Knitting Buddies!

I MET TRISH!!!!! I'm sooooo incredibly excited I can hardly contain myself!



Trish is a regular at the chat site and lives about an hour from me. With her hectic schedule, she still drove all the way across town to meet up with me and knit with the St. Clair Shores knitters.



The St. Clair Shores knitters meet up at the The Galley, a cafe attached to the St. Clair Shores Library, every Thursday night. Along the back wall a local artist is featured. It is rumored that the waiting list to get on the famous wall is 2 years.



Each week, the fiber artists meet up and have ourselves a great time. There are the knitters and crocheters and spinners. One lady even weaves baskets.



There are young knitters and old knitters, beginning knitters and knitters who have knitted their entire lives, knitters that love the fun yarns and those that stick to the classics.

We ate. We talked. We knitted. We pretty much had a great time. I'm looking forward to driving to her side of town to check out the knitting action over there!

Fingerpaints

Tonight was fun filled! It all started when Karolyn and I had ourselves an adventure at JoAnn's.

Originally we went to see if they had any patterns for bassinet covers and sheets.

After dinner we head off to the store and immediately found the pattern I wanted. Then we found the thread isle and then yarn isle and before I knew it I was smack dab in the middle of the fingerpaint isle. Fingerpaints sure have changed alot from when I was a kid. They have special paper and all these cool colors, and glitter paints, and paint pens, and all sorts of fun stuff. So I just HAD to get in on some of this action!



As soon as Karolyn and I got home we tore into that stuff like the dog devours a good steak!



She's telling me to "open" and "help" and I'm opening up the paint jars and getting the paper out and she's getting her little hands all over and around and in that wonderful gooey paint! We had a blast!



3 masterpieces were created tonight before she was tired and needed to get her beauty rest!

New and Exciting

Webrings. Does anyone know what a webring is? I sure don't but it does sound like fun. Especially at 2:30 am while I'm eating some frosting. Nutritional, I know. (Is there anything to go with the frosting? Nope, just the frosting. Vanilla in case you were wondering) Anyway back to the webring. Joan put together a webring so we just have to click on the next button and it will take you to the next site that is also hooked up to the ring. Cool huh?

There isn't much going on this week with the exception of my ever exanding belly. I havn't done much knitting either. I did however finish another border strip and have 1 more to do before I can sew it on to the main part of the blankie.

A friend is having a rough time of things these days so go and give her a hug. She could use one right about now.

Barbara started an iteresting thread on the discussion board dealing with stash sizes. The general consisus was that the poll was simply rediculous. Not the actual poll itself mind you, just the answers. So I created a poll that made more since. You can see it on the side bar. Vote. Its fun!

The Day for the Wearing of the Green

The long awaited day is finally here. Is everyone as excited as I am? I'm wishing everyone good luck!

Help was recruited.



And the winner is...

CONGRATULATIONS TRISH!!!


You won Stephanie's book as well as some earrings I knitted out of Swarovski crystals. I'm hoping that you enjoy your loot!

I'm asking that you send me your addy so I can get this in the mail for you pronto! Congrats again!

Green

In honor of St. Patty's Day, I'm going to host a contest. Up for grabs is one of Stephanie's' books as well as a little something else that I think you will enjoy!

How do you play you ask? Well the rules are quite simple. Leave me a comment and your name will be placed in a bucket with everyone else that left a comment. Karolyn will pick the winning name. Winners will be announced on the day of the wearing of the green!

Knitting News

I have finished the second strip for the baby blanket border. I just have 2 more flying geese strips to go and I can knit up the corner blocks and sew it all together. I'm getting nervous as this border sure is taking quite a bit of time. And did you see the counter at the top? Time's a ticking!!! I better hurry up or this kid won't have a blankie.

Do we have a name for the baby yet? Nope, not yet. However I have been informed that names based on fruits, vegetables and values are most definitely out. I'll keep you posted on other name groups that have been eliminated.

Home Front News

Karolyn is sick. She woke up this morning with at 101F fever. Ray stayed home with her today and took her to the Dr. He said that she has what every other kid in the area has as well as a sore throat for which he prescribed antibiotics. He also said that one of her ear tubes is working its way out but not to be concerned about it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Devil Made Me Do It

Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

If you go and take a look at the side bar, the stash has been enhansed by 25 balls. I just couldn't resist on the Louisa Harding Kashmir offered at Elann a week ago. I didn't actually take it out and play because it was in the original factory sealed bag and I didn't want to mess with that. However, that is not to say that I didn't get a good touch of it. I stuck my finger in one of the holes and experienced pure luxury. This stuff is to die for soft! I was truely tempted to rip that bag open and fondle all of that yummy yarn right then and there but I knew if I did the baby blanket would never get done. I need to be nominated for sainthood for showing such restraint. In addition to the Kashmir, I got my beloved Highland Wool in natural.

The knitting library has been enhansed as well. I ordered "Knitting Without Tears" by EZ and "Knitting from the Top" by BW. Both are books I have been wanting for quite some time now and am quite glad I splurged.

Elizabeth's book is the last book I needed to finish my collection of her books. I'm so glad I got it as it is chalk full of her wonderful prose and great phrases. She just gives such freedom to knitting that no stitch-by-stitch pattern can provide.

Barbara's book is without a doubt simply genious. She is knitting all types of clothing from the top down. Although I have made several raglan garments from the top down, I read through this section first. Mostly because Barbara told me to. Now I'm not very prone to being obedient, just ask my husband, but when Barbara says jump I'm asking how high. This section completely explains the math behind all sorts of raglan type sweaters. Amazing. Next is the secion on set-in-sleeve sweaters from the top down. I'm anxious to see how she masters it.

Knit Simple

I got my Knit Simple magazine this week and I actually like it. This suprises me mostly because I have not been pleased with what the magazines have been publishing lately.

I didn't actually read all of the articles, but they looked interresting. There is an article on knitting and riding, one on reading crochet chart patterns, and one entitled "The Good Stuff." I'm assuming that it is about good yarn but again I didn't read it.


The patterns are all about fun in the sun. Definately geared toward summer! Some are cute and some are not so cute. I really liked this pattern and I'm considering making it out of some Katrina I have marinating in the stash. I was looking at the pattern and am thinking of adapting it to be knitted in the round to the gauge I get with my yarn.



I really liked this cover up! I have a couple of yarns in the stash that I'm thinking would like to become this. There is the Kroy Patons (superwash sock yarn) or the alpaca yarn from the Idaho Alpaca farm. And lets not forget the Sea Silk from Benne. However I do have special plans for the Sea Silk so I'm thinking its out of the runnings for this competition.



There is a section on knitting for your guy which I could have done without. It was quite horrific and I could not imagine Ray ever wearing any of these items. Ever.


Then there is the baby section. Now I'm really partial to baby stuff as I'm pregnant so naturally I found all of the items to be adorable. The booties were especially darling as were the toys. I have added the booties to the list of required knitting for the new baby.

All in all, I think its a good issue!!

Christine!

For awhile now I have been hearing nothing but good comments about the movie "Little Miss Sunshine." It was up for all of those awards and I think it actually got one (I don't actually know as I don't watch the award shows. Mostly cuz I really don't care one way or the other.) Well I finally got it from Netflix last week and just could not stop laughing. And I'm not talking about the chuckle kind of laugh where you just shake your head and do your uummmm hhhhmmmmmm's. I'm talking about a full fledged belly laugh that you have to pause the movie so you don't pee your pants.

The movie is about an extremely dysfunctional family that has to get their daughter to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California. They live 700 miles away. The question of transportation arises and they settle on driving the family's old beat up VW van. They eventually make it to the pageant in the nick of time.

Now being the kind of person that was raised in a family that constantly had car issues, I could appreciate what the family went through. Mostly cuz I went through the same situation. I can't say that the clutch exactly went out on my mint green 1980 Honda Accord but the starter was involved.

My best friend Jody and I were in Christine. At this point I was calling the car Christine cuz I had just finished reading Stephen King's novel "Christine" and I swear, this car knew when pay day was. She knew exactly, right down to the very minute, when the MacDonald's paycheck was deposited into the bank. Cuz at that exact moment, she would decide to not work. And she would continue to not work until I spent at least a hundred bucks on her. God I loved that car!

Anyway Jody and I and Chrisine were going through Wendy's drive through late in the evening during middle of winter. All we ordered was the blizzard we were craving all day. We pulled up to the window and this is when Christine decided that she needed attention. Of course she died and would not start no matter how much I swore at her and turned the key. Jody is laughing with hysterics which causes me to start laughing hysterically. Meanwhile cars behind me are blasting their horns. Jody suggests to jump start the car. So she gets out and starts pushing while I'm holding the clutch down and praying my "Hail Mary's." Christine realizes she better start co-operating and we get enough speed going to pop the clutch. She starts to purr as if nothing at all happened. Of course I can't stop the car and Jody has to make a run for it! Finally she gets into the passenger seat in the nick of time before the Wendy's drive way ends and I'm forced to go out onto the busy street. We laughed all the way home. Payday was the next day and Christine promptly received her usual hundred bucks!