Spring Moss

Bethany has challenged me to knit a sweater in under a year. She tells me that I get too easily distracted and should focus on getting it done. She may have a point there.
So, with only the collar to knit on the everyday cardigan, my thoughts naturally turn to what is next. As I have said, Marilyn is stepping up to the plate. The pattern is over on the blackwater abbey site (go to cardigans and scroll down to Marilyn)
I have had many a discussion, heated at times about the color. Arguing with oneself is not something to be proud of.
Here's my self imposed choices:

Both blackwater abbey yarn, both wonderfully wonderful. Moss on the left and forrest on the right. Yes. Green. I do not have a lot of green in my wardrobe and it's about time to do something about that.
I have 99.9% decided to use the moss. I love the depth of color and the shade is a better one for me.
Can I get it done in under a year? Could my teen be right about me? I'm a knitting slacker?
Here Kitty kitty:
Remember the orange cat I talked about the other day? He/she has taken to hanging out on my porch, much to Fig's chagrin. I tried to take a picture of him for you.
Here's the best I could do. Pardon the winter shocked fence.

"no pictures, please! I'm in the cat protection program!"
We've taken to calling him twinkie. Because he's so sweet? Well, because he/she's kind of chicken. Not too brave. Runs away when we try to get near.
Today the birds were singing, the sun was shining, the sky was blue. My goodness, could it be? Spring?
We'll see.

Buttons, sleepy time and skin care. All in one. Believe it or not!

I'm done seaming the buffalo brownski everyday cardigan and I've got the stiff neck to prove it. Seaming neck. Is there anything worse? Now it's on to the button bands and collar. But more importantly it's time to start the muse called
WHICH BUTTONS?
I was thinking of going with these cherry buttons from the peace fleece site. ~click on highlighted words and scroll down to cherry buttons~
You like?
Here's a peek at a side seam.
~HEY WHO TURNED IT PURPLE? Yeah, it's not purple. It's buffalo BROWNski~

I'm pleased with how it came out, stiff neck and all.
One button band done:

Young Whippersnappers:
I realized yet again that I am getting older when Derek told me he stayed up all night on Sunday to finish a paper for college. I consider it personal growth when I did not mention that he was here all weekend piddling his time away with his buddies online instead of working on the paper that he knew well in advance about. I did not say it. Out loud. I think he's old enough to make his own decisions about whether sleep is a necessity on a certain day or not. My decision? Always has sleep in the picture. Old Fogey!
Give me some skin!
And in totally irrelevant stuff, after reading over at Kerstin's about the dangers of additives in our skin care products (among other things, but today I concentrate on the skin care) I decided to find an alternative. A girl at work sells arbonne products. I invested one arm and one leg and bought some moisturizers. LOVE THEM. I'm starting a savings account to someday afford to buy the skin care line.
Hey! I'm worth it!

Eggstra special blog entry

My apologies to any forlorn chicken who lost their loved ones for my pleasure.
Happy Easter!
Or Happy Sunday, whichever you'd rather!

Pardon me, my insides are showing!

Well it apparent that I must get myself a life. Johanna asked to see the inside of the blackberry ridge sock. And I am so thrilled my stuffing might just pop out. Or something. I have never been asked that question and in my little delusional state, I feel like I have "arrived"
Yeah, I know, arrived where? The looney bin. Something like that. Just let me revel in the moment and enjoy that place. Thanks, Johanna for making my day. Doesn't take much, does it?
:)
The insides:

Toe:

Cuff:

There you have it. The skeleton of a sock. Hope you have enjoyed your anatomy lesson.
I wonder what the neighbors think of me standing out on the porch at 6 am in my jammies taking pictures of an inside out sock?
Kinda funny to think about, isn't it?

Seems like someone does not like seaming

Thanks to each and every one of you who told me a cheer up story. This much I know. I have my health. (somewhat!) I have a wonderful home, a loving husband and children, heat, food on my table, plenty of yarn and friends in abundance. It's a wonderful life. This too shall pass. Spring will have sprung, the mood will pass. I know just from a read around the blogs that I am not alone in this slump.
So, I thank you. If you haven't read the comments from yesterday, you should give them a read. There's everything from underwear stories to ways to count my blessings.
Blessings indeed.
:)
The seaming of buffalo brownski has begun. It became a challenge when this happened.

"Oh, Mum made me a blanket!"
Can you see the paw on the needle? Beast!

While you marvel at the paw, notice the wonderous colors of the peace fleece. It's a beauty, isn't it?
One sock

One Autumn Transitions sock from Blackberry Ridge done. And one in the process of being cast on. Let's hope it takes me less time to procrastinate about this one.
My chin? It's up. So are my spirits.

To seam or not to seam..

Yes, seaming is up for tonight. I have been fighting a general malaise since being sick. I am recovered but am left with a little bit of congestion that bothers me and a sweeping tiredness that gives no warning. Bedtime has been getting earlier and earlier thinking that I can sleep it off. And perhaps I still can. Can't hurt for the trying.
So, as a nod to feeling crappy I give you
My list of random thoughts for this Wednesday! *your assignment follows list. So keep reading:
~I joined the black water abbey knitalong . I am using the Marilyn pattern (look under cardigan patterns) in the color moss. Their yarn is heavenly!
~I have not yet started the knitting. I WILL finish buffalo brownski first
~It is going to snow 4-8 inches tonight. Oh goody. Will winter ever end?
~The underwear I wore today keeps riding up my butt. I wonder why I don't throw them away? You'd think that wearing uncomfortable undies would prompt a person to at least lose a couple of pounds.
~There is a stray cat that is living on my porch and I feel so bad for him/her. I don't know what to do. I know if I feed it, it will stay. Fig has hissed and spit so much towards that cat, I'm afraid the fur will fly. Literally. But the stray has taken to crying on the porch in the late evening now. I'm going to feed it. I can't watch it anymore. What if he's hungry? I think I will put an ad in the paper too.
Want a cat? It's orange. And cute.
~The smell of meatballs and sauce is making me happy right now. I can't wait for dinner
~My car is so dirty that I cannot see the color. Blue, by the way. I have always owned a blue car. Not on purpose.
~I am extremely excited because I found my favorite bottled water at my nearby Shaw's supermarket. Volvic. Love the water, hate the name. Leigh talked about it on her blog and I thought, "Meh, water is water." Not true.
~Yup. Malaise. Disquiet. Inner ennui. I've got it bad. I must go fondle some yarn.
It can't hurt.
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it
Is to tell me something happy. Something wonderous. Show me a beautiful sky. Cheer me up, damn it! Is that too much to ask??
:)

Seems to be Seam time

Ready to seam
Buffalo brownski Peace Fleece Everyday Cardigan pieces. I was so excited to begin that I seamed one of the shoulders together. Just as I pulled my last stitch through, the awful realization dawned on me that I had put the front panel on the wrong side. The neck decreases were facing the shoulder. UGH. Yes, of course, I checked this out beforehand. I thought I had it all figured out. I guess not. I even fancied, just for a moment whether I could live with it. In my delusional state, I thought, "Gee, it kinda looks like sleeve decreases". Yeah. NO! It does not.
By design, the mattress stitch is invisible. Nobody wants to see their stitches when seaming. This makes pulling them out a challenge. Did I say "challenge"? Because that would be an understatement. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening picking out the seam.
I am now back, again, to square one. My pieces all piled up nicely looking. Today is another day.
And speaking of today. LOOK!

Blue skies, nothing but blue skies! It's supposed to be 50F degrees here today.
Be still my heart! Could it mean spring isn't far behind?
Did you find Claudia's new blog? Yup, she's broken free and gotten herself some new digs. Of course, they are orange no surprise there, but she's got plenty of room to spread around. Update your links and check often as she's getting shunned by bloglines. Silly old bloglines.
http://www.claudiasblog.net/
Seems like it's a seamingly kind of day to me!

Happy Feet!

With the birthday weekend behind us and cake hangovers all around we are all taking it easy today. Ice cream cake, thank you.
Today was spent doing a minimum of anything constructive and lots of movie watching and knitting. The movie was The Incredibles, which was. Incredible. I enjoyed it very much. A new look at middle age for me.
My feet spent the day hanging out in these:

Clogs made for me by Sister in law, Cheryl! Thanks, Cheryl!
Okay, can we pause a minute to reflect on how lucky my feet have been this week? First the Alison Sockapalooza socks, now handknit clogs too?
So, I put up my feet and knit.

YES! I have the socks AND the clogs on. I wondered if feet could have too much of a good thing. The answer is no. They cannot.
Feet deserve to be happy too.
And they are!

Pardon me, my neuroses are showing!

Did anyone else have a moment of "MY GOD, WHAT IF SHE DOES NOT LIKE THE SOCKAPALOOZA SOCKS?" or is it only me?
Go check out Neysa at her brand new blog. She's wearing some mountain colors socks made by moi. You've seen them here. Now see them there!
She likes them! She likes them! The giving feels so good.
So.
I am hard at work on the last sleeve on the Peace fleece everyday cardigan. It is close to being done and I am so excited I can taste it! (that was always my mother's favorite saying and I've never used it before)
Beware the Ziploc on St. Patrick's day!
That's what my fortune should have read for yesterday, had I indeed had a fortune. But I did not. Let's take it from the ending this time.
The aftermath:

Are you saying, what is that?
Look closer!

Yup. That's the burner from my stove. As my corned beef dinner was cooking merrily on the stovetop, little did I know, the plastic ziploc bowl was resting on the burner that I forgot to shut off. Oops! Now the burner resides, plastic coated in the snow. What a mess! I don't think it's salvagable. And the stink? Nothing compares!
Poor bowl!

Let's file this one under: Live and Learn. And don't breath the fumes!
Happy Birthday, Baby!
Happy Birthday to the love of my life! Happy Birthday, Andy!

Let's eat cake!

HolyCowAPalooza!

My Sockapalooza socks arrived yesterday in the mail! Talk about exciting! My own personal knitter was none other than the wonderous Alison! Yes, the mistress of the idea! How lucky am I? Not only that, a personal friend and a knitter that I admire KNITTED FOR ME! Please, please, for all that is good and holy in the world, shout that statement out loud.
Be still my heart, here they are!

Oh, wait, that's the build up to the wonder.
Here:

Oh, Koigu, how I love thee! Not only have I worn these, I have lovingly stared at them for hours. I even thought about carrying them to bed with me to place on my pillow but Andy kinda gave me the stink eye so I left them downstairs for the night. I guess he would not appreciate being replaced by a pair of hand knit socks. But, that theory has SOME merits, believe me. I will not go into it on this day before his birthday, though.
:)
And Look!

They fit like a glove. Or in this case, they fit like socks. Which is a much better phrase, don't you think? Okay, they fit like they were MADE FOR ME. Had to say it. It's true.
Now, can you tell that these socks made me happy? A sincere and wonderful THANK YOU to Alison who not only gave me her wonderful, precious time and talent in these great socks that I treasure, she was generous in many many ways. Let's just say that the surprise involves yarn. And a future trip to a yarn store. But most of all, I treasure the friendship knit into every stitch.
Sniff.
Man! I'm emo today. (HA, that's a word that my kids taught me. Do you know it? I was old and square and had no clue. You young hipsters will get it. Emo= emotional.)
I"m nothing if not infomative.
Top 'O the Mornin' to ya. Tonight there will corned beef and cabbage on my table and green milk for all! But the best part? My feet will be warm. And my heart? Yes. My heart too.

Pass the spam

Did you ever hear a statement that is thrown out to the world and you listen to it, innocently enough thinking that's the end of that thought? And then all of a sudden, you can't get that thought out of your mind. You pick it apart, you dissect it, you wonder what's the meaning of it all?
Yeah, it's like that.
Statement heard innocently enough on the Food Network's Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello:
And I quote:
"A family reunion isn't a family reunion without Pork!"
Hmm. Is this true? Have I had all those family parties throughout the years and broken the cardinal rule?
This Saturday, you guessed it, we are having a family dinner for Andy's birthday. Can I really NOT serve pork now? If I don't, will they all leave our home and think, "You know, it was good and all, but......no pork!"
Pork, smork.

Hippos, hats and a mini sock

I decided to make a teeny sock to go along with the Sockapalooza socks.

It does not match in pattern, but it matches in yarn.

How could I resist knitting for the cold children of Mongolia? If you haven't already, go read about it here. Sometimes my knitting can seem a little self serving so this brings me back down to earth and reminds me what is really important.

Despite all my efforts to show the real color of this little hat, it is purple. Not lavender, not grape, not sunrise, PURPLE. But it looks blue in pictures. It is a hat of mystery, not wanting to show the essence of it's true self. Or something.
Want it modeled?
Sure you do!

Mr. Bear comes to the rescue again. There is an extreme lack of little people around this house. Let's not mention it or I might get all mid life crisis-ey on you. :)
One more thing:
I leave you with this.

Yes, that's right. A happy hippo. Possibly some of the best, weirdest named candy I ever had the pleasure of tasting! Bethany brought a whole purseload of these, her new favorites, from Germany. I held off from eating one until my tastebuds were back in working order. (Yes, I am on my way to good health. Not there entirely yet, but lots closer than I was last week! ) I did not previously want to waste any of her precious stash of hippos. They are in dwindling supply!
If you get a chance to eat a hippo, go ahead. you won't be sorry!

Socakapalooza socks finished, just in the nick of time!

Sockapalooza socks are done! I love them and hope SHE will too! I plan to give them a quick wash this morning and hope for dryness for tomorrow's mailing!

Even though it appears this picture is dark, the color of the yarn is true.
Yarn: Mountain Colors 4/8
Pattern: Friday Harbor from Knitting on the Road
Needle size: US 2
A couple of heels:

Toe shot:

This is a new toe for me and I like the way it looks. This is done as a series of decreases all around the row instead of just at the sides of the sock. I'm glad I tried something new. Keeps me from getting stale.
Gratuitous Pattern shot:

And it just hit me, someone out there made a pair of socks for ME! Be still my heart!

mumblings

Okay, wait one cotton picking minute! While I have been on my death-bed..er...death couch what's been going on? Have there been rallies for Sandy's good health and return to blogging? Medicine being flown around the world to save the Sandster? Nope. The knitting world has moved on. Bloglines had 135 new items waiting for me to read today. Ugh. How will I ever catch up on all of you? Seriously, though, thanks to all of you who wrote me some good health wishes. I appreciated them all. :)
As you can see, the news of my demise are greatly exaggerated. (Can someone please grammatically correct that sentence for me. Too much thinking involved) I doubted it for a while and it can still be touch and go. But this is the first morning I did not wake up wishing that I hadn't. Woken up, that is. I have been awake for exactly 45 minutes and I have not yet had a coughing jag to cough out a lung or two. I don't feel feverish. The wheezing in my chest is down to a dull roar. My head seems to be able to have a coherent thought from start to finish.
This, my friends is PROGRESS! I might even get to knit some today. Maybe. And now, as I gaze around my home for the first time in over a week, I wonder, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE? Did I miss some great hollywood party happening in my living room? Did a herd of hippos come on through while I was in a feverish state? What else could explain this mess!
Family!
Bah humbug! Guess what they will be doing today?
Actually at second glance it's not TOO bad. I guess I am the one responsible for the mountain 'o tissues on the coffee table. And the blankets strewn over the floor? Yup. Me. When I decided to crawl up to bed, I'd just leave the blanket wherever it fell. But I wonder how many shoes a family really needs. Let me count for you.
9 pairs of shoes
1 pair of slippers (those are going on my icy toes right now)
1 pair of hockey skates
In one room.
Hmm.. I need more closet space!

Sick in the head. And chest.

Well, I'm not dead yet. I don't think anyway. If it had happened to me, I'd probably be the first to know, wouldn't I?
My world has been consumed by tissues, soup, medicine, coughing, sneezing, sleeping and wheezing.
I am not a happy camper. I have stayed home from work for 2 days. And all I can manage is napping. Imagine all the knitting time I've missed out on!
I'm not getting better yet. But I imagine that it has to happen soon. Or death. Either way.
Back to the couch now.

My virtual German Trip: Or Sandy's too busy blowing her nose and coughing to knit!

For the past 3 weeks I have been battling a cold. It became apparent today that I am losing that war. The first clue was NO KNITTING all day Sunday. The doctor's verdict? Bronchitis and sinus infection. Yum.
No knitting means picture day! Thanks to all who gave me photoshop lessons.
All together now, "I think she's got it!"

Frauenkirche in Munich

Shalechet ( Fallen Leaves) 10,000 open mouthed faces carved from iron plates cover the floor representing the irretrievable loss of the Jewish in Europe. I love Bethany's foot in the picture on the bottom.
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Remains of the Berlin Wall

Overlooking Berlin at night (through very very tired traveling eyes) from the Parliament Building

Brandenburg Gate
And one of the only pictures I have of Bethany in Germany

Bethany, her host Charlotte and Benno, the German dog! Perhaps some of her friends will have pictures of her on the trip that they will share with us!
Okay, time to take the codeine cough medicine.
Nighty night!

My Bethany is home!

Bethany is home from her 2 week trip to Germany and we have all been busy trying to soak up her experiences. I can't hear enough. Her eyes have seen so much that I haven't seen.
She takes after her Mom a bit though, don't you think?

The sunrise from her bedroom in Nuremberg.
I'm trying to figure out how to shrink pictures a bit in the photoshop program so I can show you more. Some of them are too big, they make the movable type program jittery!

In the Pink

Dear Margene,
As you know, I have lots and lots of projects waiting on those needles waiting for their turn up to bat. I cannot hide that fact any longer. But visiting your blog gave me serious seashell envy. My toes needed to be twinkled.
The result?

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
This yarn in my mailbox makes me one happy person. Tickled Pink, even.
Thanks for inspiring me. And tempting too.
Pinkfully yours,
Sandy
P.S. Please send crocuses.

The Memory of Running

It has been a long time since I stayed up late reading a book. This is the one. I was so engrossed I stayed up way past my bedtime. 2 nights in a row.
I love books that have a real person as a main character. More than that, I love a story that has a loser in the main character role. That loser is chock full of compassion, flaws, passion, love and is interesting to read about. I don't know about you, but MY real life is not full of people with long, flowing chestnut colored hair, exquistite eyes, full heaving breasts or burning loins. My life is filled with real people.
As of late, my favorite books all sport the "loser".A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Shipping News, the Accidental Tourist. And now, The Memory of Running.
Smithson Ides reminds us how easy it is to get swept away by life. No one means to watch tv slowly becoming alcoholics while letting our lives slip by unnoticed. It happens though.
This is a touching story of how Smithy deals with the simultaneous deaths of his Mother, Father and Sister. Unwittingly he makes a decision to take back his life. His quest to find himself brings him across many people. Some wonderful. Some not so much.
This is an easy, fun, heart warming, thought provoking read. I hope you'll give it a try.

Sock-one-a-palooza!

One sockapalooza sock done! One more to go!
Friday Harbor pattern from Knitting on the Road
Yarn: mountain colors
Be sure to check out the book entry for The Memory of Running. See it there on the left, right under Reading List?

Another snowy day in my neighborhood!

No Flash v. Flash

I love to see the difference on the ice crystals on the window.
Brrr..