I've been gone a long time. We had a death in the family that was a bit life-disheveling. Not that it was unexpected or anything, but it just caused a parade of visiting family and life was a bit odd for a while. On top of that, I started my new job and am getting things ready to start classes on Wednesday, so I've been busier than ever.

Friday was Jason and my anniversary. 5 years! Has it really been that long, already? He came home with flowers for me, unexpectedly I might add, and also had my car washed and vacumed .. which was a very nice gift indeed, since I never remember to have it done while the local detailing place is open.









Aren't they beautiful! He does so good when he buys me flowers. He always remembers I love sunflowers, for instance. And the delphinium were the same as the flowers in my bouquet. And I simply love the single yellow rose, and the snapdragons.


In other exciting news, we've been invaded again, but this time by something -much- cuter.





We have a mouse. Three actually, so far, unless it's been the same one sneaking back in somewhere. I'm not sure where they're coming from, as we don't keep the house so poorly that we'd have a hidden nest .. unless it's somewhere in the attic. We used to hear skitterings in the ceiling, so I guess that's possible. But I can't bear to use a poison or snap trap. I can't kill the cuties! We're gonna hunt some live traps maybe .. anything to keep Isis frum finding them. I don't want to wake up to little dead mousies left as tribute.

The Knit-Geek Questionnaire

(unrelated to any swaps or secret pal exchanges)

1. What's your worst habit relating to your knitting?
Not paying much attention to the needle size when I work on something from a pattern. I have, thus far, used my own judgement in substituting yarn and needles, and it's a badhabit I know.

2. In what specific ways does your knitting make you a better person?
It is teaching me patience, and gives me an outlet for the creativity I know I have. I've never been good with drawing or painting and such, as I'm too impatient to wait for the finished product. When I'm knitting, I can see the process happening and it makes it much easier for me to keep working to get to the end of a project.

3. How might you or your life be different if you were suddenly unable to knit?
I think I'd probably be very bored at first. Hopefully, I could read or do something else to fill in the time I had been spending knitting. If not, I think I'd go bonkers. And very likely start smoking again.

4. If money were no object, what one yarn, and what one tool or gadget would you run out and buy first?
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in a dozen shades. I love how it feels, but can't afford it yet. -Yet-.
Tool or Gadget: A ball winder & swift. I love the act of winding a halk into a neat little cake of yarn. It makes me joyous.

5. What knitting technique or project type are you most afraid of (if any)? What, specifically, do you fear will happen when you try it?
Steeking. I'm terrified of that whole cutting through my knitting thing.

6. Who is/are your knitting hero(es), and why?
Brandon, because he's already done cables and I haven't. Yarn Harlot, because I just think she's cool as shit. Anyone that is able to design knitware, because dammit, I want to learn to do that!

7. Do you consider knitting, for you personally, a mostly social activity, or a mostly solitary activity?
Mostly solitary, but I knit all the time, so for me it's something I do socially that not everyone else I am social with does. Does that make sense? I didn't think so.

8. Is there a particular regional tradition in knitting that you feel strongly drawn toward (e.g., Fair Isle, Scandinavian, Celtic, Orenburg lace)? Any theories as to why it calls to you?
Fair Isle definitely appeals to me. I think the orderly pattern of colors is why .. I like order.

9. If you were a yarn, which yarn would you be?
Some kind of Angora/wool blend that's both scratchy and soft.

10. Some statistics:
(a) How many years have passed since you FIRST learned to knit?
Just over one year.
(b) How many total years have you been actively, regularly knitting (i.e., they don't have to have been in a row)?
Not even a year yet, not actively.
(c) how many people have you taught to knit?
I've so far taught two people, Brandon (My Knitster) and Jason (My Husband, who 'doesn't knit')
(d) Roughly what percentage of your FOs do you give away (to anyone besides yourself, i.e., including your immediate family)
Probably at least 60%. I keep the dishcloths more now, but I still love to give them away.

11. How often do you KIP (knit in public)? i.e., once a week, once a month, etc. Where do you do it?
A lot. I take my knitting to restaurants, to the mall when we walk it, to the movies .. everywhere.

12. If a genie granted you one hour to stitch-n-bitch with any one knitter, living or dead, who would you choose and why?
Vickie Howell, because I think she'd be a riot and a half.

13. What aspect or task in knitting makes you most impatient?
Weaving in ends. I just want it -done- already.

14. What is it about knitting that never lets you get bored with it?
I can always start something new. If I start to get bored with a project, it can easily be redone, or I can put it down and start something new until I can bear to finish the first project.

15. Describe how and where you most often do your knitting - where do you sit, what is going on around you, what tools do you use and how are they (dis)organized?
Either in my office while I'm online or working, or in my chair in the living room while we watch TV. Secondary to that is in the car, whether I'm waiting for hunny, or someone else is driving and I'm along for the ride.

16. Which one person is the recipient of more of your knitting than any other?
Thus far, my friend D, who is about to have a baby, and thus gets a lot of baby things.

17. What's the oddest thing about your knitting, or yourself as a knitter?
I'm not really sure .. maybe that I am rather compulsive about starting projects, but not-so-much about finishing them.

18. What do you see yourself knitting - if anything - twenty years from now?
Everything. Sweaters, blankets, scarves, socks, more socks, more sweaters, skirts. I want to be able to knit my wardrobe, or a large portion of it.

19. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could have only ONE SKEIN of yarn, which yarn would it be and what would you do with it?
Something cotton. I'd knit things and then unknit them .. probably using sticks I honed into needles, since it wasn't said if needles actually came with the yarn.

20. If you were allowed to own only one knitting-related book, which would it be? (you'd be free to browse others, but you couldn't keep them)
Uhh .. one of my many stitch dictionaries I'm sure, or maybe the Reader's Digest Needlework book.

21. Is knitting the new yoga? Why or why not?
I think in some ways it is. Knitting is very calming for most people, for me at least, and I find I am less stressed when I have to wait somewhere if I have my knitting with me. However, it doesn't provide the physical benefits yoga does, as far as working the muscles and such.

22. What important thing are you trying to put off doing whenever you knit?
Housework. Not that I'm trying to put it off, but I end up not getting to it usually.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Not a lot of knitting progress to report on, though I've been steadily working a little along on my Promenade bag.

After getting home much late Saturday night and sleeping much late on Sunday (why, because we could of course!), we still managed to go walking not once but twice with Momma and Diddy, for a total of, I'd say, 3 miles. If not exactly, close to it. And we discovered a new park that Brandon and I might do well walking at, cos it's flatter than Cherry Park. It surrounds a bunch of baseball and softball fields, so it kinda has to be flat, y'know?

Monday honey had to work, and I spent the day puttering around the house. I'd let him take the car because I was sore and exhausted from the walks the day before, but about halfway through the day I was stir crazy, wanting to get out of the house. I made soup .. minestrone, yum! .. and got some cleaning done, but I was so happy when he got home. It rained too, which was nice. We've been needing the rain. It rained Sunday too, so that'll certainly help the grass that's about brittle it's so dry.

Tuesday was his day off, and we enjoyed a rather lazy day, but did go walking with momma. Through all of this, I've been waiting to hear from Donna, my boss at Mosaic, so I could get started with my training. They'd been waiting for a couple of courthouses to return my background check. Well, Tuesday she called her manager and they pushed everything through. While we were on our walk she called me, and I made plans to call her to get started with the training. Not that I hadn't already explored the website and knew what I needed to do, but I wanted to let her get me started. And besides, the training was supposed to be 5 hours, so I didn't want to do it that day, when I was doing a ton of running around and stuff.

Yesterday I called her in the morning, and started my training online at around 9:30. By 11:30, I called her to ask if she wanted me to do the Exact training also. She wants to cross train me for that program too, so I can handle both sections of the store I presume. She was surprised and impressed that I was already done .. but didn't want me to do the music program yet. She thought it would be too much to take in all at once. Which I don't necessarily agree with, as I already proved my retention by taking the training in less than -half- the time given. But .. eh.

So Monday and Wednesday I will be training in the store with her trainer, I think 5 hours a day is what it'll be. Might be less though, and I hope it is. That's a long time to be on my feet when I'm not used to it. And then Friday, I'm on my own. It's been a long time coming, this job, but I think it's going to work out to be a wonderful thing. Jason likes to say I'll have Donna's job in a few years .. and who knows?

In addition to the new job though, we're also beginning classes this semester at Piedmont Technical College. We're both, I believe, going for our Associates in Arts, in preparation for our Bachelors degrees. I might decide to go for a business degree, but I haven't decided just yet. Either way, I could easily transfer in, but I'm thinking that starting with the Associates in Arts might give me a broader (more broad?) base of coursework to carry with me. Classes start on August 23rd, so I'm hoping that we get finished soon. Jason's got to take the COMPASS test to place in Math, and I'm waiting on my transcripts to be looked over. Waiting impatiently, I might add.

Jason's aunt Kathy passed away yesterday. She had suffered for a few years with Parkinson's Disease, and a rather aggressive form of it too. She was healthy, vivacious and alive at our wedding 5 years ago (OH GOD! Our 5 year anniversary is in a WEEK!) and when we last went to see her in May or June, she could barely speak, and it felt to me like she was a living person trapped in a cocoon, desperate to break free. Well, Wednesday around noon, she finally slipped out of the cocoon that had trapped her, and may now live free of the disease that had attacked her so violently. I'm happy for her. I cannot imagine she had any quality of life as she had been living. But her family .. she has three grown children all around Jason's age or younger .. is fractured as it is, with one having joined a cult .. no, really. A cult. And another a pothead, and the other just cracked. They're all lashing out at their aunts and uncles now, and it's very sad to see. I hope for some peace to come to them. I know it cannot be easy to lose their mother so young, but they had to realize Kathy was suffering.

*sigh*

Anyway, I'm waiting to hear from Carmencita, who's coming in to Rock Hill today to talk to a mortgage company, and is planning to come over afterward. I've not seen her in forever, so it'll be nice to have her around. I've also got to go to Wal*Mart tonight before I pick Jason up, but that's not until 9pm, so I'll have plenty of time. It's so hot right now anyway, I'm kinda glad I have something to keep me busy until it gets later and the sun won't be nearly as strong. It's awful here still, and I cannot wait for Autumn.

Today: Scattered thunderstorms. High near 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Tonight: Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy early. Scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 91F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Tomorrow night: Scattered thunderstorms. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.

Saturday: Showers, maybe a rumble of thunder. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the mid 60s.
Sunday: A few clouds. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s.

Monday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s.
Tuesday: Plenty of sun. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the low 70s.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the low 70s.

A Meme I can get behind.

I AM: excited for school and work to begin.

I SAID: I would never be a housewife, yet I am.

I WANT: to have enough money to pay off our bills, plus some spending money.

I WISH: the car business would pick up so Jason will stress less.

I HATE: feeling out of control.

I MISS: spending summers with my mimere and my aunts.

I FEAR: being alone.

I HEAR: cars passing by on the road near my house.

I WONDER: what I'm going to eat for lunch today.

I REGRET: not finishing my degree when I was younger.

I AM NOT: as healthy as I'd like to be.

I DANCE: around the kitchen.

I SING: all the time, especially in the car.

I AM NOT ALWAYS: as patient as I'd like to be.

I MADE: a knitted and felted totebag, with my own two hands!

I WRITE: poetry.

I CONFUSE: myself and others.

I NEED: to get ready to take classes again.

I SHOULD: have no trouble finishing my degree

I START: work on Monday.

I FINISH: nothing on time, though that will have to change.

I BELIEVE: in faeries, and spirits, and magick, and fate, and love, and that things always work out as they are supposed to.

I KNOW: I will survive whatever life throws at me.

I CAN: knit, and bake and cook.

I CAN'T: imagine living my life without my sweet honey.

I SEE: myself owning a store someday.

I BLOG: obsessively.

I READ: blogs, but little else nowadays.

IT PISSES ME OFF: that people are so willfully ignorant.

I FIND: joy in the little things, like a herd of cows on the side of the road, or the silly things my Isis does all the time, or learning a new knitting stitch.

I LIKE: knitting and cooking and baking, and being a housewife, and watching television, and playing computer games, and watching thunderstorms and fireflies.

I LOVE: my husband, my friends, my sweet Isis and my family.

Busy and Hubbub

I'm beginning to get irritated with Bloglines, which is how I read the near 100 blogs I have found that I really enjoy reading. And no, not all of them post every day, but enough that it's frustrating when Bloglines is having 'issues'. Apparent;y, they did some kind of database maintenance on Wednesday and their servers are trying to 'catch up' or something. Which is just infuriating. But, I'll just have to grumble and knit and wait for things to settle down I guess.

I forgot to post my Saturday Sky photos, in all the hubub and busy yesterday, which I'll get to. It was pretty clear, actually. We'd had some rain, and so it was a little muggy even that early, but there weren't really clouds to speak of.



I just love using the Moasaic Maker .. especially since I don't have to use Flickr albums to do it. Yay!

My favorite shot from the ones I took. Just a couple fluffy clouds and lots of blue sky. And the trees outside my front door. Bradford pears and river birches .. though, we're not near a river so why they put them here is beyond me. Silly development.

The sun was -really- bright though. Can't you tell?


While I was taking pictures a plane went overhead. I followed it, trying to get a picture and wasn't having a lot of luck. Then I saw this and thought it was flying oddly. I soon discovered why .. it's a hawk. I've not seen many flying over our house. I see them around a lot, but not so close. A'course, this is a crappy picture of it, but you can at least tell that it's a bird.


Back to the hubbub and busy. Yesterday was Brandon's birthday, and on top of that we had our Weight Watchers meeting. We got the meeting done and Jason dropped off to work (I lost another .2, which I call good considering the feast I had a few days ago .. so not good for me, but cured a bad craving for fast food) and headed home. Through the meeting I worked some on the icord for Brandon's Booga, but when I got home I wanted to work on something that wasn't wool.

So instead I picked up my cone of Sugar and Cream in Ecru, and started working on the Promenade shopping bag.

I had gotten through the first three repetitions of the pattern stitch before we had to go and pick Jason up at the dealership on the way to go eat and bring Brandon home for a week.



As you can probably tell, something got screwy in the pattern. I'm fairly positive I started with the right # of stitches, but it wasn't working right, and I had to fudge around until I got it looking and working right, so the first three rounds of the pattern stitch stack in the wrong direction before I got the hang of it and made it work. I don't think it'll look bad, so I'm not bothering to rip out the progress.

The reason I got -so much- done was we went to get Jason at work at 6pm. He'd told us he might be a few minutes late, which was fine. We figured we'd knit in the car, and all would be good. About 5 minutes after we get there, a couple drives up in an ancient Chevy Silverado, walks in, and wants to buy a new (well, used, but new to them) truck then and there. Jason was the only other salesman on the floor, so he took them and got things moving. No big deal, shouldn't take too long. And we had our knitting!

An hour and a half later, they were still there. Not because they were being slow or obstinate or anything. Hell no. These folks with almost 800 Beacon scores were waiting very patiently for the couple that was in the finance manager's office .. who had by then been in there for 2 hours, and were reading every word and checking every term in their paperwork, and using their calculator to check numbers, and wanting this taken off and that taken off, and basically being every finance manager's worst nightmare. Poor Eddie.

I knitted through all of this. Sat with Brandon in the car, waiting. Knitting, and listening to my XM radio. Thank the goddess for XM radio! Somewhere around 8pm, we got really thirsty, and went to the gas station next door and discovered two new flavors of Diet Pepsi - Diet Pepsi Jazz, which comes in Black Cherry & French Vanilla and Strawberries and Cream. Zero calories, and incredibly yummy flavor, though if you don't like DIet Pepsi you might not like them. I love them. Yummo!

We headed back to the dealership and waited some more. Eventually, the annoying couple came out to start inspecting the car. And I mean inspecting. This woman was checking every miniscule thing .. finding barely perceptible flaws in the paint and shit. And this went on for an hour. An hour!!! Eventually, and by this time everyone was ready to leave but couldn't because of these idiots, they called the GM out. Will explained that he had a sick wife and three boys at home and that he really needed to leave, but the woman made him come out anyway and showed him every miniscule thing that she felt was wrong with the car. What a bitch! I realize that you want your new car to be perfect, but good Lord and lady, lady. She'd already nearly given Eddie a stroke with her behavior, and now she was pulling this with Will. I about wanted to get out of the car and scream at her to just take the car already.

But instead, I knitted, patiently waiting for Jason's customers to sign their paperwork so he could hand them their keys and shake their hands. Which he eventually managed. At 9:10pm. Now, I remind you, he was supposed to get off work at 6pm. So, I got a bunch of knitting done on the bag before we headed to dinner at Sakura, our favorite Japanese Hibachi Steakhouse. After a wonderfully enjoyable meal with a very nice family sharing our table, we headed back to Brandon's momma's home for cupcakes and ice cream. We finally got home lastnight around 2:30 am .. being followed by a damned drunk driver all the way down our street. This jerk was driving so recklessly Jason called 911 to report it .. only for the jerk to pull into our neighborhood! I need to remember to go drive around and figure out what car it was behind us, and leave a nasty note on their door. Tied on with i-cord. Just because I can.

I'm moving my photos to Fotki instead of Flickr .. Flickr doesn't give me the flexibility I really am looking for as far as organization is concerned unless I shell out $30 for a 'Premium' account, and to make a new Flickr I have to make a new Yahoo completely, and I dislike that prospect. I have enough to keep up with as it is.

So, to view my pictures now, you can go to my Fotki pages.
Finished Objects
Works in Progress
Stash
Project Spectrum

I also made albums for the knitalongs I've joined, as a way to keep track of what I did or received or gave for what.
Summer of Stash
Mason-Dixon KAL
Knitting the Classics

Yarn Ho!

Okay, that was silly. But I have to report that today in my mailbox, what did I see??



I was the very first recipient of one of seven boxes travelling the world in the Yard Aboard II swap! So cool! I was just telling Brandon yesterday about it, and how grateful I was that I already had my yarn for my partner!



I got the Christopher Columbus box .. welcome, Chris, to my little corner of hell. Well, not really, but good gracious, it's hot enough to be!! I'll have to start finding places to take him. Perhaps a little photo-tour of what passes for home around here.




Goodies inside! But really, I must wax on about the lovely boxes. So cute, right down to the little traveler's log sheet!




I just love getting presents .. especially ones I don't know about beforehand! Amanda, thank you! Well, my diet doesn't thank you, but I'll be good and not let it sabotage me!



Archer Farms' Chocolate Drizzle indulgent snack mix. So evil! But it looks so yummy too. I love snack mixes, especially those with chocolate! I'll have to point this, since I'm on weight Watchers, and it'll have to wait until tomorrow, which is weigh-in day, but I will definitely enjoy this yummyness. And I can share it with hubby!



The most adorable little journal .. it can be my knitting journal, now that I'm ready to start knitting more than dishcloths! Thank you, I love it! And I especially love that it's fabric covered and padded .. utterly and completely precious!




This will be the first addition to my beautiful journal, my postcard from Louisiana. Specifically, from Magnolia Mound, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I've been to New Orleans, a few years back, and I do love the area. So to have a postcard is nice. And the little blurb about the house is fascinating. Makes me want to explore it!




Last, but certainly not least, the yarn! And a sock pattern! Woot! The pattern is from Fiber Trends, the Peak Experience socks - with patterns for Angel's Rest (women's) and Mt. Hood (unisex). I love them! They don't look terribly difficult at all, and I love they way that different yarns make them look!

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Mother Lode, and I love it. It's deliciously autumnal. I just need to get needles, and I'm good to go for making myself some lovely socks for Fall!

Thank you so much, Amanda! I love being a part of this, and can't wait for the next go-round!

I won I won!

Okay, so the important thing is that Jackie and Janette raised a considerable amount of money for Dale. But I won something! I never win anything. Well, okay, I won the 'Knit Big' t-shirt from Pottercraft. (And I still contend it should say 'Big Knits' .. and my husband agrees!) But I won!

And such beautiful prizes I won too. A beautiful basket, and a Think Pink! watch. The basket is perfect for a yarn basket, and the watch will be well used when I start working!

I feel good that I was able to help out, even in a small way, considering our serious lack of funds right now. But I have a job .. I should start next week in fact, and Jason's business is picking up, and we should also be getting money for school. So I feel no regret except that I couldn't have given more.

Strange Sky, UFOs, Reading and Knitting

Feh. Flargle. Blogger, play nice!

I'm trying to post pics of the sky tonight as the sun was setting, but Blogger's not playing nice at all. What's the dealio!? Grrr!

Anyway, the sky tonight, just as the sun was setting, was incredibly strange. Outside had this odd red cast to it, it was reflected on the cars in the parking lot and such. And the clouds to the east were reds and oranges, but the ones to the west were white and fluffly. Wierd!


Sydney said that Scout asked us to confess our UFO's. So here's my confession.

I have this yarn. Caron Simply Soft. I bought it for an afghan, because it's yummy soft, even if it is acrylic, and because it's in simply gorgeous colors. The problem is, I started one block, and am now stuck. Painfully and impossibly stuck. I cannot bear to keep knitting the same color in the same dull pattern for row upon row. And so it's been sitting, unloved and nigh forgotten, in my knit-tote for months now. I suppose I should pick a different pattern for it. I've considered making the tesselating fish blanket, but I'm not sure I want to do that. Recently I've fallen in love with the patterns from the Mason Dixon girls, especially the log cabin, but also the mitered squares .. but will I love them long enough to finish this beastie!? ('Ello, beastie....)

Dammit, Blogger, post my damned pictures! It's not -that- hard!

*grumble*

Chris is having a contest to celebrate her new blog. She wants people to write haiku inspired by her darling Chaos.

I've joined the Knit the Classics KAL. This month they're reading Lolita, by Vladimir Nabakov. I'm not sure I will be able to start this month, what with the new job and school likely starting, but I'll know more soon. They're also taking votes on the books for September, October and November. I'm torn between a few of them, but have a while to vote, which is good.

SEPTEMBER:
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Little Woman - Lousia MayAlcott
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

OCTOBER:
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Evelina - Frances Burney
Candide - Voltaire

NOVEMBER:
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Emma - Jane Austen
The Last Man - Mary Shelley


Aha!! Pictures .. see, the sky was so oddly red!

Project Spectrum: August

Project Spectrum August has begun, and I'm not sure what I'm going to knit for it! Maybe I'll start (and hopefully finish!!) my mesh knit shopping bag finally .. I've only been saying I wanted to knit one for freaking ever. I have a whole cone of Sugar 'n Cream in ecru that I've had planned for just that purpose.



Beyond that though, I don't have any really neutral colors, nor black or white. But my friend and our recent houseguest Brandon, whom I taught to knit and am incredibly proud of, made this lovely indeed black and white mosaic dishcloth I want to show off.

Lammastide

Today is Lammas, also known as .. but not entirely the same as .. Lughnassadh. It is today we honor the Lady in her guise as Mother, as she grows large with the child growing within her womb, the child she conceived with the Sun King at Ostara. Now too does the Sun King begin to die as days grow short and nights long. Today we celebrate the harvests of the ending year. We begin to reap the bounty of our toils of the previous year, and prepare to settle in for the winter, living off that bounty until springtime.

I have grown throught the years from being raised Roman Catholic, turning to Wicca in my high-school years when I came across a book in the bookshop near my work. Since then .. and that was back in the very early 1990's .. I have walked a long and often lonely path to come to where I am today. I have moved a thousand miles from the home I knew. I have made the dreadful mistake of moving in with friends to help them out in Georgia. I came back to this home, to Jason's parents, and put my life back in order. I endured a hellish job much longer than I should have. I have survived over a year of joblessness. This last year has been full of fret and worry, but this new month is bringing work to me, and with it peace.

This Lammas I am celebrating the fruits of a year's toil in my quest for a job. I am celebrating the joy of knowing I can help provide for my household, and doing it in a job that I really believe I will enjoy. I am also celebrating going back to school, something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I'm still waiting to hear that they've gotten my transcripts, but I'm accepted, and with luck I'll start August 23rd. If not, I'll probably start October 2nd.

We will have our Lammas feast tomorrow, because today we gave ourselves a bit of a 'free' day. We enjoyed popcorn and Twizzlers at the movie (Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest) and then had fast food for lunch. I enjoyed half a medium fry, some chicken nuggets, and a double quater pounder, and I do not regret it. It was yummy, and it killed a craving I'd been having, and now I can continue on my weight loss without feeling I'm depriving myself.

While in the movie I managed to knit at least 10 rounds on Brandon's Booga bag ... it's very nearly done!! I think I'm going to go to 75 rounds, since I made it a little bigger at the base. It should be done today or tomorrow, at least for the knitting. Then I'll have to knit the i-cord strap and felt.

Goodies for me!

I got a lovely little gift from Spiderwoman Knits today .. a little package of hand-made stitch markers from her 'blogwarming'. How cute are they! Thank you hun! They're simply precious, and will be very useful once I'm done with the Booga-making!

I also got my new Interweave Knits today, and have found a bazillion patterns within that I want to make. Some of them are rather silly .. what's with that skirt? But I love love love the Portland Pullover, as well as the Gatsby Girl Pullover, but I think my favorite is the Equinox Yoke Pullover. Down to the little rolled hem .. it's simply lovely. And the Northern Lights Jacket .. they both make me itch to try Fair Isle!

And the lace patterns .. I really like the Glasgow Lace sweater, though I think it should be a bit longer .. anyone else with me, or am I just crazy? I feel the same about the Breton Jacket .. but I've never been overly fond of short-waisted tops I think. Maybe when I'm thinner.

The Father and Son Socks are very nice .. I might make some once I have appropriate yarns to do so .. and the Spartan Pullover for men is nice too. I could even make that for my dad!

I am simply in LOVE with the Weekend Pullover though .. I'm wondering how much of a misnomer -that- name is though. Despite the 'easy to remember' stitch-patterns it uses, I doubt it can be made in a weekend. It's lovely, however. As is the Sienna Cardigan .. yet, again, we have the short waist issue. I probably shouldn't say that though until I actually knit something wearable.


I also picked up a few other magazines when we went to pick out some books for Jason's Aunt Patty, who fell the other day in the yard and dislocated her jaw. OUCH!

I grabbed Family Circle's easy Knitting Spring/Summer issue, which has a few nice summery sweater patterns, but the cutest I think is the felted bowl patterns it has. I also finally broke down and bought Vogue Knitting's Spring/Summer issue. I knew it had several patterns I liked, but I'd been putting it off. But since Fall is coming, I thought I'd go ahead and get it .. since I'll only whine that I didn't later anyway. And Creative Knitting's September issue came out .. and it has a dishcloth pattern again! Yay! As well as a couple cute sweaters, and a non-felted slipper-sock pattern.


I don't have enough actual UFO's to actually join, but I came across UFO August KAL in my blog-reading today, and thought I'd promote it a little, for those of you that might actually read me and might be interested.

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Italy :: Florence
2. Honk :: y-tonk
3. Shades :: Cool
4. Tool :: Belt
5. Modern :: Impression
6. Tension :: Headache
7. Conservative :: Liberal
8. Weight :: Watchers
9. Insurance :: Policy
10. Political :: Boring

From Unconscious Mutterings

Booga Too!

I'm making a second bag, this one's for Brandon, who wants a project bag, and though he didn't want one in the fuscia and grey, I did happen to have this blue/black kinda tweedy yarn that Larissa gave me when I visited her .. which is also when she taught me to knit. I came home with an extra suitcase full of yarn when we left Michigan that May. Jason was just glad I didn't have to buy much yarn then .. though I've bought -much- more yarn since I picked the knitting back up again last fall, before I even bothered picking up the yarn she sent me home with.

But here's the progress thus far. I'm making this one a lick bigger than mine, and I'm going to be a bit more careful in the washing process so we don't felt the shit out of this one.

I'm just at 4 rounds through the body of the bag .. the bottom I made at 40 stiches and 40 rows, so it's just a wee bit bigger. The upshot of this is, I like this bag so much I'm definitely going to go check out the rest of the bag patterns at Black Sheep Bags and pick up one or two.




I have spent the morning after our Weight Watchers meeting and dropping Jason off at work downloading the podcasts of Cast On and knitting on the Booga for Brandon. I'm enjoying listening to Cast On, immensely. I'm up to episode 2 right now .. I especially liked the 'bonus' podcast entitled Snow Day .. it made me tear up a little actually, because it just sounded so beautiful. Yes, I'm a sap .. build a bridge and get over it, already.

I lost another 2.8 pounds this last week, by the way, for a total weight loss this month of 10.4 pounds. I'm halfway to my first goal of 20% of my starting weight. I'm perfectly on track to have lost that by my birthday, if not well before. I want to lose a total of about 70 pounds though, so that'll be a while. I'm still happy though if I keep at this losing right around 2 pounds a week!

Friday Five & Saturday Sky

Many areas of the United States are having a heat wave. Global warming, anyone? Look on the bright side of melting glaciers and enviro-destruction by taking a crack at the Friday Five:

1. What's the high temperature today where you are?
Actual high for Friday, July 28: 96F

2. Favorite way(s) to beat the heat.
Going to the beach and sitting with my feet just in the water. Going to the pool and not getting out (with waterproof sunscreen of course!). Going to the mall and walking and knitting. Sitting inside with my remote control and some diet soda and fresh fruit.

3. "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." Evaluate this statement.
Actually, I find it to be kinda true. Down here it gets extremely humid, and walking outside when it's humid is like walking into a sauna, it kinda takes your breath away, and it's harder to breath.

4. Discuss one or more of the following: sauna, hot tub, sweat lodge, warm-stone massage.
I had a hot-stone facial once, and I have to say, it was about the most incredible feeling ever. It was incredibly relaxing .. I can only imagine that a hot-stone massage would be even more incredible and relaxing. I still remember the girl that did it .. Cricket. And she reminded me of one a little .. she was oddly shaped .. large hips and thighs, but small everywhere else.

5. Hottest you've ever been in your life.
Uhh .. very likely the time I went to school with a temerpature of 102F, though I claimed I 'wasn't sick' ... I had strep throat and it was lucky I went to the school nurse when I did.

Non-temperature related bonus: In your opinion... who's hot?
Besides my husband, who is the hottest thing ever .. Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Janelle from BB All-Stars. (I'm sure there's more, but I can't think right now.


I've eaten now, and I can finally post my Saturday Sky Pics.

More Booga

I got poked at by Kelly, who reminded me that though I posted pictures of the finished Booga, I didn't get good enough pictures because of Isis interference.

So I managed to get some more pictures, since the feline beast of cuteness is perched elsewhere at the moment ... I'm not completely sure where, but I'm certain it's someplace warm.

The colors are a little less bright than this .. I blame the horrible lighting in my house. Someday, I'll replace this awful fixture with a good overhead light.


A couple shots of the strap, which doesn't show it perfectly, but more or less, this is how it looks. The grey kinda got lost in the fuscia .. probably because the grey yarn is much thinner .. almost laceweight I think. I'd have to double that with a strand of the fuscia to get them equal I think .. I'm gonna play around with it and see what works best before I make the second one with this yarn.

Today is a blog catchup day for me, as I've been busy getting things handled for my new job, like consenting to drug and background checks, and going in to the lab to fill a little cup. I think I'm the only person I know that can burn herself at a drug-test. The lab tech warned me gently 'Careful, the water gets really hot.' So I'm thinking "How hot can she mean? I'm used to hot water .. I felt stuff!" So I turn the water on, soap up my hands, and when I went to rinse them off ... Yeouch! I scalded my right ring finger . Their water indeed gets very hot .. like, boiling temp right out the faucet!

Other than that though, things are going well. Now I just have to wait, probably until Tuesday/Wednesday, for the results of the background check and drug test so I can get my training started. By this time next week I expect I'll be busy busy reading the training materials and reaquainting myself with a Telzon gun.

We're still following Weight Watchers religiously .. except for me forgetting to eat all my fruits and vegetables half this week, and being so tired I didn't eat all my points one day. The one-month mark comes up tomorrow, so I've got my extremities crossed for a good weigh-in. Things are fitting much better, so that's a good sign.

On the knitting front, I'm still working on finishing a quick boa-scarf for my other niece, and a Booga for Brandon. His is in this yummy blue/black tweed-ish merino I have, something Larissa gifted to me when she taught me to knit. Once that's done I hope to make another Booga in the Pink/Grey for Larissa. She has gotten back into knitting, though that girl has ventured into garments, whereas I stick with accessories for now. That's just being smart though, I think. I mean, I'm losing weight .. I don't want to make myself anything that won't fit me a year from now!

Like probably most of you all, I'm enduring ungodly heat hereabouts. This is the hottest summer I can remember .. and I've been in the South for 9 summers now. I've been hearing bits and bobs of things trying to explain the heat. Some have said the last big 'quake was preceded by a massive heat wave. Lots of people call it 'Global Warming' .. though without seeming to really know what they're talking about. I'm of the opinion that it's a natural cycle, and that the world isn't going to come to an end just because it's gotten hotter. We may have helped it along, sure, but we didn't cause this cycle. That's just pure arrogance.

Isis and the Booga.

First things first, everyone should go read Gretchen's post
about her friend Erin. Erin lives not far from me, and is raising money through the Charlotte Heart Walk in remembrance of her two little angels whom she lost to congenital heart defects. Gretchen is having a contest for anyone that donates even a little. Being in the Charlotte area, I'm thinking I might do one better, and sign up to walk. It's only three miles, and it's for a phenomenal cause, and I should be in shape enough to walk it by then. If you're close to Charlotte, please consider joining the walk, or at least donating!

This is my completed Booga, with the beginnings of a second Booga in some blue/black tweed on the circular in the foreground.



Isis, being the queen of cuteness trying to figure out what this strange thing is on her perch.

See? Her perch. Hers. Upon which she is quite happy and comfortable. I need to make her a kitty bed soon though. Just because I must.