Weekend fun!

Saturday was Katie's 12th birthday. We went to the local DQ and picked out her cake on Thursday. and here is what we picked out:

What else but Harry Potter!!!! It was a cool ice cream cake. Her best friend, Taylor, came over. After we had cake, we dropped Annie off with Auntie PJ to go shopping, and Katie, Taylor and I went to see the Epic Movie. If you like the overly silly movies that make fun of other movies, then this is your movie. I found it hilarious. No body was off limits, they cracked on everyone. And we hit a couple of yarn shops, Bath & Body Works and Barnes & Nobel. From there, we dropped Taylor off at home and went to PJ's. At PJ's, we made dinner of BBQ ribs, hot buffalo wings and mashed potatoes. We watch The Illusionist. I really like that one. I may have to go buy it. Anyway, here is my haul from yarn shopping:



I got a couple of skeins of Lorna's Laces in Mixed Berries, some Trekking XXL in color #'s 126 & 105, and 1 skein of Swizzle color #4009. I've never seen Swizzle before, so I can't wait to see how it knits up. And at Barnes & Nobles, I got a couple of books by MJD, and they were Under Cover and the 4th book in the Undead series, Undead and Unreturnable. At Bath & Body, I found the kids soaps on sale, and got some lip gloss, 3 for $15.

On Sunday, I sorta vegged and read the latest LKH book in the Merry Gentry series, Mistral's Kiss. It was good, but short. I finished it in about 9 hours. And that was about all I did.

Ok, gotta go, I'm getting distracted by Hoodwinked. Happy Knitting!

Time to finally post (*Warning: Picture Heavy)

As always, out trip to visit family in West Virginia was fun. We left with 5 bags (1 for mom's clothes, 1 for our clothes, 1 for toiletries, my laptop bag and my knitting bag) and came back with a van full. We stayed with my cousin Becky, who is more like the sister my mom never had. We visited my Aunt Lorene, Becky's mom, and the rest that were within short driving distance. On the way, we stopped at Greenbottom Plantation, which at the time, we knew was connected to the family somehow. Here is what we saw.

This is the plaque that is posted out by the road. It tells a brief history of General Jenkins. We later found out that we are related to the last owners, the Knights, who were forced out by either the state or federal government so they could make the house a historic landmark.

This is the front of the house, which faces the Ohio River. For a plantation house, this one is really small. It was originally 4 rooms with a foyer and a basement, and summer kitchen about 50 feet off the side of the house.

This is part of the living room.

This was part of the dinning room. The house had such lovely fireplaces. At one point, one of the owners had made this a modern kitchen. When my cousins lived there, they removed the kitchen and placed it in the addition, turning this back into a formal dinning room.

This was the china hutch in the dinning room. And if I remember reading the little card inside, the china and silver tea set is on loan from my cousin, the last owners of the house. And the print on the china was very unusual. It depicted a castle.

This is the bedroom above the living room. They had this room roped off because of the rug, which is on loan. The bed was one of the old beds that had ropes under the mattress.

This is part of the bedroom above the dinning room. In this room there was a large four poster bed that is on load from my cousins.

This is what the front of the house now over looks. A swamp. The original plantation was about 400 acres along the Ohio River. Some time in the last 100 years, it flooded and is now a nature preserve. The two black poles in the grass are the old horse hitching posts, with horse heads on the top.

When we got there, only the curator guy was there, all by himself. I think he was happy that someone was actually stopping. And, Lexa, you would like this place, there is a history of hauntings. You can read about those here. But, since we were there at about 11:30 am, we didn't get to experience any of that.

Becky made us a batch of caramel corn to take home. She gave a lovely set of doilies, which I'm not really a doily person, but I love these. I'll have to post a pic later, because I forgot to take one. And I will finishing a couple of afghans for her, as medical conditions stop her from finishing them. We visited the indoor flea market in Milton, where I got Katie something for her birthday, which is this Saturday. I'll have to say what it is later, 'cause she periodically visits here. And here is a few pictures from on the way home.

Here is one of the barge ships on the Ohio River, that Annie would point out when ever she saw them.

Here is the snow that fell on the Ohio side of the state line. This was taken at one of the rest areas that we stopped at.

This one was just a surprise shots of Annie.

When I got home, there was a large envelope waiting for me. It was the 2 Annie's Attic bed doll patterns that I bought on Ebay.


They are Miss July and Miss October from the Cotillion collection.

And yesterday, I stopped at the house to pick up the afghan that I am working on for Becky, and there was a box at the front door. See:

I was so excited, but I had to wait until I got to mom's to open it. And below is what was inside of it.

Good smelling things sent to me by my Harvest Sock Swap pal, ZhiWen. From left to right there is a bar of floap (soap that floats) in Black Berry Bliss, a bar of Frangipani, above is a cupcake soap and a Nail 911 cuticle stick, which is a heaven send. Thank You, ZhiWen!!!!!! She ordered this from Gudonya. Go check it out, she's got some fabulous stuff.

And, I will be putting my knitting on hold to make sure I get the afghan finished for Becky. And here is on that I just might make one for myself in the same colors. Here, have a peek.


Don't you just love those colors? They are cream, cilantro and country rose.

And to answer a few questions from the last set of comments.

Q. Where do you get the "in progress" counters?

A. I found them at Yarn Tomato. From there, you'll have to save them to your hard drive, and them upload them to a photo hosting service. I use Photobucket. Once you get it uploaded, you can get the html tag to place in the template of your blog. If anyone needs more help, just e-mail me ( the link is at the top of the side bar, just under my profile) and I can kinda walk you through it.

Happy Knitting!

Another mess up & ROAD TRIP!!!!!

So, I sat down and happily started the sleeves for my Rogue, again. In between rows, Annie roped me into playing Super Mario Bros. 3 with her. I got past the 14 rows for the hem facing, and 35 rows into the pattern chart, when I saw it. Yes. At about row 15, I made a glaring mistake. I crossed the purl stitches over the knit stitches in the cable. My mom thought that I had to frog the sleeve back to the mistake. Uh-uh! Not again. So, I did the next logical thing. I slipped only the pattern section back to the mistake. Thank goodness I had a glass of wine handy for this crisis. It wasn't a pretty scene. And I have pictures to prove it. See:

You can see the tangled mess that was the patterned section, and the half a glass of wine. You can also see how by the orange on the chart how far I was on the chart. And just above the pink sticky note is where I made the boo boo. I think it only took me about 30 minutes to fix it. And this sleeve looks much better than first sleeves I made. See:

Mr. Vinny is by no means a skinny cat, especially since he's been fixed. You can judge by his pudgy butt how narrow the sleeve was when I worked it on US 7's. But, I am determined to finish this sweater, even if I have to kill someone. And thanks to Lexa and Kat for the encouragement. Now for the second half of the title.

ROAD TRIP! My cousin Becky called my mom this morning, and somewhere during the conversation, we decided to go for a visit. So, bright and early tomorrow morning, we'll be packing up and heading to West Virginia. And first order of business was to pack knitting projects. I packed my Rogue (of course) and 2 different socks that I am working on. One of the socks is the simple cable pattern that I am designing. The sock yarn is Cherry Tree Hill in Fall Foliage. The other sock that I have will be a plain vanilla sock in Lorna's Laces, color is Irving Park. And I was hoping to visit a few yarn shops while I was down there, but a quick search in the web did nothing but break my heart. According to the maps, there isn't a shop within 20 miles of where we'll be, which is near Huntington. That's just too disappointing. But, I can at least work on my genealogy while I'm there, which means toting along the laptop. So, unless I can find a wireless connection down there. I'll blog when I get back.

Oh, and here is a shameless plug. I am currently taking sign ups for a spring sock swap. So, if you are interested, either e-mail me or leave a comment with how to contact you, and I'll get you signed up. Also, we are taking a poll to see what name to use. Should it be Spring Fling Sock Swap? Or Spring Sock Hop? So far it's neck & neck. Later

Crushing Defeat

This is the first chance that I have had to post, and it's going to be a quick one. I have been working on the sleeves on my Rogue. I got both of them finished and seamed. But, when I went to seam them to the body of the sweater, I realized there was a problem. When I switched from the smaller needle size (US 5's) to the larger ones, I picked up the US 7's instead of the US 8's. That means only one thing. To the frog pond they went. As I sat and ripped them out, my mom kept apologizing. And as I told her, I guess you live and learn. So, I won't be touching them tonight. I'll start them tomorrow, again.

It's back from exile

Starting on Friday, I am taking a vacation from work. Not that I'm going anywhere, I'm just not going to work for a week. I do this every January, and usually the week between the girls' birthdays. So, I'll have all this time on my hands, what should I do? Why, knit, of course! So, I considered all the UFO's that I have and picked one. I have decided to bring my Rogue back from Exile Sleeve Island. I mean, come on, let's face it. All I have left to do is the sleeves and weave in the ends. I tried to work on it Monday night, but I was too distracted by the fact that we were losing the big game. So, I frogged what progress I did make and threw it back into the basket , then went to bed. Last night I made great progress. I casted back on the first sleeve, did the hem facing, started the chart, got to the part where I had to flip up the hem facing, and them got over half way through the chart, which puts my 1/3 of the way up the sleeve. Then mom asked me this morning what I wanted to do on Friday while the girls were in school. I told her that I didn't care, as long as I had a pair of knitting needles in my hands. So, I plan on, at least, having my Rogue finished by the time I come back from vacation. Once I'm finished with that, I'll start to finish up my Central Park Hoodie. In the in between times, I'll work on my Candle Flame shawl. And I'm going on as if I won't be blogging next week. If anything, I may over blog, if that's possible. Then again, I may get too intent on knitting and not blog at all.

Now for the pics that blogger wouldn't let me up load the other day.


Here is the mess that I made decorating Annie's cake:


Here is what it looked like when I was done. Not the best, as I used store bought icing instead of taking the time to make it.



Yes, it says Wink. That's one of her nick names. She was so tiny when she was born (she weighed 6 lbs. 4 oz.) that we called her "Inky Winky", and the Wink part stuck.

And here is Vinny, playing with Annie's tea set:

And this is not just a one time thing. Every time she gets the tea cups out, he's there and waiting. (Imagine the Jaws theme playing in the background.)

Over the weekend

Well, it turns out that Friday night's Most Haunted was a new one, and I had a hard time trying to knit lace and watch it. So much so, that I had to get up early the next morning to watch the replay. (Sorry Lexa, if there was a way I could tape it for you, I would. And this Friday's is a new one, too.) After which, I had to clean, as mom and dad were supposed to come over to cake and ice cream for Annie. Annie birthday isn't until tomorrow, but I usually like to celebrate on a Saturday. So, I cleaned and baked a cake. Then cleaned some more, as this was the mess that I made decorating the cake. I would show pics of the mess and the cake, but friggin' blogger won't let me upload any. Anyway, only Mom came over. Dad is like me, a real home body. And he really doesn't like a lot of noise, and he gets bored, easy.

On knitting, I got about 3 1/2" done on my Candle Flame shawl. And I started a pair of footies in the Lorna's Laces that Katie bought me. The color way is Irving Park. We picked it out together, and I wasn't sure about it, but now that I have a good start on the first one, I'm really liking it.

Then, there was my cat, Mr. Vinny. We have found out that he like to play with Annie's china tea sets, and have his fur brushed with the My Little Pony brushes. Oh, and he likes strawberry cake with icing (he got yelled as for that one). He's a great cat, he's so much more nice that my reclusive, mean cat, Miss Moonie.

Ok, gotta go. They are showing the Ohio State Marching band in the pre-game for the Big Game, and they are doing Script Ohio. Pics tomorrow.


GO BUCKS!

Weirdness

I picked Lexa's tag on the weirdness meme. So, here are the six weird things about me. (And, shush Amy, I know there are more than 6. We just won't talk about those.)

1. When I knit on straight needles, I have to brace the left needle against my hip. I don't know why I do this, because I can clearly knit the normal way, I just prefer to do it.
2. It took me 10 years to pick out my tattoo before I had it done. I mean, yes, it's an important thing to consider, and you should take time to think on it. But, I took 10 years, and had it done when I was 29. I'll have to take a pic of it when I get skinny again, as it's on my lower back.
3. I (like Lexa) don't watch much of regular tv. The only new shows that I watch on a regular basis is America's Next Top Model and American Choppers. Other than that, I'd rather watch a movie or something on the History Channel or Discovery Channel. Oh, and BBC. I just love British tv. My favs from across the pond are Are you Being Served?, Monarch of the Glen, Footballers' Wives and Most Haunted.
4. I hate black licorice and anisette, but I love pizzelle cookies. Don't ask me why, but I do. If I could just get my hands on a reasonably price pizzelle iron and a good recipe, I'd be in business. Speaking of which. I went to one of the little stores around the corner this morning and bought a strawberry Moon Pie, but for some reason, it tastes like it has anisette in it. Three bites later, it's sitting next to my mouse on my desk, looking at me and waiting to hit the trash can.
5. I am, by no means, the neatest person, but I have always had a thing about everything having a place, and everything being in it's place, dvds, games, yarn, everything really. When I was married, my ex would start to look for something in the house, and I would ask what he was looking for. He would tell me not to worry about it, he'd find it. Two hours later (imagine that being said just like on Spongebob), he would still be looking, and after two, solid hours of looking, I'd given in and ask, again, what he was looking for. When he would finally tell me, I'd walk right over and get it for him. He never learned the just ask first.
6. Ok, I'm reaching on this one. When I'm driving and I get a soda in a bottle, I take the caps off and drop them in between the seats, where the emergency brake is. This used to drive my best friend, Miss PJ, nuts. When we would drive down the the southern Ohio Renn Fest every weekend (I had a booth there with my SIL in 1999), we would stop to get gas and snacks. I would open my pop and drop the cap in the middle. PJ would go nuts and start picking them up. I still do this. And I laugh every time I clean them out. But, if it's a cap that I need to put back on the bottle, I put it under my right leg so I know right where it is. I also put my cell phone under my leg while I drive, that way I can feel it when it rings.

Ok, enough of my weirdness, even though that's surely not the end of it. I am proud of myself. So far, I am sticking to my one New Year's resolution, to loose weight. I have been watching everything I eat, and exercising every night, no matter how I feel. I have started back with my belly dancing dvds. I have also been using this. I find that it helps me alot. You just enter everything you eat, and everything you do during the day, and it gives you pie charts and such to track how you are doing.

On the knitting front, I was able to sit down and work on my Candle Flame shawl last night. I got about an inch done. Relatively, that's not that far, but it's an inch closer to finishing. I have every intention of sitting down to knit on it while watching Most Haunted tonight. It should be a re-run, so I can actually concentrate on the lace. As I have found out that it's a bad idea to try to watch a new episode and work on lace. That's not a good combination. I was also able to do a few more rounds on a new pattern I am writing. It's a cabled sock pattern. I'll share it when I have it done.

And on that note, hope y'all have a great weekend, and happy knitting!

2006: In Review

Yesterday, I sat here, at my desk at work, and took a stroll through my archieves for '06. And this is what I found:

In the FO in '06 catagory, we have:

• 1 poncho
• 2 scarves
• 3 purses
• 5 hats
• 7 pairs of fingerless gloves
• 20 pairs of socks

In the UFO catagory, we have:

• Rogue
• Central Park Hoodie
• Highland Heather Pullover
• Bell Sleeve Shrug
• Fisherman's Shrug
• Candle Flame Shawl
• My own cabled sock pattern
• Lapgan in Plymouth Encore

I think I see a trend in there, somewhere.

In '06 I moved for the first time in 8 years. My cat told me "no" when I asked if she wanted to come upstairs. I joined my first KAL (the SAM KAL, and I haven't stopped since). I started 2 sock swaps. My youngest killed Pooh, with a light bulb of all things. I finally got a working fireplace. I laughed myself silly over square watermelons and constuctions signs that post the speed limit as 8 1/2 mph. I found that rage control issuses and scissors do not bode well for my hair (I cut off about 6 inches about a month ago). I pulled out my back, pulling out shrubs. I got to hang Christmas lights on the outside of my house for the first time, ever. I was in my first car accident, and it wasn't my fault. I attended a rock concert with 4 teenagers, but the 2 beers I got to consume made up for it. And I gained 20 pounds, on top of the 35 I gained last winter.

In '07 I plan to:

• Finish my UFO pile.
• Top the number of socks knitted in '06.
• Lose the 55 lbs. so that '06 was my fat year and '07 is my get skinny, again, year.
• Get a spinning wheel and learn to use it.
• Go back to attending the Renn Fairs and other things I love to do with my girls.
• Make atleast 3 of the bed dolls for the Society I just joined, about an hour ago.
• After getting thin(ner), find someone to have a lasting relationship with, 'cause let's face it, as of Christmas, it's been 2 years.
• And, finally, try to make sure I'm in a good position to get my own place again in '08, 'cause I really miss my solitude.

Ok, so to elaborate on the the bed doll society that I joined. When I was in high school, I'd go over to my friend, Miss Angi's house, and her mom had these things sitting all over the house in cases. I was fascinated by them. And then when Katie was about 2, I borrowed a few of the patterns and attempted to make a couple. For one of them, I used a baby sport weight in mint green, instead of the crochet cotton recommended. It didn't turn out too bad, but not too great either. I can't remember if I tossed it during the move or not. And I still have the remnants of the second one. On that one, I did use the crochet cotton, got the hoop skirt done (which is a pillow form that you make) and stopped. Now that I have the confidence to complete one, I joined Annie's Attic Bed Doll Society. The first collection that I'll get will be the Antebellum collection. The girls' have already picked out the one they want me to make. Here is what Katie picked:

This is Miss October, and I can't remember which site I borrowed this pic from (don't worry, I'm not a bandwidth theif, I saved it to my hard drive). However, Katie wants it in true October style. She wants the colors to be black, orange and purple. I'm thinking the dress in orange, trimmed in black and purple lace. Annie wants Miss June, but I have apparently reached my pic limit? WTF? But, I will get 2 patterns a month until I have all the patterns, or I opt out. And it's only about $15 a month. The first set I'll get is Miss October and Miss March, and as a free gift, I'll get the Antebellum Bride pattern. I see atleast 2 family members getting one for Christmas next year, providing I work on them all year long.

Ok, enough rambling for today! Happy Knitting!