Happy Easter (a wee late)

The Easter Bunny made it to our house for another year of Easter Egg Hunting!!! He sure dropped a load at our house. Hope he left some for other kids! The boys got these cool coloring books that you use a marker filled with water to color, and then when they dry you can do it all over again!! NO muss no fuss. Shy got a Girls only password journal...... and they all 3 got the Martian matter kit with 2 refills. I have to say this stuff is pretty cool.............there is a play doh like stuff you make a mold out of , you pour this liquid goop in top it off with a playdough cookie and then in about 3-5 minutes you have this slimy little martian. Cut him open and he oozes slime or just play with him........now the liquid stuff does not harden if you drip it on the table.....very odd!!
Bud barely awake but finding eggs!!!!
Bret found an egg right outside of his bedroom door. I am not sure he really knows what is going on!
Shyanne givin Bret a lift up, to find the egg he found!
the Easter Bunny also somehow knew shyanne LOVES to read and LOVES Hannah Montana
Looks suspiciously like SOMEONE got into the chocolate before 8am!!! Is that not what Easter is about for kidlings?

A great end to a beautiful Easter Sunday!

Pictureless Thursday

So I have completed yet another pair of booties and have cast on a pair of socks from the book. This is the first knitting book I have ever had that I have literally knit from the beginning..and plan to knit to the end. It is full of wonderful information.

I am going to run my April "Things I hope to Accomplish" List.
1) Knit the Body of the NIF Aran.
2) Knit 2 angels
3) Finish a full size pair of socks from Pathways.
4)Knit a Baby Surprise Jacket
5) Knit a hat of some sort
6)Work on a Mitten Design for the Island Institute Shop.
7) Leave comments on 30 new blogs! People we in the blog world live for comments....I started this blog thinking it was just for me......but I love getting comments. So if you read a blog entry on the net and it makes you grin.......let em' know!

Sounds like a lot right? Well actually if I am honest with ya'll the NIF Aran is almost to the bottom of the sleeve holes anyway and is a fairly quick knit, when it is not in time out. The BSJ is a mindless knit now that I have 3 under my belt and they are soooooooooooooo cute, it is good to have a couple in the wings for those baby showers, and I have a feeling in the next year or so I will have my fair share of them to attend!

As for my March Hit List
March Goals-
Finish Celtic Bag- OH Yeah baby and it came out AWESOME!!!
Finish Jay walkers (if I find them)- I am so psyched about my first homespun yarn project!!!
Knit 3 more chemo caps-Only ended up knitting one because the yarn was soooooo yucky!
2 angels- I have them knit they just need to be starched.....and I will I have a few more days!
log 20 hours of walking or some form of a$$ moving-Umm NO, I was so sick I woulda rather been dead. the only moving that happened was the vibrating bed from my fever induced shivering!
not kill my kids!!!!- Well as of 7:55 pm Thursday March 27 they are still living, breathing, splahing me while they are in the tub, throwing more food than they eat, picking on one another little cretins!

So I don't think I did too bad for March.

NO I am not pregnant!!!!!! Don't even go there!! :)

Just wanted to make that clear from the get go!!!! I am however, enamored with this book! I am a fairly good knitter, not to toot my own horn or anything, but aside from color work I can pretty much jump into most any pattern unscathed! This book is TEACHING me things. Mostly to think outside of the box when it comes to socks. The BEST part of the book (or at least I think) is that each section starts with a baby sock or bootie. So if you read the pattern and don't think you "get it" or are not sure you like it, you can knit a baby bootie before you commit to a whole sock!!!! I didn't think I liked the first ones...the red and purple but upon knitting them realized they are really really really cute!! Cat Bordhi has an amazing mind! She and Elizabeth Zimmermann are my knitting heroes!

You will see many more wee little socks from this book! As I plan to knit a pair of each and then start picking my way through the adult sized socks!!!

What is better than TGIF!!!!!

TGI>>>>>>>>FINISHED!!!!!!! Yeah I have a pair of Jaywalkers in my very own handspun!! You can not imagine how excited I am!!!!!

SOCKS SOCKS and more Socks`

So I am still in love with the Jaywalker pattern. Most patterns I knit once and have had enough of, very few will I turn to again and again and again....call it knitting ADD....I don't know. But I love the way the pattern effortlessly turns into zigzags. This pair is really very special......and had sort of taken a back burner, for chemo caps, and awareness angels for a bit. This is the first project that I have knit with my own hand spun yarn.......I must say it has been fun.......I know what it is, I am positive there are no knots anywhere in my cake cause I did it......from start to finish.....
I have gotten a lot of comments on the colors, and a few have asked where they can get the yarn.....and all are SHOCKED when I say it is MY handspun. "YOURS, I thought you JUST taught yourself how to spin this summer" as if to say I shoudl not be any good yet......well I attribute that to my OCD :) I have this perfection complex and I try to limit it to my crafts at this point in my life!

Back to the socks......they are awesome.....I am loving the end results, I am doing 2 at once on circulars, I have turned the heels, and only have 2 more gusset decreases before it is just straight brainless knitting till the toe. These socks are for me....and I may not wear them, I may frame them and just gaze adoringly at them from time to time. :)

The sweater in the previous post.......the NAUGHTY sweater in the previous post......look very closely at that picture in the previous post.....do you see anything odd, or off in that picture? Look closely, well really you don't have to look that closely unless
you are blinded by the fact that it is knitting up very quickly and looking quite lovely with the all natural sheen......until you hold it up to natural light to gave upon it's beauty.......and notice that the top 3 inches in not see through and the rest is......then upon closer inspection you notice there is even a difference in color (please note that I did NOT use the words:slight, or little or any variation on those words) in the top 2 or 3 inches. Go ahead go look I will wait for you to return.......................................................................
See told you.........blah, what happened? Yeah well So I had 9 skeins of the yarn that I myself grabbed.......well I thought they were all Bulky weight....ummmmmmm well apparently the first 2 I used were not Bulky they were worsted weight....the other 7.....ummm yeah they were Bulky!!!! ARGH.....so I ripped out the offending skein of yarn and off I went to return the Bulky in exchange for some Worsted......the whole thing is in time out for a bit!!!!!

My birthday..... it was great. My hubby bought me a new walking outfit......not that you need special clothes to walk, BUT this stuff is the moisture wicking stuff, and I must say it works well enough to short out a battery powered St. Patty's Day Button,......(long uninteresting story, involves, sweat, moisturewicking clothes and a button pinned to the shirt....nuff said) The kids bought my a new Rachel Ray cookbook (I love that woman!!! Watch her everyday, peeved that my magazine subscription ran out and I can't justify $20.00 on the subscription) My parents bought me my favorite perfume oil and body spray (I have worn The Body Shops White Musk since I was 15....that is over half my life at this point, I have tried other perfumes and none compare....this is just me, it is light and clean.....I absolutely Love it and have stopped looking for others to use) they also gave me a singing bear that plays an elvis tune. My friend gave me a beautiful necklace that she had her mom make right in front of me.....sneaky sneaky It is Dichroic Glass, and her mom is going to teach a class in it here on island.....it is beautiful! Lets see......John cooked dinner, and then he and shy made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.....from scratch! It was yummy! The best gift though I must say is that a person I love very much made the move to be in contact again. It has been a source of heart ache for a while now, it may take a bit of time for all the wounds to heal, but we will take it one step at a time, and as long as we are moving forward we will get there!

I have blabbed long enough for one post!! Hopefully within the next few days I will have the socks done and framed!! Just Kidding (or at least I think I am!!!)

Progress and fighting startitis

Progress has been made on the NIF Aran. This is working up very quickly and so far I have had no problems working it up in the round. The directions as I stated before are written in pieces but I HATE piecing things together a the end. I have 2 more diamonds to repeat and then I am at the arm holes where i will have to work the front and back seperately.....don't even try to talk me into to steeks.......yeah I know I have read all about them and how you can continue working in the round just by adding a few extra stitches yaddayadda yadda, no thanks, I am not ready to take a pair of scissors to my knitting!!! I just won't do it. Do you know how long it took me to feel OK felting my knitting.......quite a while......the hats looked pretty silly sitting there waiting to be felted....they were big enough for 3 heads without felting them! I will work in the round until I get to the armhole decreases and then it is back and forth....by then you are so close to having the body done that it is fast work anyway!! Then it is the sleeves!!! Argh sleeves.......

I am fighting a serious bout of startitis!! I have an awesome lace stole pattern I want to do, I have another sweater waiting in the wings, Socks socks and more socks.........but I wil knit my 2 angels for the month. I am only doing just the one chemo cap cause the other yarn was awful!! And then there is the chicken viking hat, and some baby ribbon hats, and then while I was on ravelry I saw the CUTEST lobster Bouy hats OMG these would sell like hot cakes in the summer. But in all fairness I don't have the right colors. I am also on the prowl for another bag pattern. I liked knitting that one up so much I am ready to do another!! Only this one I want to be in love with myself. I like the bottom of the Celtic bag.....I like that it uses the plastic canvas to give it some substance....perhaps this is common of bag patterns....what do I know????

Have some green beer for me on monday. I will be turning 32!! We had our ham dinner tonight and I will say it was delish, even though ham is not a favorite of mine this one was awesome, not to salty and it was on sale when I bought it!!! I probably will not post again till after the big day so, Hope everyone finds the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and kiss a leprechaun for me if you see one!!! Happy Saint Patty's Day everyone!

FO'S and new projects!!

Ok so here is the Celtic bag from Interweave Magazine,. I decided I wanted to knit it simply because I had the yarns called for and it was a bag, and I have never made a bag. It still needs a button, it was very easy, EXCEPT taking the darker colors and going around the edges.....that was not fun. I think for a button I will try and find an oblong wooden type button.....I like it but still ave no idea what I am going to do with it!!!!




This is Holly's chemo cap without beads. I COULD not figure out how to thread beads on this particular yarn. It is very split, and not so squishy, so to thread a needle with beads and this yarn you couldn't get the beads over the area below the needle eye where the yarn doubles over n itself........I fought and fought and fought with it before I gave up. I tried the crochet hook method, and this yarn is like 10 strands of thread lightly twisted...so the crochet hook would grab 2 or 3 strings and that was it......I was so upset I couldn't get it to do what I wanted it to but I will deal with imperfect.

I feel a case of start-itis coming upn me. Which is realy OK, the only old project I have on the needles are the jaywalker socks. And I will finish those. My newest cast on, is a North Island Farm Aran. Designed by Jean Baker-White who is an amazingly talented lady, most well known for her quilts which have been in many publications! The yarn is from locally grown sheep which is sheered here and she faarms the fleece out here in Maine and has it processed into this fabu. yarn. I choose to use a bulky version for theis sweater, but the worsted weight is quite lovely too! The pattern is written in pieces but I am trying to knit it in the round, less sewing together in the end. I am quite easily confused translating patterns though, so we shall see how it goes!!!! I plan to start a Chicken Viking hat soon as well. This is another one of those projects I sw on line and really just want to do it. I think they are hysterically funny. Little viking hats with chicken legs sticking out of them :) TOOO mUCH

Well we are all still healing up from the respiratory flu. John coughed so hard he screwed up his intestines and had to have a shot of valium mixed with something else. I can say I was JEALOUS. The Dr. drove him home and he slept peacefully for almost 8 hours!!!!!! :) Not that he didn't need it...but he was completely oblivious to the fact that the 4 of us were downstaris shivering shaking and battling the crud too......I told the Dr. as much too when I sw him......he said and I qoute "sounds like he owes you one.....the next time you have stomach pains look me up, I'll take good care of you!!!" I laughed as did he. I was JUST joking....well I will admit when I watched him sleeping so soundly the thought crossed my mind to yell FIRE just to see what he would do.......MUAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. But we are all on the mend officially now (I THINK) just still feeling tired and worn out.

I worked today and was KIP'ing (Knitting in Public) and this really nice lady whom I have talked to several times was out working with the pre-school kiddies. She says she is a new knitters but I remember on eof the first time we spoke I was knitting the butterfly shawl and she said she was knitting a civil war shawl. New knitter project.......I don't think so!!!! I have seen these shawls and covet the day I have enough time to knit one. She then explained that she was still learning new techniques....she was working on socks, and things like that. AHAHA now I understand!! She is a newbie like I was.....tackle the ough stuff and the easy stuff scares the poop out of you!!! Got it!!! Color Work still intimidates me! BAH....cables all over the place, double pointed needles don't make me faint, lace work WOOHOOO bring it on....but you hane me a pattern with more than one color and FORGET IT, I am a puddle of mush! She brought up another good point too....reading patterns. I don't know how I learned how to read patterns.......I think I picked out a simple one with help and just went from there.

Freaky Flu phlem flying friday

So ever just had one of those days, turn into one of those weeks, which turns into one of those months, and appears to be turning into one of those years? Well my life is one of those Sienfield episodes, you know the ones, where verything and nothing happens all at once to one person and you can totally relate????? So Sunday I was minding my own business walking at the gym and


my hubby came streaking across the lot to tell me one of the ladies at the ticket office had come off sick and I needed to go work for her. OK, so I had walked for all of 10 minutes woohoo.....oh well. So I get my gear ready and head out the door. I walk into the office and my co worker, who is a great lady to work with says.....she thinks she was getting the flu, I disinfected EVERYTHING...the phone the knobs the desks, the arms of the chairs EERYTHING she touched!!!!

Good I said and we went about our day. chatted listened to music, knitted played Homeland Security...the usual. Went home and was fine, Monday was Ok all day and then in the evening I started getting this tickled in my throat......went to bed woke up with a fever of 102.4......which for me is like 104.2 as my normal temp is 96.6. yeehaw I had it all shakes, shimmys, quakes, bone aches, muscle cramps, charlie horses and halucinactions.....Tuesday morning my coworker ( the one I worked with on Sunday) called to find out if I could work for her cause hse had gotten the flu........so we comiserated for a minute or 2 and then went to bed. I had a fever for 3 straight days and was sicker than I was when my appendix burst. But niether hee nor there, John took very good care of me, AND then HE got the fever
O YAY, poor guy, knew I was no where near being up to doing anything so he went about doing and dealing while also boiling from the inside out......then yesterday morningall 3 of the kids had it, and apparently Shyanne brought home this nasty little stomach bug to go along with it!!!! Coughing razor blades, with an elephant on our chests while trying not to mess our depends :) It has been a bowl full of fun games here at our house. Then last night while Bud was having a fever siezure and we were alternating doses of Children's Motrin and Tylenol we realized we didn't have much left. So I being the only one who hadn't had a fever in a while said I would go to the mainland and replace our supply...we also were out of toilet paper, and a few other unimportant odds and ends.....now bear in mind in all I lost 13 pounds from Monday to last night so I feel like flattened road ,
like butt punches, like dead skunk, pecked by crows in 100 degree heat......all I want to do is pause everyone around me, crawl into my bed in the fetal position for a few days till it all blows over, but when you have kids and they are sick.....sometimes that is not an option.......period!