Secret Pal 7

Days of Yarn & Roses
I have signed up for Secret Pal 7. Here are my answers to the questionaire!
1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Actually, I am kind of a yarn snob. I buy yarns like Red Heart occassionally when I need a quick fix, or when I feel cheap, but then when I start to knit with them, I just cannot do it. These yarns have their place, but not often with me.
2. Do you spin? Nope, but I have purchased a drop spindle. Crochet: Yest, but don't really enjoy it anymore?
3. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?I generally only use circulars or DPNs. I have two needle pouches that I use. One has needles under size 6 and the others are over size 6.
4. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I have knit since I was a child. I consider myself fairly advanced. There is not much I cannot do, but I am currently stumped by how to pick up all the gusset stitches on the two socks I have on two Circs. Just trying to learn that technique.
5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Nope.
6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) I really like lavender and vanilla right now.
7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Oh yeah!!! Favorite candy? Anything with sugar in it.
8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? I like just about every craft. I quilt, sew, do needlepoint. I also like stained glass.
9. What kind of music do you like? I occassionally listen to opera, but don't really listen to music. I am a Audible book lover. Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) yes
10. What's your favorite color? Purple Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Pastels. Any colors you just can't stand?
11. What is your family situation? Married, 25 years, two kids, boys, ages 14 and 18. Do you have any pets? Yes, two Italian Greyhounds.
12. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Yes.
13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? Right now I am hooked on laceweight and socks. I really like varigated yarns.
14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? Acrylic.
15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s? Lace
16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? Lace shawls and socks
17. What are you knitting right now? Two socks on two Circs, two different lace shawls.
18. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Who doesn't?
19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Circulars20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? No preference
21. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Yes.
22. How did you learn to knit? Taught myself out of a Family Circle Magazine.
23. How old is your oldest UFO? One year... maybe?
24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? Tazmanian Devil
25. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
26. Is there anything that you collect?Craft supplies
27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? None, but I buy most of them--OK, all of them.
28. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? Silk laceweight29. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? I trying to learn 2 socks on 2 circ. I was doing OK until time to pick up the second gussets. Maybe tommorrow.
30. Are you a sock knitter? Yes. What are your foot measurements? I wear a size 9 fat.
31. When is your birthday? May 7
Well, I should be more wordy, but not much time today. Maybe more next time.

OK-- So I'm not a blogger

Well, it is clear from my sporatic postings that I am more of a blog reader than a blog writer. I have the best of intentions, really I do. I have some great finished objects to show-- if I just took the pictures. I am finishing-- late- my socks for the Holiday Sock exchange. I did Medrith's Little Lace socks from the Gathering of Lace Book. I shortened the ankle, my partner asked for ankle socks and used thicker, but not thick yarn-- Rowen 4ply Soft, in light lavender. They are great and I am sorry that I am sending them away. Best of all, I knit them in about three days!!! Maybe after I block, I will put up a picture. I hate blogs without pictures. I also have a completed Kiri in Kid Silk Haze, done except for blocking. I have done Blogging by Mail 3- mixed results- bad package, but good conversations with sender and am almost finished with my hat for the International Scarf exchange. I did the multidirectional scarf in Noro Silk Garden. I am going to be happy this year and count my blessings. I may not be a frequent blogger, but I am going to try. Pictures soon.

Could I be any Lazier?

Well, it has been a glorious day in my life. I have not left the bed except to obtain food, beverages and to potty. I have watched hours of landscaping programs on HGTV, a cake decorating show on the Food Channel, two episodes of Law & Order and will soon view Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. His Honor just brought me a huge pile of food from PF Chang's and I am going to dive in, then go straight to bed. Tomorrow I will worry about my diet-- while I get a pedicure and then eat lunch with a good friend from Law School. I have been reading blogs and knitting on a semi-awful novelty yarn shawl. Just the basic garter stitch triangle, but in two crazy white yarns. More, with pictures, another day!!

Got to get Happy

I have made a committed committment to be HAPPY. There is no reason in the world that I should be anything other than joyous! So, I am going to post only happy stuff. I would post some pictures, but don't have the camera right here, so maybe tomorrow-- or I mean on Monday. We leave in the morning at 4 dark o'clock for Chicago. I have never been there. I can't wait. I think that I will take my Feather and Fan shawl, but won't be sad if I don't get anything done on it. Soooooooo..... more on Monday!!

Somehow the Summer got away from me.

Well, it is now fall. I didn't write all summer. I am going to do better. I knit lots of stuff this summer that did not fit. In keeping with my pattern, I knit two giant sweaters. I did knit a wierd little cotton tape sweater from a Rowan book. It's ok, but I haven't brought myself to wear it. Maybe I will put it on and put a picture up soon. I just started the third ball of Kid Silk oon my Kiri. I think that I will finish it soon. I should be done, but made lots of mistakes in the first third and ripppppped the whole thing out and started over. I'm pretty proud that I didn't abandon the project. I am really good at abandonment.

In other news, we found out today that my oldest boy got a 31 on the ACT!! I am the mother of at least one smart boy-- although we think that if he uses his brain, the second son is actually smarter. Son 2, age 14, is currently crabby, having broken his wrist during a roll down a hill. It is a bad break and will require at least 4 months in a cast. He is probably going to miss tennis season this year. He also has the singular ability to keep our whole household in an uproar. If he isn't happy, none one is happy.

My oldest is thinking about going to the University of Texas. The debate department is interested in him and has made a scholarship offer. Not great, but not bad. It's not like he is a football player. Academics are so under-rated by colleges that it is sad. Anyway, we are embarking on the college exploration. I hope that the journey is both fun and fruitful.

Bad Week For No Good Reason

I am having a bad week and I don' know why. Although I lost another toe nail(!!!! same toe, other foot), got a brand new car that my husband has mostly driven since it arrived, have been chewed out by a judge for missing a hearing (I was in the wrong courtroom, thank you secretary), I don't think any of these things are the reason. I just want to cry and any slight thing has got me watering up. I hate feeling like this. I have been looking forward to Friday all week, hoping for good weather. This is my inviolate, everybody knows that its Friday so come over to my house and drink all day by the pool day. Husbands hate it, those late afternoon hangovers don't do much for family time later, but by god, we love it!! I bought 6-- yes, 6, bottles of Beringer's White Merlot in preparation for the day. This is not a typo. White Merlot. Smoother than white zinfindale and plenty sweet. Stands up to a glass of ice and an ambiant temperature of 80+ degrees. Plus--- at $4.05 a bottle, purchased at Tom Thumb in Plano, Texas with case discount and customer loyalty card--- you just can't beat it. It is chilling nicely in the pool fridge, where it will remain for another week. His majesty has a golf match at 12:30 tomorrow and a pretrial conference at 1:30. Guess who gets to go back to the courtroom where she was throughly embarrased today? Me!! No wine for you today.

Oh well. I have to get over this feeling. As you can tell from this post and many previous posts, I have a great life. I just can't figure out why I want to cry.

Update; Ugly Foot

I guess that I was not very clear about the "trauma" associated with the destruction of my beautiful Mother's Day Pedicure. The nails are real, only the color is not my own. The nail that fell off was not fake, but a real nail. I just wished that it had chosen a different time to let go of its tenuous hold. I am waiting for the corrosponding nail to fall off on the other foot.

I took a break from knitting for most of the weekend because I have given myself a "crick" or, in my house, a "cricket" in my neck. I think that this comes from, once again and as usual, laying on my fat ass and knitting. You would think that I could at least sit up. But, my personal life philosophy has always been Never stand if you can sit, and never sit if you can lay. And I wonder why I have a fat ass-- and for that matter fat abs as well.

I am waiting for a shawl kit from Yarnia.com. I had previously gotten a purse kit from them and it was spectacular. It is the white purse in previous pictures. Based on this experience, I ordered a shawl grabbag. Unbeknownst to me, I was sent a scarf kit by mistake. I didn't think that two 50 gram balls of cotton would make a shawl (long eyelash was knitting with the cotton), but I went on faith and undertook the pattern provided for a fairly basic triangular shawl. It turned out to be an over sized triangular scarf. I stewed about the prob for several days, and finally wrote Yarnia. I was not pleased with the price that I paid-- supposidly discount-- for two small skeins of cotton and one of eyelash.

I am so glad that I did not just write Yarnia off as a bad company. My e-mail was answered within an hour, even though I wrote it late in the evening. They are sending a replacement. I opted to try again rather than receive a refund-- which was offered. I'll let you know when it comes.

You want Roses, Check out these Roses!!!!!!

How about this view!!

Ignore the dirt around this bed, but I planted hibiscus and white lantana today. This rose tree is like the energizer bunny. It will not stop blooming. It has gotten so heavy with flowers that I had to put a trellis under it just to prop it up.

This is the first wave of the blooms. Note the lounge chair. This is where I lay and work on making sure my ass gets as fat as humanly possible.

This is the best view of everything.

Roses, Roses and assorted other Flowers

No knitting content at all today. I worked in my flower beds all day today. I think I have planted all the flowers that I can plant this year, or at least until the nursery that I like reduces the perenials by 50- 75%!!! I finished my bead markers today for the bead-it exhange. Does that count as knitting content? I tried to take a picture of them, but I could not get one to stay in focus. Anyway, today is all about the flowers-- and the four racks of ribs that I put on the smoker this morning at 11!! Six hours later, they were some kind of good!!!!!!

What a Pisser-- Warning, Ugly Picture

I was very happy to receive a very much wanted gift certificate to my favorite nail spa for Mother's Day. My kids did the thinking and the shopping!!! Amazing event in my family. Sooooo--- I went to get a wonderful spa pedicure on Saturday. I met a friend and we smuggled our Diet Coke and Vanilla Vodka drinks in Sonic Cups. I got a nice pink color and splurged for a painted flower. Lovely.
Here comes the pisser part. After leaving the nail place, I came home and got in the pool. You know, to enjoy a little sunshine. As we all know, brown fat looks much better than white fat. That is why we don't eat our pork chops medium rare. Wellllll, I have a couple of bad nails from tennis injuries, but didn't really think anything about it. I put one foot in the pool, a nail floated off and this is now my perfect pedicure.

Yuck!!

This was a great bag. The crocheted rose was really fun and easy. I still need to add two leaves, but wanted to post now.

This was a bag that I test knitted for the Bag-a-holic group. It was designed by Karen in Utah-- thats the only name I have. The design was brilliant in my simple opinion. No sewing. I wish I had made it bigger.

This is the March bag from the Bag-a-holics Group. My mosaic knitting was terrible. The checks, that I added on my own, felted way tighter than the rest of the bag. Also the handle tabs felted crooked. Its ok, not great.

Bad Blogger

I swear, I spend so much time reading the e-mails from the several lists that I follow, I have little time to knit or work. In the past week, I have read at least 2.5 billion e-mails, drafted three important legal briefs and knit three bags. I would post pictures, but I don't have time. I have had to resort to listening to book on my Ipod. There is only so much a girl can do in a week. All three bags felted last night, hopefully pictures tomorrow!

Can't even Frog right.

OK, I'll admit that a hot pink, sueded yarn tam was probably not a really good idea. I have been to France, more than a couple of times, and although we always sing about the raspberry beret, I have never, ever been tempted to buy one. So why was I compelled to knit one. And in Suede, no less. Needless to say, it was a disaster. No elasticity. No shape. No fit. Sooooooo, I decided to frog away and add the hot pink to my Ruana-- which is almost to the halfway point. I cannot get the sorry sucker to frog. I have been picking out stitches for almost 2 hours and it will not rip. Somehow, I am froging in the wrong direction. Never has anyone been so stupid as to have a problem unknitting. I could not feel more stupid. Done in by a not even Raspberry beret. I'm going to take my bath now.