Thursday, June 28, 2007

It's Gone!



For some reason, I haven't felt like knitting much lately. I don't know if it's the heat or what, but I'm not finishing near the amount of projects that I thought I would this summer. It's not that I haven't finished anything- the Miss Dashwood #2 is complete, as is the Operation Fuzzy Toes sock. It's just that it seems like it's taking me forever to finish my uptown boot socks (or anything else I work on). I'm not really sure why, because I love the pattern and I love the yarn. I just can't get up to my usual speed. I'll read about someone knitting, see someone knitting, or read about something having to do with knitting, and I can't wait to pick my stuff back up and start knitting away. But once I'm actually there, my mojo is gone. I guess I shouldn't be too worried that my love for knitting is gone (as shouldn't my dear husband after all the money I've spent on yarn, needles, etc)- I still love even the idea of knitting, but productivity and I don't seem to have a meeting of the minds now days. As Scarlett O'Hara said, tomorrow is another day, and maybe tomorrow will be my day.

I'm off to comfort my baby girl-the turtle just died-Dang the store at the beach-we buy the turtles, frogs, hermit crabs and the like, and they never make it more than a few weeks. Now, I have a crying girl on my hands who thinks that it's her fault the turtle died (this time she really did do a good job taking care of the turtle..we won't talk about the previous hermit crabs and frogs)- when it's really the fault of the those evil stores who sell children futility in a cage!



Wednesday, June 20, 2007

It's Christmas in June!

I just found out about the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair in October!!!! I dug this up when I was surfing the web. I had really given up being able to visit one of these without having to hop on a plane. But TADA! look what's in my neck of the woods this fall! (Or least just a few hours away by car). Is it just me, or are there not any (or very few) opportunities for knitters in the Georgia area? (I just wish that there was a local knitter's guild that didn't require a 1 hour commute) When I go on Lion Brand and check their listings for knitting, fiber, etc events in my area-nada. When I Google fiber fairs, etc in Georgia-nada. Maybe I haven't been checking hard enough, or maybe my Google skills just aren't what they could be, who knows? But I am definitely planning on attending this! Any takers????

Now that I've shouted my joyous news, I better go get baking. My step-dad's family are in town from Cali, and they're making homemade enchiladas for all of us for dinner. I'm talking everything-from-scratch, take- all-day, so-good-you'll-slap-your-mama enchiladas. Therefore, I'm making a hummingbird cake and some black-bean salsa (thanks Ramon for the recipe) just so that I'll feel like I'm even a little bit worthy for this great meal we're having.

But before that, I'm meeting my dad somewhere today so that he can give me the the chili rellenos he and my step mom picked up on their RV trip out west. YUM!! Do you see at least 5 extra pounds on my family's horizon?

Here's the family on father's day morning. I think they liked the waffles and pancakes, huh?

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Click your heels together three times......






Whew! It's nice to be home. There's nothing like a good vacation, but there's also nothing like coming home. I changed my ring tone on my phone to Michael Buble's song "Home" just in anticipation. We did have a great time though. The beach was absolutely beautiful, the Gulf of Mexico looked just like the Caribbean. I have never seen so many shades of blue and green in the water. At the shore the water was so clear, you could see straight to the bottom. It was great for snorkeling. We also visited the local state park and I got some really
good eye candy. (The cutie pie in the top right is my niece- I thought it was a really cool picture, not that you can appreciate how cute she is, though!)



I was able to get some knitting done, but definitely not as much as I thought I would. Usually, I would have completed the operation Fuzzy Toes sock, the Miss Dashwood hat, and at least started on my second Uptown Boot sock. I'm not usually a slow knitter, but it just seemed like I couldn't concentrate while sitting by the ocean. I guess the heat made it hard to keep my mind on my patterns. Also, my evil anal retentive side would not let the slightly sloppy picked up stitches along the heel flap on my uptown book sock remain, so I had to frog it and start my heel flap and heel turn over. As far as the hat and the sock, all I have to do on the baby hat is sew on the ties and the ear flaps and I just need to sew the toe together on the fuzzy toes sock. I'm ready to get both of these done so that I can really get to work on my Klaralund sweater. My friend Tammy also wants me to make her a booga bag when I get the time. So I'll guess I'll be making booga bag number 3.


Hope everyone has a great Father's Day. I'm going to make linguine with white clam sauce for the man of the house. I'll let you know how it turns out. (However, he shouldn't be hungry after the huge breakfast of bacon, chocolate chip pancakes and blueberry waffles that he had, though). Adios mis amigos que tejen. (translation: Goodbye my friends who knit.-my brother is bilingual and he spoke a lot of Spanish this week at the beach, can you tell?)


Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Vacation Here I Come!







Finally, school's out. You would think that it would be easier on the mom when the kids are in school, not out. NOPE. When school's in, there are at least 46 million things to remember-did you include the money for the field trip, make cookies for a class party, make 2 lunches EVERY SINGLE DAY before 7:00 am- I could go on and on lamenting my sad fate but I'll spare you the monotonous details. Anyway now that school's out, I can sleep late (at least on the days I'm not working, and I love sleep more than a good glass of wine), go to the pool, knit, knit some more, and just generally not get all stressed out with the details that type A people like me get freaked out about. And with school being out comes-VACATION!!! We're going to the Gulf for a little more than a week with my parents and my brother and his family. So, being the cliche queen that I am-Let the good times roll. Oh wait, that isn't a cliche, but a Cars song-I know, I know, I'm dating myself. I once heard somewhere that using cliches a lot is a sign of inferior intelligence. I prefer to think that I've read a lot of good books and remember quotes well, kind of like being good in English class?






Today's the first day that I can enjoy just being home with the little ones, since I had to work Monday and yesterday (that means getting to work at 6:45 in the morning and playing with the stork-I'm a L&D nurse and no it's not always a happy job-trust me, sometimes we have more whackjobs than a meth lab). So without the 48 million school details to attend to, that means more knitting. Hopefully the operation fuzzytoes sock will be finished today. I turned the heel last night and it's working up really quickly.



Also, my Miss Dashwood hat is going better than the first one. I really love the yarn I'm using. It's Crystal Palace's Bunnyhop. This is the first time I've used it and it feels great. I also got some recently to make my nephew a blanket. This stuff rocks!! It doesn't split and it feels heavenly.



Is there anyone out there who's making the uptown boot sock from Favorite Socks? I'm having the best time making these. The pattern really isn't hard, just enough knit stitch in the round to be easy, but cabling every fourth row to keep you interested. I've seen lots of people making the embossed leaves socks, but no uptown boot socks. Let me know.



Well, off to get ready for the beach and finish my sock. Here's some summer pics for you
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