern from Li last week and wasn't happy with the result. The yarn is beautiful, the scarf pattern is beautiful, but the combination of the two doesn't work. The yarn is too flashy for the pattern. My friends from my knitting group, have you ever noticed that I don't refer to it as a Stitch and Bitch, agreed with me. No sense wasting my time making a beautiful stitch pattern if the yarn hides it. As you can see I hadn't progressed very far when I decided I wasn't happy with the combo and so I ripped it out and cast on for the evening bag which was the original idea from one of my knitting group friends. I've cast on 200 stitches and so I'm using a circular needle, I'm finding this yarn a little rougher to knit with than the other wip's I have going on.

So many hockey games, so little time. I remember the Toronto Maple Leafs won a game last week and the Avalanche lost to the Kings. The Icers won all three games they had this past weekend and this weekend we travel to URI for a rematch of last years ACHA championship game where the Icers lost to Rhode Island in a heartbreaker.

The quest for the yarn for my Herringbone Rib scarf continues in Rhode Island.

I love these colors

2006-11-06T22:18:00.000-05:00

I received a package in the mail the other day and here is what it contained. Noro Kujaku colorway #5. It's discontinued now, I'm thinking of using it for another Herringbone Rib Scarf this time for me. If I don't use it for that then maybe a nice evening bag. The idea for the bag comes from one of my Thursday night knitting friends. She showed us what she made a couple weeks ago and it was just gorgeous. My problem with starting a bag is that I never finish them. I do finish scarves.

Oh, did I say I finish scarves? Sometimes I make the pattern wrong and then try to convince myself to leave as is. MFB is used to seeing me mutter and start ripping out my knitting. He just looks at me, shakes his head and doesn't say anything. Where am I going with this? Well a couple of weeks my friend Twig asked me about the My So Called Scarf Pattern and when I was answering her question I determined that I had suffered another knitting accident. The original interpretation of the pattern is to the left and the correct interpretation of the pattern is on the right.

I'm not sure if you can tell the difference but I can tell the difference, so now I'm happy that I ripped it out and started over. My first attempt had the scarf going on the bias and the texture wasn't as nice as the correct way. This is taking me some time as I'm making it with Trekking. This should be nice and warm when I finish.

Off topic here: Everyone knows what tomorrow is right. That's right, it's the day we all get to exercise our right to VOTE. I will be out there casting my ballot to make my voice heard and I hope all the rest of you do the same.

Herringbone Rib Scarf is finished

2006-11-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

I haven't had ~~many~~ any pictures of my knitting in quite a while due to the lack of light when I get home. The other day I took my camera to work and during a break I was able to capture a couple shots of the scarf that I donated to the Icers Booster Club as an item for their 2nd annual Silent Auction to benefit the Penn State Icers Hockey Team. This is a club team and as such they don't get nearly the funding from the university that the football or basketball teams do. The funds the booster club raises every year supplements the team budget for travel, lodging, meals, equipment, uniforms, tutors and whatever else the team needs.

This is Mondial Venere color #562 and took 4 balls. 55% Merino and 45% acrylic. The pattern is Herringbone Rib Scarf from Li at Life's a Stitch. I really enjoyed the pattern and this was my first time working on a thick and thin yarn. I didn't get the chance to measure the width or length of the finished scarf. I modified the pattern just a bit by leaving off one of the pattern repeats.

I just had to show you this close up as this scarf has been a dickens to capture.

The auction was last night and it was a wine and cheese affair. Two members of the booster club also donated their handcrafted items and theirs were for the live auction. One item was a stained glass window with the Penn State mascot and the other was a quilted Icers wall hanging. I found it a little nerve wracking to see if anyone would even bid on the scarf in a silent auction, I wonder how my friends felt to see their items, which took much more talent than mine to craft, bid on in a live auction. It was terrific fun and I suspect that we at least matched if not surpassed the funds raised at last year's event. The scarf was bid on and went to a very nice home!

Thanks so much for the pattern Li, I have a feeling #2 will be for me, I may even have the perfect yarn that just showed up. So, to be continued....

Who or What is MFB

2006-11-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple of months I've been asked who or what is MFB. MFB is My Favorite Blogger. MFB is my husband Steve, not to be confused with my brother Steve, both of whom are extraordinary men. MFB is Canadian and a retired police constable. He is News Director for Accuweather.com and is "The Voice" of the Penn State Icers mens hockey team. He puts up with and spoils me, keeps me laughing and provides the best bottomless cup of Tim Hortons coffee a knitter could ask for. How great is that?

FILM AT ELEVEN

2006-11-01T20:25:00.000-05:00

If you're a semi regular visitor here you may know that the safety of my person seems to have an inexplicable tie to Rhode Island. Could it be a sort of Bermuda Triangle? Just outright bad luck? Karma? Carelessness?

It could be all of the above. So here's the thing. MFB is going to Rhode Island in a couple of weeks with the hockey team. Yippee Skippee I can hardly wait. My plan was to sleep downstairs on the couch, not drive the car, only eat cold meals, and stay away from anything sharp as well as electrical outlets. I considered garlic over the door but I don't believe it will be helpful in this situation and I ruled out the silver stake for obvious reasons.

Please note I said was not is. MFB asked me go to Rhode Island with him this time. It's been a couple months since I've been on a road trip and I do love to travel. I wonder if he thinks I need a keeper. Knitty Otter could you loan me enough bubble wrap?

One of the fantastic benefits of my job is employee rates at certain hotel brands and I was in luck that the hotel the team is staying at is one of them. I have my hotel reservations made and have found two yarn stores in the area to visit. I'd like to see Naval Station Newport and find some good seafood.

If you see someone who strangely resembles Wile E. Coyote holding a sign that says HELP and is afraid to look skyward for fear of seeing the piano that is about to drop on her head, RUN. AWAY. I don't know the safe distance for this kind of thing.

It's Here, It's Here, finally It's Here

2006-10-29T20:36:00.000-05:00

"It" is this and I'm so sorry for the quality of the picture but if you surf over to Three Dog Designs and click on Architectural Interest you will see a true representation of this wonderful knitting bag that finally arrived.

MFB ordered this for me and the delivery was parcel post. When it had been seven business days with no arrival he sent Holly at Three Dog Designs an email asking for some info. She was very concerned as she handcrafts her bags and as she said it was comparable to putting her child on the bus and the child not showing up at the intended destination. She contacted the post office who told told her that they were not required to trace the package until after nine business days. We now see the definition of "Snail Mail". Holly showed great concern, care and provided excellent customer service including stating that if we didn't receive it by Friday she would refund us and if it showed up we could keep it free of charge. Had that happened we would have arranged to pay her when it got here. I knew she was reliable as one of my friends received two of her bags already.

On top of the excellent customer service, ladies I have to tell you if you want a gorgeous affordable knitting bag with lots of extras check them out. I'm using this as a combo knitting bag and purse and I still have room. Not to mention that I have my knitting needles sticking straight up so that if someone trys to swipe my wallet they will have a pointed reminder why stealing is wrong.

On to sports for a moment. My Denver Broncos lost to the Colts today but a good thing happened; the Broncos offense showed up for the game. The Broncos defense was ranked #1 going into the game and of course the Colts who are undefeated have the #1 ranked offense. I sat down to watch the game thinking I would not be able to hold my head high at work on Monday. I was wrong, the offense showed a marked improvement and if they can continue to improve we may have a good season.

Moving to hockey our Penn State Icers won both their games against Ohio Bobcats. This is a true rivalry between the teams with the Icers ranked #3 and Ohio #4 going into the weekend. We saw two great games both from the teams and officiating.

Under the category of "Stupidest thing I saw over the weekend" A woman brought her small dog into the hockey arena and would not accept that dogs were not allowed in the building because it wasn't posted. What kind of dog owner brings a dog into a cold, LOUD hockey arena and not have the grace to accept the building management request to remove the dog. Come on lady, give a care for your dogs nerves why don't you.

Life is a commercial

2006-10-24T23:30:00.000-04:00

Miss Really Annoying Loud Cell Phone User was in the booth behind me tonight when we were out for dinner. Miss Phone and her two co-ed friends were already at their table when we were shown to ours. Right after we ordered our meals a cell phone rang and it was Miss Phone's. During the 15 minutes we were privy to all sides of the conversation, oh yes we heard the callers side of the conversation as Miss Phone decided that she needed to use the speaker, we assumed so that her companions would be able to participate in the conversation. As we were "just" off campus at a popular hangout for university staff, student, and visitor/tourist hangout we were trying to be very flexible and thought this would end shortly and we could get back to our conversation.

What we heard was, "Like, OMG he didn't, like you did, and then like what did they do. OMG, like this is what I did, and like why don't you call me more. Want to get together over break, like I so miss you, OMG you wouldn't like believe who I just saw."

Like if I start using like and OMG, all the time, like you so totally need to call me on it, because OMG after 15mins, like I thought I would go like insane. Please. Help. Me.

Several minutes later we realized that Miss Phone's friends were carrying on a separate conversation. How? Well Miss Phone told her friends to be a little quieter because she couldn't make out what her caller was saying, yes still on very loud speaker, and I piped up, "I can hear it, we all can hear it". At this point MFB gave me what we refer to as "The Look". Which means, "don't do it". We had been making comments almost loud enough for them to know we had heard most of the conversation and were finding it at times funny, but really just annoying. When we realized how long this had been going on MFB very nicely asked Miss Phone to take her cell off speaker as it had been annoying for quite awhile. He didn't even need to put his "cop face" on. I on the other hand would have said in a snotty tone of voice, "Can I say hi to Mary, I've heard so much of her voice I feel I must know her." This is why I get "The Look".

I am by no way trying to infer that only co-eds are Really Annoying Loud Cell Phone User's. I've heard and seen both sexes and all ages. But LIKE OMG this is the first time it was almost 15mins on the SPEAKER.

Miss Really Annoying Loud Cell Phone User LIKE This Bud's For You.

Trying to catch up

2006-10-22T18:44:00.000-04:00

Seems like it's been all hockey all the time here at Chez Accident and that includes blogging. I just realized how long it's been since I've posted here. The Center Ice package on my satellite has kept my attention most evenings.

I had an email from Joann e over a week ago that dropped into my spam folder and she tagged me to post pictures of personal items at work. The camera and I seem to have had a falling out so I apologize for the quality of these pics. Here is but a couple of corners around my desk. (I have more personal things at work than my coworkers but I spend so many hours there that I like to be surrounded by my things.) Yes that's a martini glass my in laws saw me staring at one day and they surprised me with it. Martinis and a solitary island can look pretty good some days. Next to it you see a corner of a treasured Valentines gift from MFB. A collage of pictures of he and I with my parents when we did a tourist day in NYC. Here is a collection of stuffed animals including a Colorado Avalanche and in the background a Montana Grizzly. I have lots of others personal things there, including a post card from my Mom with momma and baby Javelina Pigs (they're so ugly they're cute). Special treasures from some of the special people in my life.

Here's a dishcloth I finished about two weeks ago, I'm working on those scarves that I'm actually doing incorrectly. I decided not to rip them out, and here is one of them.

The Denver Broncos are in the third quarter against the Cleveland Browns, and man oh man my Broncos are not playing very well. I mean it's the Browns for goodness sake. The score is 17-0 for the Broncos but just to tell you how off the Broncos are Jason Elam just missed a 43 yard field goal attempt. Jason Elam is like a machine with field goals so back to the game to root them on. Hockey update later. Note: While uploading pictures the Browns brought the score 17-7. OK Bronco offense lets turn it up, shall we?

Reinforcement of my folly

2006-10-16T20:57:00.000-04:00

This will teach me to scoff at Friday the 13th. No physical injuries were suffered during the realization that yes my knitting is riddled with accidents, just an injury to my psyche.

A shout out to my friend Twig who has helped me to see the folly of my ways. Here's the scenario:

So I'm reading Twig's post today about having an issue with her My So Called Scarf pattern and I offered maybe I could give her a hand since I was enjoying it and received some compliments from my friends at the knitting group. Twig took me up on the offer and sent me an email asking does such and such on the pattern mean such and such.

"Hmmm", I think, "no that's not how I do it". This is what my interpretation of the directions were and I typed them out really nicely, ask her she'll tell you how step by step they were - right Twig?

Well then after that I read her question again and start thinking, "wait a minute". I pull the pattern out and actually read it. Yes Twig was right and I was again, wrong.

Heavy sigh. Take into account that I am making two separate scarves with this pattern and one is at least 10 or 11 inches long. The good thing is even though I've done it wrong it looks like the pattern is turning out right but I think it's why the scarf looks like it is going on the bias.

To frog or not to frog, that is the question. Whether or not I'm a putz is pretty obvious, eh?

I made it through

2006-10-15T09:28:00.000-04:00

I showed that Friday the 13th. Hah! I'm still here, no medical co pays were paid and I didn't fall down any steps are dent the front end of any car.

No one said Rhode Island until about 12:15am on Saturday. It's more Rhode Island that is the key to this thing. When I got hit by the car, MFB was on his way with the hockey team to Rhode Island. Fall down the stairs and break the foot and MFB had to cover some kind of storm in - Rhode Island. I'm sure it's a very nice state and that I would enjoy the scenery and the people I have met from there are charming but just keep Rhode Island out of the husband's schedule and I should be fine.

Off to a hockey game, everyone enjoy their Sunday.

Can I go home now?

2006-10-13T10:41:00.000-04:00

Paraskavedekatriaphobia (bonus points if you can pronounce it), or better known as The Fear of Friday the 13th.

I really don't have any phobias, but when one of my friends experienced car troubles this morning and then told me it was Friday the 13th - bacause duh, I hadn't realized it yet, I asked "Why in the world did I get out of bed this morning?" (I paraphrased - a little)

If anybody orders DUCK off the menu at dinner tonight, you know I'm diving under the table. I'm going to a game where there are warnings of "loose pucks may enter the stands."

Heavy sigh.

Don't leave home without it

2006-10-12T23:03:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, I was truly glad that when I went to work I had my knitting in the car as MFB received a phone call from his doctor and was told to go directly to the ER without passing go or collecting the proverbial $200 dollars.

During the four hours of excellent medical care what's a concerned wife addicted to knitting to do? Why knit, of course, as well as occasionally crack wise to help keep the mood light and drink hospital coffee. We were blessed by MFB receiving a clean bill of health, or as he puts it "much ado about nothing".

Friends said, "Isn't he the one who usually takes you to the ER?" Har Har. Then today I was sent for an MRI on my never ending foot saga as now they are checking it for stress fractures. I'll have my results on Tuesday. I used to recite the Miranda Warning; at this point I think I can recite the HIPPA Act. Did I mention my middle name is Bill, as in Medical Bill?

So lots of knitting going on, the scarves mostly and a seaman's cap for the Hockey Knitters KAL. Thought I had a picture of it, but not yet. We had our knitting group tonight at the local library and as always it was a great time.

The weekend brings us to hockey, football, hockey and who know what else. Oh and the weather is COLD.

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-10-09T20:46:00.000-04:00

To family and friends in Canada. MFB's hockey broadcast schedule kept us from travelling up to see ya'll. See you in a couple of months!!

Another scarf started

2006-10-07T22:21:00.000-04:00

I tried I really did. I went back to the LYS and tried to fall in like with the feel of the Manos yarn, but I couldn't. I fully intended to come home with it, but instead came home with this. It's Mondial Venere color #562. I'm making the Herringbone Rib Scarf from Li at Life's a Stitch. I found Li from Beth at Stuck on Socks. If you like my hedgehog, go check out Beth's. Here's my progress so far.

The yarn I'm using is a little bulkier than the Manos and so I left out one pattern repeat. I'm not sure if this will end up being mine or if I am donating it to an auction fundraiser for the Penn State Hockey team. I've only got a couple of weeks to finish it and see if it will block out properly. It's 55% merino and 45% acrylic, so I'm concerned about the blocking.

Speaking of hockey, Penn State won their first game of the regular season against Washington & Jefferson tonight and tomorrow they play Robert Morris. The Leafs lost to Montreal in a shootout and the Avalanche were off.

Physical therapy is going well and the pain is certainly less. The worst part of PT is after the exercises the therapist puts a compression boot around my foot which is then filled with ice water. It's on my foot for about 15 minutes. The best part of PT is that I get to knit when that is going on and it keeps my mind off the cold.

Weather was gorgeous here today, and looking across the street there were about seven wild turkeys in the field. The turkeys reminded me Monday is Thanksgiving. In Canada.

Do you love ice hockey?

2006-10-05T20:54:00.000-04:00

I do and my team is the Colorado Avalanche. You may hear them referred to as the Av's or the Lanche. MFB's team is the Toronto Maple Leafs. As long as our teams don't play against one another we've been known to root for the other's team. Olympics are a different story and it can get a little ~~ugly~~ chippy here at Chez Accident with my chants of USA, USA and his of Go Canada Go, but that's what keeps life interesting. Along with the two NHL teams, you'll also hear me talk about the Penn State University Icers. MFB does play by play for that team.

Where am I going with all this? Look at what I did. I just joined my first knitalong. That's right it's the Hockey Knitter's Knitalong. Thanks to Lesley for putting the knitalong together and there's already a few of us there. We're knitting for charity and since hockey has about 84 games for each team during the season we'll be doing this through March. If you're interested, check it out.

Last night was the first night of the regular season, the Leafs lost to Ottawa and then it was time for the Av's to take on Dallas. At the end of the first period the Av's were up 2-0, I went to bed as it was around 11:00pm here, I'm in PA. I thought it would be safe, but no I woke up this morning and Dallas won 3-2 in overtime. Heavy sigh. As MFB said about Toronto's loss, it's only the first game. Both our teams are playing right now, he's in the den watching his game and I'm watching mine in the other room. It's 5-0 for the Leafs and my Av's are down 1 nothing.

I cast on my first KAL project last night and it's a Seaman's Cap from the 2005 Pattern a Day Calendar. I'm using Red Heart Super Saver in the Aspen Print colorway. I've never made a hat before and I'm thinking this pattern isn't too challenging - I've probably just jinxed myself. The pattern is perfect for a little guy and the colors are right. My plan is to knit for some local charities.

Good luck to everyone's team.

On a more positive note....

2006-10-01T17:46:00.000-04:00

I went to my LYS yesterday for more shopping for the yarn for My So Called Scarf and the owner spent a good deal of time with me. We talked about how the Manos del Uruguay was a little itchy for me and asked her about the Mountain Colors. I decided on something I never would have thought of, Trekking XXL sock yarn in color 109 in variegated purples here is what I have so far. I'm carrying two threads together one from the inside and the other from the outside of the ball on size 5mm US 8 needles.

I was almost ready to leave when I saw a swatch of a very drapey delicate variegated yarn. Molly took me upstairs to her weaving yarn stash. OMG it's a candy store of everything fiber. Wools, rayons and I don't know what all on huge cones. Wish I'd had more time. This ended up being a weaver's industrial "put up" (I think that was the term she used) of rayon and it will shrink. Molly wound 1/4 pound into two balls for me and if I need more I know there's no problem. Here is what I have so far of this. Again I'm carrying two threads together, one from each ball but I'm using size 4 1/2 mm US 7 needles.

I'm thinking the Trekking scarf for cold weather and the rayon for the warmer weather or party wear. The rayon has such a beautiful sheen but I don't think it will be very warm.

This is a highly addictive stitch pattern. And it soothes my bruised knitter's pride after the dishcloth debacle.

Wishing you all a fantastic week of fine knitting weather.

Catching Up

2006-09-30T11:57:00.000-04:00

Allow me to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have wished me well for my therapy on my foot. I so appreciate your warm wishes. An update to all this will follow my knitting update.

Thank you to all of you on the compliments on the round dishcloth. I was pleased with how it turned out, and so quick.

Did I say knitting update? Now what I have is serious knitting frustration.

Here's why, yes the Pomatomous socks are turning out pretty nice which surprised the heck out of me. But here's the pattern that has seriously kicked my arse to the curb. I have ripped this Horseshoe Pattern Dishcloth out four times. It is currently ripped out and in a time out for who knows how long. What's up? I have an accounting background via work experience not educational wise. Knitting patterns like this are mathematical logic, right? Am I ready to do a lace shawl when a dishcloth pattern has made me say Uncle? Probably not. I'm so not worthy, YET. No dishcloth pattern is going to defeat me. Right? Stay tuned, the ~~distracted humbled>~~ determined knitter will soon attack this project and make IT say Knitter. (keeping my fingers crossed)

While at Ava's blog the other day I saw a beautiful stitch design for what is My So Called Scarf where she provided a link to the pattern. It's beautiful and looks almost like woven material. It calls for Manos Del Uruguay and I found some at one of my two LYS's. The feel of it though is just a tiny bit itchy for me and so I looked around some and found some Mountain Colors yarn that felt so smooth and the colors are gorgeous. I didn't buy any, YET. I'm going to brave the Penn State football traffic as soon as I'm done here, and go the 8 miles to my other LYS and see what they might have and then make a decision. This will be my main scarf this winter and I want to make sure I have the perfect yarn. I know with this stitch pattern that the stitch will probably do all the work but the variegated yarns in both blogs are really calling to me. By the way, did you see how many projects Ava has on the go? Wow.

Two knitters came out to our Thursday night group this week after seeing the article in the paper. Lori showed up with this in the recycled silk version - beautiful and I want it, but because I take my knitting to hockey games I have this. However, because it's round, it's cumbersome. I need something like this if someone spills a hot chocolate or coke.

For a quick update;
Short story version is I'm back to PT on Tuesday morning.

Long story version: I went to the therapist and after our evaluation appointment she instructed me she wouldn't start therapy until after I was cleared by my family doctor as the therapist was concerned that I had signs indicative of possible blood clots in my legs. My doctor brought me in for an appointment a few hours later and set me up for an ultrasound study of veins and arteries at 7:30 that night. Diagnosis is I'm A-OK!! A big shout out to my ultrasound tech who during the hour and a half long test, laying flat on my bad back thank you, she was personable and friendly. She was second shift at the hospital, and had already done nine STAT tests before starting mine. Twenty minutes into my test (with my nips and bits darn near exposed) someone called the exam room asking her to stop my test and run one that a doctor wanted her to drop everything to do, she told them no and to contact her supervisor if that was not satisfactory. They called her back 15mins later and said the doctor said his could wait till the next shift came in. I appreciated her standing up to them for my sake. I was at PT at 7:00am, then work, then doctor, then work till 7:00pm, hospital at 7:30pm, and arrived home at about 9:30pm, had she done what the doctor originally demanded, once she was done with the other study she would have had to start all over on mine. I appreciate the hard working, sometimes underappreciated, people in the medical profession.

FO and Accident Prone Whining

2006-09-26T20:39:00.000-04:00

Ta da here is my finished round dishcloth:
Pattern: Knitted Lacy Round Cloth by Rhonda K. White
Yarn: Lily Sugar and Cream two colors from stash unknown names
Needles: 7 US straight
Oddities: frogged once due to wrong size needles, one twisted stitch due to tinking, ran out of one color and added another for last four rows.

Yep, even made a mistake on a dishcloth. Very heavy sigh.

Taking a little break from the P socks for required domestic linens so I started another dishcloth with Lily Sugar and Cream - started and frogged ~~one~~ uh three times. Current state is 12 stitches cast on. Let's move along shall we.

At my last Thursday night knitting group the local newspaper sent out a photographer and reporter and here is the story that appeared in Saturday's newspaper. The photos aren't on the web.

Oh did anybody else see the Broncos beat the Patriots Sunday night? Damn but that was a late night in the Accident household. Penn State lost to Ohio and that wasn't a big surprise, but I think a big surprise was Coach Paterno jogging off the field as he wasn't feeling well. Kudos to you Coach, your stamina and grace under pressure impressed me.

I know whining is unattractive but I'm going to indulge for a moment no more knitting news so you may want to "Exit - Stage Left"

Back in March I fell down the stairs and broke some bones in my foot. In years past the ankle of this foot has been broken twice - and you thought Accident Prone was my knitting accidents right? LOL. My foot has been causing me problems ever since. I gave in to the pain (when I'm on my feet) and swelling (all the time) today and went back to see my orthopedist. X-rays reveal the breaks are healed but the soft tissue trauma hasn't been looked after. Off to physical therapy for me in the morning. Currently I can't walk two blocks without my ankle giving out on me and my foot hurting, a lot. It's always swollen, I need to get in shape and get back to a healthy lifestyle but I can't trust the foot to get me through. I got hit by a car when walking across the street just shy of two years ago now - I mentioned accident prone, eh? So of course with the limping from the foot pain it is aggravating the back injuries and now even my neck is stiff. I know there are others who are in worse pain or worry from illness or worse trauma than I, even some of my friends here in the blogosphere. OK enough feeling sorry for myself. I expect in a couple of weeks after therapy I'll have a whole new outlook and will be able to "make tracks" again.

Necessity Knitting

2006-09-24T13:30:00.000-04:00

I so need some new dishcloths and luckily had some Sugar and Cream yarn so yesterday I cast on about 25 stitches and just started making it up as I went along on the recommended size 7 needles doing my version of a slip stitch pattern inside a garter stitch border. The downside is I can't even knit a dishcloth without having to rip it out. The first time I forgot that my straight knitting needles are metric sizes rather than US and so started on 7mm needles which are around 10 1/2 US. Into the frog pond that went. Then I remembered that I had a pattern on my wish list and this is what I have so far. There's a small error in this and I don't know if I have enough of this colorway but I do have some solid color beige that I can use to finish if I run out. I wouldn't normally be this haphazard about something but as it's for me and a matter of necessity I figure this is what using up leftovers is all about. I feel a trip to Michael's during the work week for some Peaches and Cream I hear they have and then make a quick stash of dishcloths.

I finished one of the Pomatomous Socks and cast on the second. In order to get these puppies to come close to matching I had to waste almost a whole color pattern repeat. I just weighed the yarn with my food scale, which is not a minutiae scale by any means but I think I'll be ok for the yardage.

I was at the bookstore the other day and picked up a book that I think will help a great deal. The internet has been a great resource for terminology and "how to" but there are times when I can't access the computer for help. This book has already come in handy. One of these days I'll be able to do the kitchener stitch from memory. If any one is looking for a book with lots of nicely illustrated instructions I highly recommend this.

In laws are here for a visit. They brought four tins of Timmy's coffee and two packages of peameal bacon. Good stuff and the coffee has to last us until our next trip up north which will probably be around Christmas. MFB and FIL have been working with power tools the whole time they've been here including building new outdoor steps down to the cellar door and built a new cellar door. The opening for the cellar has really odd dimensions so they sandwiched insulation between thick sheets of plywood and installed a deadbolt. What we had before was basically a piece of broken plywood that was being held shut with a nail. We're now insulated and secure. The only thing needed now is a coat of paint.

Progress on Pomatomus Socks

2006-09-19T21:02:00.000-04:00

Summer is almost over and I am so not ready for Fall. I thought I was but after the week we've had here weather wise the Cabin Fever I generally suffer from in January or February has already become a concern for me. I'm from Colorado which is a state that has one of the highest number of days of sunshine a year and yet when I lived there the inevitable Cabin Fever would strike. By Cabin Fever I mean the feeling of "my leaves are turning brown and falling off due to lack of southern exposure". I need sunshine and fresh air but we have had a tremendous amount of rain over the last couple of months and so much fog in the morning that we had mushrooms growing in the yard. So on Sunday when I was able to drag myself out from under the fog that working extremely long hours (I'm sure you can relate to that) can bring to my brain, MFB and I hopped in the car In Search of Sunshine. We decided on New York State and about 20miles from home we were in sunshine, than the Pocono's, and about an hour later the George Washington Bridge. We headed north and found ourselves in West Chester County. We had fun exploring a beautiful part of the country I've never been.

Knitting group on Thursday was too much fun. I think next time I'm taking something I don't need to concentrate too much on a pattern. So much laughing, talking, sharing ideas yarn and the like, that I would knit a row, then tink back and had to do that a couple times. Even so here is my progress on my P socks. This is such a neat pattern to watch develop. I know that whenever I do a stitch pattern other than stockinette I'm saying how much I enjoy it, I guess it's because for so long all I was doing was stockinette or garter stitch. Here's something else I learned from this pattern, I enjoy working cuff down socks more than I thought. The first ~~leg warmer~~ sock I made, which is destined to be without it's mate, I hated picking up the stitches for the gusset. This sock is different, it seemed more methodical somehow. One of my knitting friends from the group is using the same yarn and colorway in a plain stockinette and the colors are subtly blending and warm, absolutely beautiful. Her yarn looks so different I didn't realize it was the same yarn.

MFB just left the house to go play mens hockey. The Penn State Icers Blue/White game is nine days away - the official start of the college hockey season for us as MFB broadcasts all their games so he'll be back on the road again. My MIL and FIL are arriving tomorrow for four days, bringing a supply of Tim Horton's and hopefully some peameal bacon as well as their wonderful company. Canadian Thanksgiving is about a month away and again I'm asking myself where has the year gone?

Pomatomus Socks

2006-09-12T19:14:00.000-04:00

These socks have been popping up all over the web so I decided to join the crowd. I'm using Opal Petticoat color 1290. I thought the colors would be a bit more subtle than what they are but they are growing on me.

I'm enjoying the pattern but I've discovered that lace type patterns are a bit ironic for me. Back several months ago I discovered that when I re-taught myself knitting I re-taught myself wrong - by wrong I mean I would knit into the back loop and I can't remember what I did for the purl stitch but it was wrong too. The result was my stitches were twisted (bad enough I'm twisted - but that's a story for another day) and even the edges of my garter stitch scarves curled. Well if you've knitted lace you know where I'm going with this - lace calls for knitting through the back loop. Heah good news - I've got that part down. What I don't have down is a reasonable perception of the size of my legs for the sock cuff. Sunday I started the socks and after a couple inches discovered that the cuff would be too tight to get on, so frogged it and cast on with a pair of 2.75 mm dpns. The picture is my current progress after one pattern repeat. These are fun.

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments on Mr. Hedgie. He was fun and a good lesson to me to work on a project until done. He came with me on "Take your Hedgehog to Work Day" and has decided he's pretty comfortable there. He'll be joining me Thursday night for my usual and very enjoyable outing at the local library with our local knitting group. One of my coworkers asked me if he had a squeaker in him and I said "No that would be tacky" But as we talked more later I thought of the show NCIS and the character Abby (she's the Goth Forensic Scientist - a great character) who has a stuffed gorilla that has a whoopee cushion. I thought yeah a tooting Hedgehog, that's not tacky that's hysterical!

Five Years After

2006-09-11T19:46:00.000-04:00

The most devastating attack against freedom that has occurred in my lifetime. I remember where I was the morning of September 11 2001. My husband told me over the phone about the first plane flying into the First Tower. While we were on the phone the second plane flew into the Second Tower. I said "this can't be an accident". Steve said "no, it's terrorism." We said goodbye as he was a News Reporter and Sports Director at Radio Pennsylvania which meant he was going to be busy. I went and told a couple of co workers what happened and went back to my desk to try and get some work done.

Shortly afterwards, Steve called and said he was heading off to Shanksville, PA where United Flight 93 went down.

Steve was gone a couple of days and was dealing with reporting on the tragedy that terrorism brought to freedom loving people everywhere. I was dealing with the same thing that most of us dealt with. Shock, anger, frustration, immense grief and helplessness. As a retired cop I also felt the pull of the brotherhood of fellow police officers, firemen and other first responders who lost their lives doing what they were trained to do - keep the public safe.

It is five years later and our lives have gone on as they were meant to. We've grown, we've learned, we've healed and we will continue to do so.

Finished Object Update

2006-09-10T17:11:00.000-04:00

Mr. Hedgie is finally finished! I had planned on embroidering his eyes and nose but it looked horrible so I bought some buttons. Don't worry he's mine he's not going into the hands of a baby so there's no danger of a little one swallowing them. Darn, but this little guy was difficult to capture with a decent photo but I finally managed it.

Pattern: Huggable Hedgehog by Fiber Trends
Yarn: Body with Lamb's Pride Worsted 85% Wool/15% Mohair 1 skein Sandy Heather
Tips of Paws with 10 yards of unknown - Molly at Knitters Underground gave it to
me Thanks Molly)
Fur with Park by FFF 2 1/2 balls color code 37
Stuffing: Standard issue poly fiberfill
August 5 - September 7.

I cast on for another pair of socks because I finished these:

Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe Up Feather and Fan Socks by Wendy D. Johnson (aka Wendy Knits)
Yarn: Knit Picks Dancing color code either 64030 or 23593 41% Cotton 39% Wool 13% Nylon and 7% Elastic.
Needles: Chiao Goo Bamboo dpns size 1 6 inch (broke one and had to get them replaced)
August 12 - September 9

The only football I kept up with over the weekend were two games the first of course was the Penn State Nittany Lions at Notre Dame. Let's move on shall we. The second game was the Denver Broncos at the St Louis Rams. Again - moving on. OK OK yes my team lost. Yes the Denver Bronco offense embarrassed themselves. If you didn't see the Bronco game and just look at the score you'll think the Broncos were a lot better than they were. Don't let it fool you - the Rams offense wasn't very good either but at least they didn't turn the ball over on fumbles and interceptions the way the Broncos did. In a nutshell it was an ugly football game on both sides of the ball.

Tomorrow is of course September 11th and the 5th year anniversary. A time for reflection probably for most of us, myself included. I'm always sad on September 11th but the day also reminds me to live each day to the fullest. Take care everyone.

What ?? WHAT??? I can't hear you!

2006-09-08T11:10:00.000-04:00

A terrific Delbert McClinton concert last night but LOUD. Delbert had a two piece horn section on top of the usual keyboard, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and drummer. The whole drive home MFB and I were having to repeat anything we said because as we've ~~aged~~ lived our lives our eardrums appear to be living in fast forward (apologies to Kenny Chesney).

I wonder if Delbert has a new CD getting ready for release as there were some songs we hadn't heard before along with some of my favorites. He has such a repertoire that he can't cover everything. Here's a link to Amazon that has quite a few of my personal favorites that you can give a quick listen to if you haven't heard his stuff. He's Honky Tonk Blues and Rockabilly with fantastic ballads. My favorite song is I'm With You.

The opener was Ruut. That's her name - originally from Finland but has lived in the states for several years. I enjoyed her keyboards but her lyrics were a little angst ridden for my taste. (I'm not a fan of Alanis Morissette either) But I've certainly heard worse opening acts. She told us her web site address, but when I go there it's a suspended page. Very beautiful young woman - but MFB didn't care much for her music either - just not our style of music.

MFB and I are at home today. He's working from home and I took the day off - he just walked by me and said "My ears are still ringing!" LOL

If any of you want a concert experience with a terrific band and a singer/songwriter who knows how to pace a concert and mix his music selections from ballad to driving rock and who can hold an audience in his hand, run don't walk to a Delbert McClinton concert.

(Disclaimer: I am by no means a music critic)

First Fetching

2006-09-06T21:03:00.000-04:00

I have a feeling I'll be making more of these. I really enjoyed doing the cables. I wore them on the drive in today but they're a little slippery on the steering wheel. I wore them a little at work when the air conditioner wouldn't stop blowing straight down on me. They are so nice and comfy.

Pattern: Fetching by Cheryl Niamath
Yarn: Zephyr by Jagger Spun 50% Chineese Tussah Silk 50% Merino Wool
Needles: 3.75mm dpn
Technique: cables sans cable needle I did a regular cast off rather than a picot edge (bad knitter)
August 26 - Sept 1

I've also made progress on my Feather and Fan socks. I'm past the heel on the second sock and about eight rows up on the lace pattern so I'm farther along than what the picture shows.

Serious wife points have been scored. I got hooked up for a couple of tickets to Delbert McClinton. One of our very favorites. So after work tomorrow MFB and I head to Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg. We've seen him here twice before and even though it's going to be a fast road trip and a late night, we know the music will make the trip worth while. Let's see, concert starts at 8:00 should be over around 11:00 then about a two hour drive home.

Happy Birthday Peri

2006-09-05T07:25:00.000-04:00

Today is my friend Peri's birthday. Happy Birthday dear friend and confidant. MFB and I hope your day is terrific. Sorry about the crummy weather we're having (it's not his fault). LOL

Adventures in Felting

2006-09-04T16:14:00.000-04:00

I did it, I finally weaved in all the ends on my Huggable Hedgehog from Fiber Trends and made my way to the washer for felting duty. I've never felted before but knowing that I have a good washing machine there should be no problems. I selected Regular, Hot water, (picture shows current load not Mr. Hedgie) Low water level and tossed Mr. Hedgie into a zippered pillow case and ensured hot water was going into the tub. Five minutes after agitation commenced I took out the pillow case and that water was COOL. OK I didn't have my new glasses on when I set this, but I FELT hot water filling the tub. So I drained the cool water out and MFB came to make sure I was pushing the right buttons and he is a witness to the hot water flowing into the tub. Five minutes later, Cool water again. This happened a couple of times.

So we turn the cold water supply to the machine off. Logical, no? A couple minutes later in the middle of the hot water wash it starts a new beeping sound and the cold water light starts flashing. We now have two reasonably sane people trying to have a rational conversation with a washing machine about the logic be it human or computer of Hot water not standing for Cold. I go to the manufacturer's website and find the phone number for Customer Service. I know it's a holiday here in the States but this is a New Zealand company and they answered on the second ring. The very nice New Zealand sounding man on the phone said "Oh, you want a traditional hot water wash then." Apparently the logic of our washer is that it starts with hot water but then cools off. We had to program the Favorite button on the washer so that it's only hot water. Imagine that.

So here's Mr. Hedgie felted, temporarily stuffed and drying. The only problem I have is that the back where I carried the fun fur along with the wool hardly felted at all. Maybe that's normal? If any of you have hung in this post long enough to get to this point and have any insight I'd sure appreciate your feedback. I want to embroider his nose and eyes if I can get a needle through the felt. Molly at my LYS said to "Felt the Crap" out of this and not knowing the exact definition of it in this vernacular I think I surpassed the crap level on the body in an effort to get the back of him to felt. When rinsing Mr. Hedgie I discovered that one of the paws almost felted shut. Busting through the fibers to get it open again was a bit of work. If I find it too difficult to embroider then I'll have to purchase the eyes and nose. This picture doesn't accurately show his cuteness quotient.

I can see clearly now

2006-09-02T18:20:00.000-04:00

(to paraphrase) the blur is gone!

Over the last year I've had some minor headaches, had to put my reading glasses on for menus in restaurants and two months ago noticed that even with my glasses on I've had to move papers farther away to read. You've probably seen me - I'm the one who would hold something out at arms length so I could read it.

Almost three weeks ago I finally made the time to go to the eye doctor and get my eyes examined. (I wish I could have had my head examined at the same time but that would be a story for another day) It's probably been a good three years since my last eye exam so I was like a bill that wasn't paid on time - PAST DUE.

I picked up my new reading glasses on Thursday. It took so long because I wanted rimless glasses and the lenses for those have to have holes drilled in. Why rimless? You will so laugh when I tell you why. When I'm knitting at home I'm usually watching TV. I only need glasses for close up work so I slide my glasses down my nose to watch TV (nice picture isn't it). With my old glasses I could see the rim, it was distracting and I would have to push the glasses further down. I'm adapting to the new prescription but I have to take them off when I walk around or else I get vertigo. I need the fit tweaked a little bit as I have a hot spot on the right side. Finding the time this coming week for a refit will prove difficult. Here's the good news, I can see!

Will the new and improved glasses help my knitting? That's yet to be determined.

Birthday and travel

2006-08-31T23:23:00.000-04:00

Today is my favorite and only brother's birthday. A girl couldn't ask for a better brother. We had our share of sibling spats but when I needed a big brother he was there. Ranging from helping me bury my cat when it died and Mom and Dad were out of town to walking me home after I tried to catch a hardball with a mouth full of braces instead of my baseball glove and helping Dad teach me how to ski. Happy Birthday Big Brother, I miss you.

MFB is currently taxiing up to the gate at the airport in Raleigh NC. He is going to follow Tropical Storm Ernesto up the East Coast and file some stories. His flight from State College to Philadelphia was delayed and then his connection from Philadelphia to Raleigh was delayed. He arrived at the local airport here at 3:00pm and landed in Raleigh at about 11:20pm. Yep, he's a little tired. He hopes to be home on Sunday.

The Kitchen....and what it's for

2006-08-30T21:18:00.000-04:00

Or....The Stove and how to use it

MFB and I work in a university town so when I say there are a few pizza places I'm sure you know that's an understatement. Even so, we decided to be adventurous and picked up a "It's Not Delivery" pizza on Friday as we knew we would be painting (yes still painting and it's trim...lots and lots of trim...we will never be finished with the pa - uh sorry) over the weekend and would want something easy to prepare.

So late Saturday afternoon we're debating over do we want the crispy crust (place directly on rack) or regular crust (place on cookie sheet). I love crispy crust and the oven is self cleaning so I say put it on the rack. We set the timer on the oven and go put our feet up and admire our progress in the Decade of Painting Dangerously. Before the timer goes off I remark "gee it smells like pizza" MFB say's "it smells like burning pizza". It's probably dripping on the oven element so no panic but we go right into the kitchen and open the oven. We get a face of smoke from the sauce and cheese on the element but the pizza itself is close to being burned. HUHHHH?? We wonder. MFB shuts the oven door while we grab the cookie sheet and a spatula and we open the oven door to get the pizza out and close the oven door again. Each time we open the oven door the convection fan turns off and when we close it the ... I'm sure the look on our faces was priceless when that registered. It's hard to eat nearly burned pizza when you're laughing at yourselves but we managed. BTW it's not half bad pizza.

On to some knitting news. In between painting ~~myself~~ the trim, watching the grass grow uncontrollably due to the rain over the last couple of weekends, and burning pizza I finished my first Feather and Fan Sock, sorry no picture yet and finishing one Fetching. I made this using a cable needle free cable technique that Ava suggested I check out. I think I was the guinea pig here. I didn't have too much trouble with it, the worst part was dealing with the nerves I got by seeing stitches hanging off the needle. If any of you haven't tried it and were wondering how it is, give it a try. I'm such a newbie to knitting that "if I can do it anyone can". I had some trouble around the thumb due to this being the first time I've used waste yarn in such a way that when I removed the waste yarn I had opposing live stitches. I must have inserted the needle in the unanchored stitches incorrectly because when I started knitting them they totally unraveled so I had to do a backward loop cast on to recover. It left a bit of a hole which I closed up with a couple of hand stitches. The other change I made was that I tried the picot bind off but found it too loose for my hands. I'm also not sure if I executed it correctly as it didn't look very neat. I'll have to practice that sometime.

What are your holiday weekend plans? MFB may possibly be traveling and I will be painting. I'll be staying away from the university town as it is move in week at Penn State and it's also the first home football game of the season for the Penn State Nittany Lions. I won't be cutting the grass again as this will be the third weekend in a row that we will have a significant amount of rain. Did I mention that I'll be painting?? Hope you and yours stay safe and happy on this busy weekend.

Progress and new wool

2006-08-25T21:42:00.000-04:00

Here's my progress on my toe up Feather and Fan sock using Wendy's pattern. Feather and Fan is another first for me and it's a fun pattern and very easy to remember. I wasn't sure how this Knit Picks Dancing colorway would look in this stitch pattern but I didn't have to worry. I like it. I'm feeling the urge to make a scarf for the winter out of this pattern in maybe a silk wool blend. MFB would say "don't you have enough scarves?" Ahem...well...uh...see most of the ones I made are the standard garter stitch novelty yarn variety. And yes, I do have enough, but I think it's time for something more "sophisticated" maybe? I'll add it to my list of future projects, which seems to be growing.

I love Fridays and I actually got away from work a little early, so I made it to my LYS to replace the wool that was sent to the land of frogged forever. I did look around a little but did go with the recommendation of my shop owner. Here is what I came home with. Isn't it beautiful? It's 50% Chinese Tussah silk and 50% fine Merino wool. The colors, Oh My Gosh, the colors but this light teal is what I chose. It feels even nicer than it looks. So as soon as the first sock is done I think I'll do a swatch and practice the cable sans cable needle technique and start to work on this. I'll see how my nerves hold up.

While at my LYS they received a phone call from my knitting group organizer who one 1st Place and Best of Show at the Grange County Fair for her entry!! Congrats Kim.

Have a great weekend all.

Kicked to the curb

2006-08-22T20:44:00.000-04:00

My second ball of the Merino Wool was the same as the first. It is now residing in a container that will be placed by the curb on Monday morning. Sigh, I never thought I would kick merino wool to the curb. Neither LYS carries the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino the pattern calls for, but one has a silk wool blend called Zephyr they recommend so I'll be stopping in on the weekend to ~~buy~~ take a look and make an informed decision.

I made it to the other LYS (when I say Local that's a relative term - this one is 35 miles from home and about 5 miles from work, while the other is 8 miles from home and on my way home from work but I generally can't make it there by their 5:00pm closing time) and they were terrific about the snapped dpn. They gave me a whole new set; of course I had a sock on the needles so I had to do a quick needle swap. I saw a few things there that might work for the gloves but I want to take a look at the Zephyr first.

Thanks to commenter Ava, she posted a link in the comments about doing cables without a cable needle. I took a look and I think I'll have to give it a try. If you haven't visited her site go take a look, she has some beautiful finished projects.

A small feed lot that MFB and I pass on our daily commute has some baby pigs! They are totally cute and the first time I saw them they were playing, chasing each other and jumping around just like puppies do.

I'm almost embarrassed to say this but I've started watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels on A&E. This is one funny show with Gene Simmons big tough demon rock star persona in public and dealing with his family who seem to try to keep him down to earth. The look on his face when he finds a KISS t-shirt in a vintage clothing store and the price tag is $2.00 is priceless.

The sun is shining

2006-08-21T20:58:00.000-04:00

When I drive to work in the morning the sun is behind me and so of course on the way home the same is true. I'm lucky that way as I don't have to worry about the sun blinding me the way drivers passing me do. But this morning was different. The sun shining in my rear view mirror blinded me, and it can only mean one thing, fall is fast approaching. I love the instensity of the light that comes from the changing angle of the sun. Everything the sunlight hit this morning seemed to reflect the light back like a mirror. The colors seem more intense and the air provides that strange feeling of energy mixed with relaxation. A few leaves have fallen but for the most part the colors are still green but this is definitely the time of year when you see the many shades of green in this world.

Saturday evening on our way into town for the Roast of the Coach, we passed by a whole ~~group~~ ~~gaggle~~ ~~flock~~ herd of turkeys and across the highway from them were three young deer. The turkeys are another sign that fall is around the corner. Perfect time to knit outside while relaxing on the deck.

On Saturday I was knitting away on my sock and one of my dpns snapped in half. In half I tell you. That never happened to me before. I just bought these bamboo needles and I swear I think I was shocked. Luckily the YS I bought them from will replace them. I just won't get there till later this week.

I started what a lot of others seem to be knitting right now, Fetching from Knitty. I'm using Filatura Di Crosa Zara Merino Wool color 1510 which is a light pink. Here is my progress but unfortunately I have a problem. In some places the wool is very thin or strands are ripped or maybe a little pest problem??? I am now examining the second ball; I'm afraid my progress is destined to be ripped out and pitched. Hopefully there's nothing wrong with the second ball. I did a gauge swatch (shocked myself too) but even though I was very close to gauge I think I'm going to do this on a larger needle as it seems too tight. It has been ~~a decade and a half~~ years since doing cables. I'm using a dpn in place of a cable needle and I'm learning that the dpn is so long it really slows me down. I'll need to pick up the cable needle when I replace the broken dpn.

I'm enjoying this pattern and will probably make a couple pairs in different colors. When I was a teenager living in Montana I had a case of frost nip on my hands when skiing and now I always have a problem keeping my hands warm when the weather gets cold. That includes my office in the summer as the air conditioning is always running and the vent is right over my desk.

Who called me a procrastinator?

2006-08-19T11:02:00.000-04:00

Well you were right. My Huggable Hedgehog still isn't felted. Here are a couple of shots to let you see where it's been stalled for at least a week. I just need to fill in a couple of expected holes and weave in the ends - I should try to do that today. In between laundry, lawn mowing, more interior painting and keeping a guest entertained as MFB and said Guest plans for the weekend just had a 3 Iron thrown into it (more on that later) and a Roast to go to (roast is a continuation of MFB and Guest weekend itinerary.)

I was knitting away on my Feather and Fan socks and all of a sudden discovered that they would be way too big so I frogged it and started over. Here is my current progress. This is with Knit Picks Dancing color 23593 which I picked up at MDSW. Of course as with Sockotta when I did it with one number of stitches the color patterning was totally different than it is this way. I love this color pooling though. The yarn feels a lot like Sockotta.

The weekend Guest is MFB's broadcast partner for the hockey team he does play by play for. Guest lives and works in Philadelphia and drives about 4 hours every weekend during hockey season to be part of the broadcast. The team's long time coach went on to a new position with Penn State and so this weekend is the final farewell for Coach.

Today is a casual golf outing at 9:00am at one of the golf courses then a dinner and Roast for Coach and tomorrow is the annual charity golf tournament to benefit the team and booster club. MFB and Guest are golfing and I am one of the course volunteers during the tournament tomorrow.

The ~~monkey wrench~~ 3 Iron for the weekend is this. MFB and Guest just called and upon arrival at the casual golf outing they discovered the outing had been switched to another course and delayed until noon. So they head off to the other course and find out the cost is almost three times as much as the first course (y'all golf is not cheap to begin with). So they decide to hit a bucket of balls on the driving range before heading back home and Guest's 3 Iron club head decided to separate from the shaft and flew about 80 yards down range. Guest retrieved the club head and assures me that his 3 Iron shot normally goes much further than 80 yards. Guest is not a happy golfer right now as he bought the whole set of clubs in Philly two months ago.

Rain is predicted for later this afternoon and for tomorrow. I have a nice comfy camp chair for tomorrow, a golf umbrella, cooler and knitting projects. I'm good. I'll leave the frustration that normally comes along with a round of golf to the guys.

Edited: Almost forgot - update on the Volvo. Luckily the injury didn't require a visit to the doctor. MFB called the doctor who said we could order just a piece of mirror to replace the cracked one for a small amount of money or order the OEM heated mirror replacement for about $40 more. We decided to order the OEM as the heated mirrors are one of the many reasons why I like the car. MFB did the replacement himself and it works great. If we had just bought the mirror replacement I could have used the extra money it cost to buy a couple of real nice skeins of handpainted sock yarn. I know, I know - Bad Knitter. More yarn or creature comfort in the winter? I'm all about comfort.

Catching up

2006-08-13T09:48:00.000-04:00

I just realized how busy we've been around here by seeing that I haven't posted for a week. But part of that is also because I have been doing more knitting than bloging. This is just a quick post before MFB and I head out of town for some mall shopping.

I have the knitting done on my Huggable Hedgehog. The pattern says to look for expected holes where I may need to add some individual knitted stitches and then have to weave in the ends - lots of ends. At that point I will be ready to felt. (If anyone reading this knows me personally they will tell you, yeah Accident Prone Knitter is putting this felting thing off, because she's never done it before and doesn't want to have another Accident.)

I started a toe up sock and am using Wendy's Toe Up Feather and Fan pattern. I'm using Knit Picks Dancing yarn with size 1 needles. Oh my gosh are they ever small needles. My friend Lori from my Thursday night knitting group showed me a different way to cast on toe up socks so that you don't need to use a provisional cast on and after a couple of trial and errors, it's working out great. Thanks Lori!

MFB used his new gas powered pressure washer to clean the deck and boardwalk yesterday and I was painting the trim inside the house. When MFB took a quick trip into town to pick up lumber for reworking the handrails on the boardwalk, a car in front of him kicked up part of a downed tree and it cracked the side view mirror on the Volvo. The mirror is still useable but it's shattered. Not looking forward to that estimate.

Another FO

2006-08-06T18:08:00.000-04:00

My Snake Socks are done. I just checked my blog and I started these on June 25th and I just finished on August 5, am I ever slow. But as these socks were growing into adult hood they experienced a family reunion, border crossings, dehydration due to failure of air conditioning, a couple of visits to a library, a baseball game, and some adventures in painting to name a few.

The pattern is by Joanne Conklin and I used Froehlich-Wolle color 7629 which is a pale green with a small smattering of other colors. I used size 2 bamboo dpns (I think I knit tight). So much fun and did I ever learn a few things about knitting with these socks. I've never done anything resembling lace before so it was a fun new experience for me. I of course have a lot of other sock patterns in the lineup (who doesn't), but I plan on coming back to this pattern in the future and make it out of some other color. The picture doesn't show the detail that this pattern has.

I started a second project last night and it's going fast. This is the start of my Huggable Hedgehog pattern by Fiber Trends which my LYS ordered in for me. As you can tell from the picture I think I'm going to have alot of ends to tie in.

Saturday at Chez Accident was spent with MFB washing and detailing the two cars. Yes, I believe we have thunderstorms predicted for tomorrow. I cut the grass and used the weed whacker in spots then settled in on the covered deck to finish up the Snake Socks. Afterwards we headed into town for dinner and grocery shopping.

Today was pruning a lilac bush which may have a hornet infestation. When I was done, again I relaxed in the breeze on the covered deck. I finished listening to Janet Evanovich's Twelve Sharp while knitting away on the hedgehog and MFB painted the upstairs door to the upstairs deck and attic window trim.

Uhhh Yes, the door was open for part of the day. Did a bat come in? That's yet to be determined. Dinner preparations begin shortly, that's when I found out the last time.

Finished Woobie

2006-08-04T20:59:00.000-04:00

This is a Blanket Buddy for my co-worker who is expecting her first-born in four weeks. Two weeks from now, she plans to be out mowing the lawn and whatever else she can think of to hurry the birth of her daughter along. For this bunny I used two strands of Red Heart Soft Baby and a contrasting dark blue yarn from the stash for the back stitching of the face. The face area is filled with fiberfill and the smallest bag of fiberfill I could find is enough for about 30 of these. Such a quick knit, even for me. This pattern has a slight modification to make ears for a bear rather than a bunny. That will be my next one. The other co-worker's little boy is due in October.

I'm still working on Snake Socks but hope to finish this weekend. I probably said that last week. Hopefully this will be the last time I say it. Last night I finished the heel and gusset shaping and started the foot. I hoped to be further along as I had a doctor's appointment yesterday at noon and when I scheduled it they lead me to believe that I would be spending a lot of time between multiple blood pressure checks. I thought "perfect time to indulge in knitting in the middle of a work day" right? Wrong. My blood pressure was normal and so no further testing needed. Good news but not a single knit stitch made so I'm not as far along as I hoped.

If they had taken my blood pressure today at 4:00pm it probably would have been ~~a lot higher~~ slightly elevated due to a frustrating experience. MFB listened to me vent on the drive home then we went for a short walk after dinner tonight where we did some duck watching and that's all it took to put life back on its axis.

The heat is starting to break and we hope to do some more home improvements that will probably include the weekly lawn mowing, power washing the deck to get it ready to stain, painting the trim in the living room and whatever else comes to mind. Ah yes, the joys of home ownership.

It's the heat I tell you

2006-08-01T19:46:00.000-04:00

I received a couple of comments asking what a Blanket Buddy is from my previous post. Here is the link to the pattern on the Lion Brand site. See here's the thing; I wasn't sure what it was either because the picture didn't show up on my zerox copy. And uh I really don't know much about babies, so I didn't know but thanks to my gal pal Peri, when I described it to her she said " Now that you've described its decoration, I get it much clearer -- it's a "woobie," or "bankey" or whatever else kids call their favorite "blanket buddies," hence the name. " I think the heat is keeping me from thinking and describing things enough for others to see what I see.

I know y'all know it's hot; you don't need me or MFB to tell you how hot it is - because we are all feeling it. Allow me to share this with you though. The last couple of days, I think Pennsylvania has slid into Tennessee because the heat haze here looks like we're in the Great Smoky Mountains.

I feel a quick little rant or two coming on because if you can't indulge in one in this heat when can you?

#1 Memo to the genius who decides what will be shown on TV during prime time during the summer:
Can you pick one evening a week where you could program one show that would keep my interest? Please.

#2 Seen during dinner in a restaurant tonight was a lady probably 8 years or so younger than I with (I assume her children) a daughter (maybe around 12) and a son probably about 16. The sports bar restaurant is downstairs but this family was sitting up in the nicer restaurant area. The son was sitting at the table with a baseball hat on. Are baseball hats now considered society's "dressing up for dinner"? I don't get this. Don't get me wrong I am not from the age when a man would take off his hat when a lady passed by, but MFB and I were raised with certain manners i.e. men open doors for ladies and men don't wear hats at the dinner table.

On the other hand - why do I care? He's not my son, and none of the men in my family would do such a thing and that includes when they have helmet head from wearing a motorcycle helmet all day.

It's gotta be the heat.

Where did the weekend go?

2006-07-30T16:54:00.000-04:00

I went to my usual knitting group this week and it ended up being a group of two. My cohort in knitting gave me a copy of a free pattern for a "Blanket Buddy" and here's my progress on it so far. I'm making it out of Red Heart Soft Baby. I've decided to do this for my co workers who are having babies in the "near" future. It's going very quickly so I can relax about having these gifts ready.

MFB received an invite from his friend for us to join him at a Minor League Single A ball game between the Spikes and the Doubledays. We'd never been to this ballfield and who wouldn't want to spend a hot evening watching a game, so we appreciated the invite. The local team the Spikes (mascot is the Deer - spikes being the small horns on a young buck) ended up loosing 4 - 3. The team's battle cry is Fear the Deer. That cracks me up. Ferocious deer? Not your usual impression, but when trapped they can be. It was a good time, we were in a private box and we ran into some other friends in the neighboring box as well. Here the sock takes in the game. We had perfect weather for a ball game.

This weekend we are continuing our foray into Faux (pardon my language) painting. Here is the stair well before and then after. We are very happy with the results.

I finally made it to my LYS for my pattern and wool for the Hedgehog I want to make. The store owner Molly was kind enough to gift me with 10 yards of extra wool the pattern calls for. I think she took pity on me for not knowing anything about feltable wool and gave me some pointers on what to look for and how to handle the wool. I'm excited to start this.

My progress on the Snakes Socks has slowed somewhat, but I am ready to turn the heel and will work on that a little this evening.

It seems the heat wave is breaking in California and thank goodness for that, but it's darn hot here in PA. Nonetheless, we were able to do some outside lawn maintenance. The grass is now cut and we dug up the Lilies that remind me of Thing. They had bloomed but they were even less attractive this year than last. They had so overcrowded themselves they were choking.

Update on my car. Have air conditioner, will travel.

A little afternoon irony

2006-07-27T14:14:00.000-04:00

OK this is just too funny not to let you all in on this.

So for about 5mins I’m sitting in my office here at work and listening to thunder interrupt my AM listening pleasure. The dark clouds are moving in and the wind picks up. It just starts to rain, and I think maybe My Favorite Blogger, who you may have realized is the News Director at Accuweather.com, may not have put the windows up on my car. (I still have his today.) He works on the operational floor where there are no windows, and he doesn’t keep his eye glued to the radar of the local weather.

I call him and suggest he check on my car as it is still recovering from its surgery. I step away from my desk and come back to a voice mail from him. He’s called on his cell phone from inside my car and the message goes something like “YOU couldn’t have called me ten minutes earlier? I got out here just in time to close the roof and now I’m sitting here waiting for it to stop so I don’t drown.”

Somehow this is my fault??? Anybody else see the irony here?

Snakes in the Grass

2006-07-25T21:47:00.001-04:00

Back on July 13 I said I had some finished objects without proof. Here's some more evidence. What we have here is one and a half Snake Socks. It's taking me a while as life keeps interrupting hobby. I worked about 12 hours on Monday and was heard muttering "this is keeping me from my knitting, darn it." But I have my priorities - no job, no yarn.

I didn't make it to the yarn store on Saturday to pick up my next project - the Hedgehog, but maybe I can get out of work a little early on Thursday and pick up everything I need. I have to get started before co-workers babies get here.

My friend Peri was here on Sunday for diner, duck watching and blog sharing. She lives in town and we live in what MFB and I call "cottage country". On the menu was chicken breasts marinated with a mixture of diet Sierra Mist with 1/2 a package of Good Seasons Italian Salad Dressing done on the BBQ (trust me this is good). Fresh vegies and new potatoes with a key lime juice drizzled on them folded up in aluminum foil and grilled on the BBQ and some fresh mixed fruit. Here's the thing, with barbequing everything - less kitchen clean up more time for fun. Peri brought sugar free angel food cake, sugar free Cool Whip and fresh blueberries. I hardly ever eat blueberries, but these were delicious. We try to go low carb and no sugar other than natural ones whenever we can, and Peri is in training for the Nike Women's Half-Marathon in California in October so the menu suited us all.

Hope everyone is staying cool. Special thoughts going out to my family in Arizona!! I sure hope this heat wave breaks soon for everyone hard hit.

And finally...
MFB took my Volvo S80 (shown here at it's favorite shoe store on our way home from South Dakota) to the specialist in Harrisburg where it is scheduled to go under the knife tomorrow for the air conditioner injury it suffered in Canada a couple weeks ago. We received the diagnosis today and found out it wasn't terminal after all.

We had some scary moments when we were told that the timing belt might also be involved as it was 20,000 miles past recommended replacement. But when we confirmed with our local General Practitioner that we replaced the belt before our sojurn to South Dakota we were doing a happy dance.

The diagnosis was blown hose rather than blown compressor. This compares to blown ligament rather than full knee replacement. Like the ligament the hose is in a place(where we can't even see it) that would take us at least two hours to replace with skinned knuckles and colorful language. The Freon needing to be replaced like saline solution and in Canada can only be done by the professionals due to the hazardous materials so we decided to leave it with the professionals for the op. They were kind enough to give MFB a loaner of a new S40. Nice car but it's not the S80 which is very well appointed. So far I'm two days without my XM. Withdrawals - Oh the Humanity!

In a nutshell, I don't have to shop for a new car, which I hate because I have very expensive tastes in fast cars. MFB does not provide the necessary grounding in this matter because I love cars, but he is a true sports car enthusiast and he LOVES to shop for cars.

Super Hero returns

2006-07-22T13:09:00.000-04:00

MFB made it home at around one this morning, and it seems that his Super Hero Cape stayed safely tucked in the suitcase. Tropical Storm Beryl as far as Hurricanes go, was pretty much a non event, but it was a pain in the tush as it sounds like the rain, lightning and wind hit some areas pretty hard. Yesterday evening I was speaking with a business acquaintance who is in West Chester PA, he said they still had around 30,000 people without power and I saw some pictures on the internet of flooding. Last night my satellite TV signal went out at the same time I heard a loud clap of thunder and the skies opened for about 10 minutes. The satellite signal was out for about 5 minutes, and I never lost power so I'm pretty lucky. It rained on and off all night and stopped around 9:00am. When the sun comes out today it will be hot and steamy.

We interrupt this post for a bit of a rant re: television from the Chez Accident perspective. We have over 300 channels of satellite (only local cable we have here is 30 channels and you have to sign up for it at the local barbershop, yes it's a small town) TV and still there is nothing to watch at this time of year. I just worked about 50 hours this week, turn the TV on at 8:00pm and even resorted to try the Lifetime and Oxygen channels (poke my brain with a sharp stick please to watch those) and there was nothing.
On primetime there was choice 1: "The Unit", great mid season replacement show, saw everyone one of those, but it's like 24, heavy and it's good the first time but I don't want to watch its repeats.
Choice 2: "Las Vegas", I won't call it great, it's fun but I can only take so much gratuitous T&A (note to costumer: The female leads are gorgeous yes, but having to look at "the girls" after the second episode of the first season was only interesting to the male viewers. Last night's episode was one of the 4 that I watched during the normal season.
Choice 3: "Numbers", I like this show it's intelligent, crime drama and good acting. Wouldn't you know it? I had watched it during the normal season.
That was strike three so I tuned into a design channel and they said something about "Faux painting technique". Picked up my trusty laptop to bang out an email to the FCC with a complaint about "can they really say Faux on TV it's such a four letter word?" and then I realized it only was to this household. When I was tempted to throw things at the TV I realized I needed to get a grip, and resorted to the standby Fox News Channel which appeals to this households ~~news junkies~~ interest in current news.

Seems like my evenings have been consumed with things ~~channel surfing~~ other than knitting but I have managed to do about 2 1/2 pattern repeats on my second Snake Sock. I know I've said this before, but I have to say again how much I enjoy this pattern and this yarn. I don't knit as fast as others do, not sure why and I wish I could produce as fast as others do, but for now I'll have to be happy with my speed. It's relaxing and cathartic for me.

My LYS ordered a pattern of a stuffed Hedgehog for me and it's in. I have to try to get there today to pick it up. Two of my coworkers are having babies and I thought it would be fun to make. The store owner told me that it's a felted pattern. GULP. I've never done that before. Another learning experience is in store.

The British Open is on and my favorite PGA golfer Ernie Els is in the top five. Go Ernie! It looks like Liverpool is as dry as California and Arizona.

And yet another road trip

2006-07-18T22:40:00.000-04:00

MFB is on the road with his sidekick. This time of year if he is on the road for work it's with a Super Hero Cape. Although I personally think a Super Hero Wet Suit would be more in order as he travels to provide on scene reporting of Hurricanes. Last season he was away alot but this will be the first this hurricane season as currently there is a Tropical Storm about 160 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras NC. MFB enjoys his job and he loves these assignments, and yet all of us involved in this way are mindful that people and property are in harms way.

I pray for everyones safety.

Reunion Memories Part Deux

2006-07-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

Another day, another road trip. In this case it was also another family reunion. This past weekend MFB and I traveled up to for his.

Saturday morning was the family traveling to the Albion Hills Conservation Area for a gathering of the clan. Relatives from as far away as South Africa (who just moved to Canada two months ago) were in attendance including the oldest family member who I believe is quite proud of her age but I will give an age range of 90-94. As I told one of MFB's uncle's the last time I'd had this much fun was in South Dakota at my reunion. We reconnected with family we hadn't seen in years and met some we'd never met before. This family reminds me of my own, rock solid, with the family as priority over anything else.

I promised proof of a FO and here it is. My Topi hat, but it's not mine any longer. One of the problems with family is that they are honest. So every time I modeled Topi, there were snickers and sometimes outright laughter. ~~I'm sure it was meant kindly~~ My charming and intelligent niece modeled the hat and the compliments flew. I was talented, such nice detail, it looked so nice on her, I have a round face she does not. See how nice it looks on her? My niece is now the proud owner of the hat. The hat is American, so I think I have to get Landed Knitted Status for it as it stayed with the Canadian.

All too soon the reunion was over. As we were driving our son home, we heard a muffled explosion. We looked at each other wondering what it was, nothing seemed wrong, must have been another car, right?

Wrong! Sunday morning was the hottest day on the hottest weekend of the summer, heading home with only hot air from the air conditioner. Reports that the muffled explosion we heard was the air conditioner compressor blowing it's working parts to smithereens are as yet unconfirmed, but the fact that we drove from Port Perry Ontario to Central PA sweating our tushies off in a car with black leather interior, are a pretty good indication that my cars air conditioner is FUBAR. (sorry Mom)

The traveling sock was a little grouchy with this, heah who can blame a wool sock when it's dehydrated? So we stopped at one of our favorite places for a quick chicken dinner. Go figure, their air conditioner wasn't working either. The sock and a stock of Timmy's made it back across the border with no problems. We were welcomed back to the by a US Customs and Border Protection officer with a personality who agreed, that Timmy's is definitely worth brining into the US.

FO Sighting without proof

2006-07-13T22:47:00.000-04:00

I finished my Topi hat, pattern compliments of Jenn. I like it and what a fun pattern to knit. Will probably make it again in a bright summer color or maybe one with wool in colors for one of my hockey teams. Might be fun to wear it in the arena to help keep warm.

I also finished my first Snake Sock, pattern compliments of Joanne and I'm working on the ribbing for the second sock. This is my first try at a lacey pattern and I never realized the detail in the individual stitches of k2tog or PSSO. Now I'm planning my next projects and can't wait to get the 2nd sock done to move on to the next lace pattern to try.

No pictures of either of this since when I got home I wanted to pack for our road trip, so you'll have to take my word.

MFB and I are headed up to my Country-In-Law tomorrow. We are going to Port Perry (north of Toronto) Ontario and then a conservation area near Bolton for his family reunion. He tells me we'll be up there for one of the hottest weekends so far this summer. It's supposed to be HOT and HUMID but he still has plans to golf with his brother on Sunday before we head back home.
So while he's golfing, I plan to introduce my SIL (she sells her scarves in a boutique during the winter) to the world of sock yarn. That's right, I'm going back to where it all started, the LYS where I bought my first ever sock yarn.. (Oh that's OK. MFB won't read this before we go away so he won't be...wait a second that's just asking for bad karma). It'll be a fast trip as usual, and of course a trip back to Canada wouldn't be a trip without picking up our Tim Horton's coffee.

Happy Birthday MFB

2006-07-12T06:04:00.000-04:00

Only have a minute this morning before running off to work to wish MFB a very Happy Birthday, (and of course who just walked up behind me, Hi Ya Hon).

Darn not a surprise anymore. Drop him a line if you want at newstips@accuweather.com

Jumping the Shark?

2006-07-10T23:20:00.000-04:00

This evening was some time for me to reconnect with a friend over dinner. We had a terrific time and lots of laughs.

As friends do conversation wanders all over the chart and we talked about the 4th of July celebrations. I mentioned that one of the strangest things I've seen lately was this years Boston Pops hosted by Dr Phil and his wife. I don't get that. If there was a green room can you imagine the conversation between Steven Tyler and Dr Phil? Yep the other strange thing was Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith performing with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops. I have always liked Aerosmith and really enjoy the yearly Boston Pops Goes the Fourth, but I like them individually. As Peri said, you just don't picture them together. We agreed that it was kind of like having a glass of milk with a sour pickle.

Faux is a four letter word

2006-07-09T18:57:00.000-04:00

Or the Summer of Painting Recklessly or maybe How I Ruined My Summer Vacation, except I'm not on vacation - just a gorgeous weekend.

That's my way of saying mostly off topic posting today. Oh wait, I turned the heel of my snake sock yesterday. Happy dance!! But then, when I was picking up stitches, I didn't put the right amount of stitches on needle one so when I started the decrease I knitted the wrong stitches together and didn't discover my operator error until after 10 rows or so. So I ripped it back to the start of the decrease, recovered from my error and progressed to working on the foot. A learning experience.

Moving on to today's topic. MFB and I decided it was time to faux our living room. We have always joked about how faux is a verb as we watch numerous home improvement shows and have dreamed about painting our white walled living room. I wanted it to look like it had (edited July 10 DOH!) ~~sued~~ suede or leather on the walls. The technique is called Frottage. The idea is to paint a light color base and let it dry. Then crumple drop sheets, mix a darker color with a glaze, roll the glaze mixture over the paint in sections the same size as the sheets, smooth the sheets over the paint, and when you remove the sheets, the voids and textures left over should look like suede. Except ours just looked like $&!!. The picture doesn't show the true extent of our handiwork, but pleased we were not!!

What's that you say? Did we try this technique on a piece of plywood or cardboard? Do I make a gauge when knitting? Now why would I or we do that? Yeah I know, operator error.

In an effort to recover, we tried spraying water on the wall and tried the ragging on and ragging off techniques in a small area. Didn't like that either. Then we tried our own version of colorwashing. What we did on another wall was put the glaze on the wall with kind of a dry brush technique in an X pattern. Now this we like. We did it around the room and for the most part are very pleased. The picture isn't terrific but you get the idea. The light color is called Bagel and the dark color is Peanut Butter. TASTY. In fact in the middle of this excursion we had peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. In a couple of weekends we have to do the same Faux (Pardon me! Where is that bar of soap to wash my mouth out with?) treatment to the STAIRWELL!! I never said we do things the easy way, just our way.

Just an hour ago, we were sitting out on the deck with a "refreshing beverage". I with my knitting (yeah I know surprise eh?) and MFB with his laptop, taking a break and congratulating ourselves on our home improvement recovery when a thunderstorm started. We scooped up our possesions and darted inside. Then we had Snow in July. Yep that's hail.

Knitting, hockey and a letter

2006-07-05T21:19:00.000-04:00

I'm almost done with Topi from Jen. I think it's cute, but I probably could have made it about 1/2 inch smaller in diameter. Jen replied to an email I sent her about the (edited July 6 DOH!) ~~wholes~~ holes I have at the cast on in the previous post and she had a solution for me, so I'll see how that works.

I'm a first time blood donor as of today. That laying still for 10-15mins without anything to do nearly made me nuts. If anyone can come up with a way to knit while having a pint of blood removed let me know. I was doing fine all day, but I gotta say in the last 1/2 hour I have not been able to stop yawning. Time for a coffee or two.

I know it's summer but allow me to comment on hockey for a moment. Stevie Y retired this week. As a die hard Colorado Avalanche fan, which makes me really dislike the Red Wings, I now have a huge smile on my face. In my mind Colorado and Detroit are huge rivals. As a die hard hockey fan, seeing Steve Yzerman leave the ice after such a terrific career is tough. I imagine he'll be heading to the Wings front office or maybe he'll be going to a broadcast career of some kind. Either way, I think he'll be a good ambassador for the sport.

This is a very off topic ~~rant~~ ramble: Why is it when I'm driving to work at 7:00am and the rain is pouring down bad enough that drivers are going 10 mph under the speed limit, I will pass or come up behind 1 out of every 10 cars without their headlights on? I even had my car's rear fog light on this morning for extra visibility.

A note to the gentleman driving the pickup that was drifting over the center lane towards me: when I flash my headlights at you, the appropriate response would have been to take your cell phone out of your hand turn your headlights on and return to your own lane. Continuing your conversation and giving me the one fingered salute with the hand that had been loosely controlling your pickup made you more careless than when I first tried to communicate that you were in the lane that my vehicle occupied. Luckily I had a wide shoulder to escape onto rather than a ditch.

Lost my mind sunglasses

2006-07-02T21:07:00.000-04:00

I didn't mention this yesterday because I had to figure out how this happened.

Here in Central Pennsylvania we have had so much rain the last week I was looking for wood so I could make a boat or at least an oar! With so much rain, I didn't have much use for my sunglasses. About four days ago I started looking for my sunglasses. I couldn't find them. When I'm not wearing them they are supposed to be in their black case. I checked my office at work, all the countertops at home, the bathroom cabinet, both cars and their trunks. I checked my purse six times. Called the grocery store which was the last place I remember having them. Since I had been to the grocery store I looked inside the refrigerator and the pantry. So yesterday I took my house keys out of my purse and I had to move my sunglass case to get to them. Two conclusions
#1 I am blind as that bat that visited the house the other day - or
#2 Shopping at your local yarn store puts everything right with the world

Now that my eyes are no longer burning from the limited sunshine we've had this weekend, here is some knitting progress.

First off the top of the Topi hat

and second is my progress on the Snake Socks.

Excuse me while I surf the web for a GPS locator for my sunglasses.

Happy Canada Day

2006-07-01T17:38:00.000-04:00

I was adopted by Canada several years ago when I married. Happy Canada Day friends and family!!! You're a long way away but we're thinking of you and we'll see you in a couple of weeks.

On my way home from my LYS today I thought I would take some shots of the local celebrities. First off, a bunch of adults and then a family.

This was around 3:00 this afternoon, there was a deer that had just walked cautiously into the same creek for a drink but I wasn't fast enough on the trigger. This is less than two miles from home, and it definitely overran its banks during the storm we had this past week.

Some friends of ours from the Toronto area were here Thursday night and we had a terrific visit. Being friends and being from Toronto they brought a care package which consisted of Canadian beer, chocolate, and two large tins of coffee. Yes our supply of Tim Horton's coffee has been replenished. Now keep in mind they came down on a motorcycle pulling a small trailer, storage space is a premium. That is friendship. They made it back to the American side of Niagara Falls on Friday and thankfully were able to avoid the tornado that hit the Buffalo area. Thanks B&B for your care package, your time to visit us during very shaky weather conditions and most importantly your friendship.

I've made great headway on the Snake Socks but the picture I took today looks strange, so I'm not posting it. Instead here is a shot of the cast on from last week of the Ticker Tape Purse pattern courtesy of Kish.

I went to the LYS today for some circular needles for the Topi Hat from Pieknits, and am going to cast on for that as soon as I'm done here. Of course while I was there I bought one skein of Sockotta yarn. You see there's this punch card and you have to spend a minimum amount for the punch and the yarn put me over it. Wanting ~~a really pretty colorway~~ more yarn had nothing to do with it.