Got Ewe in Stitches

Moving day

2006-01-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

I've been a naughty little blogger. While you've been seeing a couple of pathetic posts (OK, maybe not pathetic. I mean, the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl and I've bought a spinning wheel), I've actually been setting up a shiny new blog. While I'm going to miss this blog, I knew it was time to move on when I got my Xmas gift from my hubby. Remember when I mentioned revealing one of my gifts? Well, you'll finally get to see what it is.

So, without further ado, let's commence moving day! Here's my new forwarding address:

www.goteweinstitches.com

Stop by and let me know what you think. And be sure to say hi to Gus when you do!

Pssst...

2006-01-29T15:05:00.000-08:00

wanna see what I just ordered?

Awwww yeah!

2006-01-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl bay-bee!

Black box warning

2006-01-21T14:23:00.000-08:00

Good news! My shoulder is back to normal. I saw my doctor on Wednesday for a physical and she said that it sounds like I hyperextended my rotator cuff. Most likely from too much use. So if I want to continue using a drop spindle, I'll need to do some exercises that strengthen my shoulder muscles. I think I'm the only person that has ever injured themselves spinning yarn. ha,ha!

I also asked my doctor about some ecsema "issues" that I have. She suggested I try something called Elid*l (in case you're wondering, the asterisk is in place of an 'e'). Has anyone heard of this stuff? Apparently, it works by suppressing your immune system. I discovered the hard way that this means it can cause headaches and flu like "symptoms." After being knocked on my ass for two days, I'm finally feeling better. Coincidentally, the FDA made an announcement yesterday (at least, I think it was yesterday) that this particular medicine has to have a black box warning on it. This is because a suppressed immune system also increases one's risk of cancer. Feeling like crap and an increased risk of cancer! All because I want to get rid of some itchy and annoying patches of skin. Sadly, I want it gone badly enough that I'm trying it again today. I'm a smart one, I tell ya!

There's not much else to report. I'm planning to take part in the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics, although I haven't decided what to make yet. I'm thinking something that uses lace or color work, but it's gotta be small enough that I can reasonably finish it in 16 days.

As exciting as I've been lately, I'm thinking of putting a black box warning on my blog. It would say something like "Read at the risk of boring yourself to death!" (hee,hee! I crack myself up sometimes!)

I am my mother's daughter

2006-01-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

My mom has a tendency to hurt herself in extreme ways while doing mundane tasks. For example, while getting out of the car at the gas station she broke her ankle. This happened years and years ago (back when I was in grade school), but you get the idea, right? Well, last night, at 3:30am, as I was rolling over in bed, I felt blinding pain in my right shoulder. It felt like I dislocated the joint, but I'm not sure if that's actually what happened or if it just really, really, really hurt like hell. I sat up and eventually was able to get some movement back, but I continued to have severe pain and I had an ache spread up into my neck and down my arm. After icing it for a bit, and taking some Aleve, I was able to eventually fall back to sleep. When I woke up this morning, the severe pain had turned into moderate pain and the radiating ache is now gone. My hubby and I think that using the drop spindle a lot and learning how to card fiber this week may have fatigued my shoulder muscles, making it so weak it couldn't support the joint when I put pressure on it. So, since I can't use my arm without pain, I have to lay off the knitting and spinning for a little while. sniff...

There is some good news at least. My hubby got to fly solo yesterday for the first time. I went along and videotaped the event, so once he gets a video clip made I'll post it for everyone to see. It was especially great that he got to solo yesterday, because it's his birthday weekend. Of course, the poor guy has to make his own cake today. Thankfully he's a good sport!

Iwannaspinningwheel!

2006-01-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

We got to learn how to use spinning wheels last night and now I want one sooooo badly! For anyone who is attempting to learn how to spin and has only used a drop spindle so far... well, I gotta tell you... don't give up until you've tried a wheel. I was amazed at how my fingers all of a sudden "got it." I don't know that I'll be able to afford one, but I'll definitely be doing some wheel shopping at Stitches next month.

As I warned my hubby when I got home last night, I'm going to be a bit of a pain for a while due to my one track mind of...

IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel

I think you get the picture.

:-)

The aroma of wet sheep

2006-01-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

My homework assignment from my spinning class is to clean some fleece and have it ready for prepping at our next class on Thursday. I washed my fleece yesterday. Wow! Wet sheep fleece sure does stink! And the lovely scent clung to my skin for the rest of the day. I just wish that I had thought to take a before and after picture of the fleece. I was amazed at how much gunk came out of the fleece in just the first soaking. The water was literally dark brown right after I submerged the fleece. I did remember to take a picture of the fleece right after a laid it out on a screen to dry and then took another one today of the dry fleece. Unfortunately... I accidentally deleted the picture of the wet fleece (I forgot that the only copy I had was still on my flash card and deleted it thinking that I had a copy on my hard drive. If you think this was a d'oh moment, I worked for a company that used software called SourceSafe that virtually guaranteed that files couldn't be deleted. Yet, I managed to delete almost an entire training program worth of files. All I can say is, thank god for nightly network backup tapes.).

So, without further ado, here's my dried fleece.

Pretty exciting, huh? It really would have helped to have taken a before and after shot. Oh well. While I was sweating out in the hot January sun, I took a picture of the yarn I've spun so far.

I took off the yarn that I initially spun in class the other night. Although the outer edge of yarn doesn't look bad, the stuff underneath isn't usable, so I didn't bother winding into a ball. That's why it looks like a purple cocoon.

I started fresh with some roving that the instructor gave us, and I was excited to see that I'm getting more consistent in my yarn weight.

When I was first learning a couple of years ago, I did the common thick/thin that most people do when they're first learning. I then went into my bag of spinning supplies from last year and dug out some merino/cashmere blend roving that I had started spinning. I was shocked to see that I was actually pretty consistent back then as well, it's just a much finer weight of yarn.

I had thought that this was bad at the time, but now I'm realizing that because the fiber itself is much finer, the yarn will come out finer as well. I'm becoming much more confident now, which makes me that much more excited about trying a wheel. I just might be shopping around for a wheel at Stitches. Whee!

The Goods
My hubby came back home on Friday and brought a gift my mom-in-law got me for Xmas... Sally Melville's Color book. One of my goals this year, along with learning how to spin on a wheel, is to try my hand at color knitting. I've decided that I need to get over this weird intimidation I have and face it head on. So this book will be a great guide.

I also got these bunny slippers from my mom.

My one cat, Penny, is absolutely terrified of these. Which, of course, makes these even more fun to wear around the house. hee,hee!

I'm dizzy!

2006-01-05T21:05:00.000-08:00

Eva* and I took our first spinning class tonight over at Fiber Factory. This is actually my third attempt at learning, but it's my first real class. The drop spindle came back to me pretty quickly, but it's the wheel that I really want to learn. We're also going to learn how to clean and prep fleece for spinning. I hadn't expected this to be included in the class, so I'm pretty psyched about that. I can't picture me going out and buying an entire fleece like some do, but it'll be nice to know the entire process.

By the way, remember how I mentioned in my last post about how all I've finished in 2005 were the two preemie hats? Uh, hello? How could I forget my Nothin' But a T-shirt? And it's not like I finished it in January. Or that I used crappola yarn for it. Nope. I finished it right before Thanksgiving and I used Rowan Calmer. Good grief! Am I that forgetful? Is this a sign that senility is going to be setting in soon? I was so afraid that I had forgotten about other projects that I had completed that I went back through my archives for the year. It's pretty pathetic. Oh, and I haven't completed anything else. But I mean it's pretty pathetic at how the amount of times I post each month keeps dwindling down. I used to be pretty chatty, but now... not so much. At least I realize why certain members of my family (and you all know who you are) are such pains in my ass about updating. I'll try to do better. I promise!

In the meantime, my hubby comes home tomorrow morning! (His mom tried to renew her loan, but I just couldn't do it. I just miss him too much. Sorry mom!) Before he gets here, I have to vacuum, clean the dishes (or at the very least, get them into the dishwasher), trim the cats nails, wrap my hubby's b-day present (or at the very least, hide it), clean the bathrooms, and take the trash out. Whew! I'm exhausted just writing it all out!

*Eva is having a Save the Boobs raffle over at her blog. All it takes to enter is a minimum $5 donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Just think, you could feel warm and fuzzy and maybe win something warm and fuzzy!

Walla!*

2006-01-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

* Today's title is dedicated to Eva and her recent post. :-)

I was getting comfy on the couch last night with a couple of chick flicks and as I pulled out my knitting I realized that while I'm in the process of starting about three or four new projects, I still had Klaralund sitting in pieces. The poor thing has been waiting for some love and seaming. So... I pulled out the pieces and started to seam her up. I got most of it done it last night, and then after two more seams today, walla! she's done!

From the front...

...and from the back.

I can't tell you how many attempts it took to get the back shot. I took pictures of the back of my head, my butt, and the shower door before I eventually got my back in the picture and somewhat centered. (Ok, it wasn't centered, but that's the beauty of cropping.)

I'm a little worried about finishing Klaralund when I did. I have a track record of finishing one measly project a year. I start about a hundred, but between my knitting ADD and the fact that I hate to seam, I just never seem to finish anything. Therefore, since I finished this on the second day of 2006, I'm wondering if that's it for the year. Or, maybe since I finished two preemie hats in 2005, maybe I'm allowed two projects in 2006?

Edited to add: I finish projects so rarely, that I always forget to give specs. In this case I used Rowan All Seasons Cotton instead of Noro Silk Garden as the pattern calls for. Ummm... is there anything else I should tell you?

Anyhoo, New Year's Day was all about movies. I not only rented two chick flicks for last night, but I went and saw the Legend of Zorro with my parents at the supper theater yesterday afternoon. I brought my camera to show you what the place looks like. Unfortunately, I was so paranoid about getting in trouble for taking pictures (I don't know exactly why they would get mad, but there was no convincing me otherwise), that I only got these two quick shots.

Here's where we were sitting.

In relation to the screen.

The Goods
In continuing my report on the Xmas goods, I did, of course, get some knitterly items. From my friend Anna I got the Knitting calendar and a sheepie measuring tape. And from my sister, I got the Knit Bits calendar and the book Mother of Purl. There's actually another knitting-related goodie that I got from my hubby, but that will be receiving a separate unveiling.

Calling all Northern California knitters
My sister and I are heading to San Jose in February for Stitches! I can't wait to see everyone!

Three. glorious. days. off.

2005-12-31T08:08:00.000-08:00

I have learned one vital difference between working in an academic library and a public library. In an academic library, there are no patrons during the holidays. Literally. Even though I would work during the couple of weeks around Xmas and New Years, since there weren't any classes, the library itself was closed. In a public library, especially a public law library, the holidays bring in people who are their "best." This past week was especially tiring, because one my co-workers was out for a couple of days with strep so it was just me and my boss, who is the most intelligent, funniest, and down to earth woman that I know (Why yes, she does read my blog. Why do you ask?). I feel like I have survived a hazing of sorts this past week, since my six month probation finally comes to a finish next week. Woo Hoo!

I have been meaning to write a nice, long post about my Xmas weekend. But, frankly, I'm out of the mood to write a nice, long post, which would also require a nice, long photo shoot of all the goodies I got. So instead, you're going to get things in drips and drabs (or whatever that expression is).

First, I have to tell you about the sugar cookie house. A couple of years ago, my hubby and I got married in early November. Because weddings cost a small fortune and use up all of your vacation time at work (and in my case, thanks to gallbladder surgery two weeks before the wedding, all of my sick time as well), we decided that it would be best to stay home for the holidays rather than travel to family. So we decorated more than normal (because it never seems worth the effort to decorate and then be out of town for two weeks, just so the cats can enjoy a tree and some lights) and made a cookie house. I had never made one before, because I don't like gingerbread, but my hubby enlightened me to the fact that we could make one using sugar cookie dough. It was lots of fun and pretty yummy.

Anyhoo, long story short (sort of), since we weren't going out of town for Xmas this year, we decided to make another cookie house. We baked the pieces on Thursday night, but waited until Saturday night (Xmas Eve) to actually assemble the house. Because we were going to use colored m&ms for different things (a pool, landscaping, etc.), we spent some time sorting out the different colors among bowls. I felt like quite the rock star roadie! Then we spread frosting along the bottom of our house base. And, finally, it was time to take the house pieces off the cookie sheets and assemble! Note to selves: it's best to remove the house pieces from the cookie sheets immediately upon cooling. Otherwise they stick to the cookie sheet and break into tiny pieces when attempting to remove. Here is a picture of our final house from that night...

Oh well! We've decided to attempt this again after my hubby gets back in town and make it a birthday cookie house, since his birthday is on the 16th.

At least our tree decorating looked a little bit better than our cookie house. We never have finished unpacking from the move, since we're going to begin house shopping and hopefully moving again quite soon. But we did put up our little table top tree on top of our tv.

Do you like the snowscape scene along the bottom? And check out my black and white sheepie ornaments sitting in the "snow" next to the snowman!

The Goods
One of the many gifts that I got from my hubby was the Deluxe Librarian Action Figure set (with shushing action!). I already have the Librarian Action figure (with shushing action!).* But this one comes with a library backdrop, a desk, computer, book cart and stacks of books! (Yes, I am a dork)

I love the fact that the deluxe version comes with action figure dressed in red, while the non-deluxe has her dressed in blue. One of these days I'll have to find the box where I packed my other action figure and put them into the set together.

I also love the fact that the books have real book spines and titles on the covers.

*When I bought my Librarian Action Figure, I bought a second one to keep in the cardboard box, just in case I had the opportunity to meet Nancy Pearl**, the librarian depicted as the action figure. And, as luck would have it, I came this close to meeting her! While I was in my last year of school, I was the Secretary of our student chapter of the American Library Association. The chapter is responsible for bringing in speakers throughout the year and Nancy Pearl agreed to be one of our speakers. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts kept coming up between us and so she never did get to come to our school. Darnit!

** I'm aware that my name is the same as the action figure's real life model.

Quality time

2005-12-26T13:49:00.000-08:00

My hubby and I had a fun Xmas. Lots of great gifts, tons of food, hanging out with my family. I plan to tell you all the details, however... my hubby is leaving tomorrow to see his family over the next couple of weeks. So I'm actually choosing to spend some quality time with him today, rather than spend a couple of hours writing out a long blog post (that will inevitably be eaten by blogger). I promise a real post is coming soon!

By the way, I have a question for Typepad users. I'm thinking about switching over, and have been looking at the different levels that are offered. If I go with the middle level (aka "Plus), how much control do I have over my blog and posts? It says there is a template builder, but I'm not sure what that means. And, can I update the html within my posts like I can with blogger? Is it a big deal if I can't? I'm used to doing it with blogger, because I don't like how it inserts images and stuff, so I usually insert the code myself. But Typepad might be more user-friendly. I can't decide what to do. Help!

Taking the easy way out

2005-12-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

I had a stressful week at work last week and right now I have hot pizza waiting for me. So I've decided to post some knitting insights that my brother-in-law Brad sent to me recently. (Sorry SAMIL! I think you'll enjoy this though!)

I find at this time, I need to comment on two strange and overpowering impedimenta I have observed amongst the knitting community. Tearing out, and cozies.

The tearing out had me baffled for a time, as I watched my loving wife industriously work on her knitted kitchen cloth. She started with this ball of yarn, and over the day it would decrease in size, which I took as a good sign of progression, only to come home and find the ball of yarn had grown in size. At first, I thought she had been cranking out a drawer full of kitchen rags, and fully expected to find it difficult to close said drawer. But on closer inspection, found no new rags present. I observed the same activity with a sweater she has been busily working on, proudly showing me the front panels, back panels, side panels, access panels for maintenance, all sorts of panels, only to see the panels suddenly disappear, and the balls of yarn to reappear again. I figured she must be mass producing panels for future assembly, probably in some plant in Mexico or something. But on further inspection, once again, no crate of sweater panels was evident for future assembly. On questioning this phenomenon, I was informed she had “torn out” the offending panels, and was redoing them. On asking why she had “torn out” the panels, I was told she had dropped a stitch, or something along those lines. I offered to help her find it, but was summarily rebuked.

To further confound me (something all women do naturally), I was told that she was casting on with a twenty four inch abby turbo.

“Turbo?” I asked, perking up at a familiar word.

“Not the truck dear.” She replied.

“Twenty-four inch rod for casting?” I asked, thinking I had deciphered another meaning.

“Not fishing dear, the knitting needles.” She replied, as she busily tore out another wash cloth she had been working on. “I commented to N.... the other day how I had to tear out this wash cloth over seven times before I was able to get it right.”

“So...... you made it, then tore it out again, because something was wrong?” I asked.

“Yes! I showed it to you! Don’t you remember?” She asked.

“Well.... Of course I remember!” I said, thinking back to a wash cloth she had shown me, pointing to something on it’s surface and complaining loudly about something having to do with a missed something or other.

Then it hit me! Like a revelation directly from heaven! You gals are totally missing the boat here! We guys have it down to a science, but you gals are just skirting the edges! You want to know what it is? BRAGGING RIGHTS! We go out fishing, and come back telling all our guy friends about the “One That Got Away!”

“Oh yeah! I had that sucker running hard! He was pulling the boat across the lake! It was all I could do to hold on, when that mother broke the surface like a nuclear submarine coming up! He snapped that fifty pound test like a wet noodle, then spit the hook back at me! Almost took out my eye!” We might understate.

“Really?” Another would ask, almost impressed.

“Yeah, no s..t!” The first would reply.

“Hey!” Another would interject. “I was using minnows like him for stinkin’ BAIT! Let me tell you about a REALLY BIG ONE that got away!”

And so it would go. So I would like to humbly suggest at this time, you begin referring to your tear outs, not as tear outs, which is rightfully reserved for muscle cars, but as “Shadow Knitting!”

Now, whenever you get together to subtly intimate you have knitted twelve sweaters, thirty two wash cloths, a dozen gloves, and untold baby caps, you can simply say...

“I cranked out twelve shadow sweaters, thirty two shadow wash cloths, a dozen shadow gloves, and untold shadow baby caps! Top that!”

So there it is, you heard it here first: “Shadow Knitting!”

I would include pictures, but Shadow Knitting (tm) doesn’t allow such things.

Right! Now I would like to talk about the second item that has been vexing my sensibilities lately. Soap Sacks! For the life of me, I can’t fathom a soap sack. Once you put a perfectly good bar of soap into one of these things, you have instantly rendered the soap entirely useless. Company might show up, and wanting to use some soap, won’t touch the soap in the sack, because it might be a simple bathroom decorative item, so they leave it alone. If you know its supposed to be used, you won’t, because once you use the soap, its all wet, and you won’t put it back in the sack, cause that would ruin it.

So one of the big questions I have is, do you take the soap out to use it? Leave it in and use it like one of those luffa things you females are famous for using, or just let it sit there as a decorative device, gathering dust.

Now, I gotta admit, I could see the real value for something like a hammer sack, but a soap sack? Sorry, that one just eludes me. Maybe you could make up for the whole thing and at least use a bar of LAVA pumice soap.

By the way, I could really get behind a “sack-o-hammers”, but a “sack-o-soap”? Sorry, it just doesn’t make it for me.

P.S. All references to “kitchen rag” have been changed to “wash cloth” per instruction.

Poor guy. I just don't have the heart to tell him that there's already a technique known as shadow knitting.

Secret Pal revealed

2005-12-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

I got to officially find out who my secret pal was! It was Michelle, who I think has the best blog name. To reveal herself, she sent me a final gift. Wanna see what she sent me?

It's Noro Big Kureyon for a kitty pi bed and yummy chocolates (I've had these before and they are GOOD)! I'm wondering if I can get the kitty bed done by Xmas and then I can give it to them as one of their presents. (Yes, I get my cats Xmas gifts). Penny in particular loves kitty beds.

(That's her catnip banana, in case you're wondering) Anyhoo, I'm thinking the gift will be for her.

On a completely unrelated note... I know that several knitters wanted to know what pattern and yarn I used for the preemie hats (Which just barely fit the babies, by the way. We've requested modeling photos, but we're thinking that the new parents might have their hands full right now.). In any case, I used the Spiral Preemie Cap pattern and I used Debbie Bliss cotton cashmere. And in case you're wondering, I just weighed the yarn that I had leftover from one of the hats and it looks like the hat uses about 16 grams of the 50 gram ball, so you could probably get 3 hats from one ball.

XXX

2005-12-09T21:58:00.000-08:00

Saw this on Nathania's blog and had to create my own...

Bondage Nan!

My mom must be so proud.

When the MIL speaks...

2005-12-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

the DIL listens. My mom-in-law made a subtle request to my hubby today that I update my blog. (Knowing my mom-in-law, I'm guessing the request wasn't actually subtle.) (And to my mom-in-law, you know full well that I married into a family full of smartasses. ha,ha!)

By the way, I don't actually have anything in particular to blog about tonight. I've had several migraines over the last week, so while I had stuff I wanted to blog about, I haven't wanted to be on my computer. So be prepared for a rambling post.

As you know, the Secret Pal exchange has come to an end (and if you didn't know, or don't know what I'm talking about, well... pretend like you do). I haven't actually revealed myself yet to the people I had yet (I was an "angel" for one person). I just sent off one of my reveal packages today and the other one will go out soon. I'm a little behind schedule, can you tell? The nice thing is that I'm not the only one. My personal Secret Pal was planning to send out a package to me with her info in it this week, I believe. Something tells me that we're not unique. :-)

Speaking of packages I sent out, I sent my brother-in-law two caps that I knit for his new preemie twin girls (No, you haven't missed anything, I haven't blogged about the babies yet. So, guess what? My brother-in-law had two preemie twin girls born last month!). Here's a picture of the two hats.

Wanna see a picture of an orange wearing one of the hats?

I don't know why, but this amuses me immensely.

And speaking of packages I haven't sent out... I still haven't done the drawing for the raffle prizes for the 3 Day Walk. Sadly, there's only 4 prizes, and they're nowhere as nice as the prizes that bloggers like the Yarn Harlot give out for charity fundraising, so this whole thing is going to be very anticlmactic for whomever finally wins one of these items.

In addition to two finished objects (they might be tiny little hats, but they're done!), I finally got gauge on my hubby's sweater! Now I just need to find my Vogue Knitting issue that tells me how to do the German Knitted Cast On that I want to use, and I'm ready to start it (I realize that there's an online "tutorial" for this cast on, but I prefer VK's version of explaining it). I know my magazines are packed away in a couple of boxes, so it shouldn't be too hard to find, so hopefully I can get started this weekend. And, since Karen asked a while back, here's a picture of the sweater.

The pattern is the Echo Lake Cardigan in the Summer 2003 issue of Interweave Knits.

Speaking of comments (there are lots of "speaking of's" tonight, aren't there?), thank you for all of the compliments on my Nothin' But a T-shirt! In case you're wondering, I did make it out of the Rowan Calmer that the pattern called for. It's truly the yummiest yarn! I'm even thinking of making Tempting 2 in the latest Knitty, because it calls for Calmer. I also like the pattern for Tubey in this Knitty, which is made in my other favorite yarn, Cashmerino.

Ok, I think I'm all rambled out. My next post may or may not be more structured. I can't make any promises.

Let me explain

2005-12-01T19:38:00.000-08:00

I'm a smartass. I come from a family full of smartasses. (And, as luck would have it, I've married into a family that is also full of smartasses. Dinner with us can be a lot of fun.) As a result of my smartassness (don't give me that look - it really is a word), I tend to assume that others are the same as me. So, when I posted the picture of my mom's "finished" sweater, I figured that folks would say, that Nancy is such a smartass, it's gotta be joke. And when I started getting comments about my mom's amazing sweater, I thought, hey, people are playing along. How fun! But then, I started thinking, hmmmm... what if some people don't think it's a joke. And when Ashley posted her comment asking if she was the only who got the joke, I figured maybe I better set things straight. So, the truth is... that my mom really did knit that sweater!

See, I told you I was a smartass. Ok, ok. No, she didn't knit the sweater. When she saw it at the store and it matched the color of yarn she was learning with, she couldn't resist. (Kind of a long story, but my hubby told my mom that she wouldn't have to fly in a glider with him if she manages to finish knitting a sweater before he gets his license. So, the joke was, see I finished a sweater before you got your license, so now I don't have to fly with you.) . As my hubby said, if you've gotta explain the joke, it's not funny.

Speaking of my hubby's glider license, here's a picture from his first lesson back in October (finally, huh?).

He should be ready to solo in January. Yikes!

Happy Spastic Turkey Day!

2005-11-24T17:06:00.000-08:00

As planned, I debuted Nothin' but a T-shirt at our Thanksgiving feast today. We were at my brother's house and I decided that his backyard was a good place for a photo shoot. So, without further ado, here's my finished object!

And here's my pathetic attempt at the Rachael:

For all of those who are freezing to death back East, you'll notice the lack of snow. In fact, it was so warm outside that we had to head back inside after the photo shoot.

As we walked into the kitchen we discovered this:

Thinking the smoke was coming from one of the items on the stove top, my brother turned all of the burners off, the smoke kept poring out. Then we realized that we could see flames inside the oven.

There wasn't a fire extingisher in the house, so my brother got out a tub of flour and started throwing it on top of the flames.

Eventually the flames were put out, but the mashed potatoes and fresh cranberries had pretty much turned into charcoal.

You'll notice that while my brother's oven is on fire, his concerned sister was busy taking pictures for her blog (I'm so glad I thought to bring my camera!).

Once the action was over, my dad and I drove over to the grocery store that was still open for another 45 minutes to get pre-made mashed potatoes and cans of cranberry sauce. When we got back we found out that while the flames had been put out by the flour, the fire itself was still trying to kick in because of the gas line. So my brother and hubby had pulled the oven away from the wall and turned off the local gas line, and my brother-in-law showed my brother where the main gas line was in order to turn that off.

Since my hubby had butter or oil or something all over his clothes from crawling around behind the oven, we ran home so he could change clothes and put stain spray on everything. Unfortunately, we realized after getting home that we had thrown out the spray when we moved and hadn't bought any since. So, with only ten minutes to spare before closing, I went back to the grocery store and bought stain spray. Eventually we made it back to my brother's house and had a normal Thanksgiving feast for the remainder of the day. Well, almost normal. My brother and sister-in-law got lucky that their neighbor is out of town and had a key to their house... and as result their oven. Because, you know, their oven is now out of commission. It was pretty funny, though, to watch them running across the street with various pans and trays.

Anyhoo, after stuffing ourselves silly, my mom showed off her knitting to everyone. Remember how she began learning to knit a few weeks ago? Well, she's improved tremendously over such a short time! Here's the first swatch she made...

And here's the first item she's finished.

Amazing, isn't it? I mean, she can't even purl yet, but she's managed ribbing and cables. Simply amazing if you ask me. (By the way, if you happen to shop at Kmart and see a sweater that looks very similar to this one, it's just a coincidence!)

Well, now that Thanksgiving is coming to an end, I can officially begin celebrating the Xmas holiday... by eating Peeps Snowmen!!

Happy Holidays!

E's gotta job for you

2005-11-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

I was driving to work today and passed the chicken place where someone was looking for spicy thigs. Apparently, the thigs craving has been satisfied, because the sign has changed to:

E ARE HIRING

I don't know who this E person is, and I don't know what position he/she is hiring for, but I sure hope the job duties include sign updates, because E isn't doing too well at it. (Is it just me, or is that a really long sentence?)

I had a pretty good weekend. My hubby and I met up with Heather and her hubby and Eva and her beau for dinner Saturday night. We managed to keep the fiber discussions to a minimum, although they did slip through from time to time. Sorry guys!

Then, on Sunday, my hubby and I decided to catch a movie. We hadn't yet managed to see the latest Wallace and Gromit movie that came out a while back, but we were able to track down a movie theater that still had it playing. It was at a place I had never heard of before called Farelli's Supper Cinema. I was initially curious about the name, but it wasn't until we got there that we realized it truly is a "supper cinema," similar to a dinner theatre. Instead of rows of chairs where your knees are crammed up around your ears, there are round tables with regular chairs and a full menu. It was really cool! They only play movies that have been around for ages, but since we don't like to deal with crowds at the movies, we don't generally get around to seeing a movie until it's been out for quite a while. So this works out great for us. We'll definitely be going to see movies there again.

Last, but certainly not least, I managed to sew up my Nothin' But a T-shirt sweater. Finally. I had sewn one sleeve on months ago and then put it aside out of frustration (because I lost track of the number of times it took me to sew in the set-in sleeve). Well, after another frustrating round of sewing the second sleeve in on Saturday, I was able to sew up the sides yesterday and discovered... that it fits! I still need to weave in the many ends, but it should be ready for an outing this upcoming weekend (maybe even Thanksgiving Day!) and a photo shoot. Yay!

As good as my weekend was, my Monday started off pretty crappy because I have a cold. I hate colds. Yuck.

Stepping into the confessional

2005-11-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

Samantha pointed out that I "lost" another week. Well, I have a confession to make. Let me just take a quick look around to make sure that no one else is around to hear.... Ok, we're alone. I'm a bit ashamed to admit this, but I haven't blogged (I haven't done much of anything, really), because I've been... knitting. And I don't mean 30-minutes-on-the-bus-commuting-knitting. I mean honest-to-goodness sitting-on-the-couch-for-long-periods-of-time-when-I-should-be-doing-laundry-knitting. I know, it's scandalous. It's all my mom's fault, really. She's learning to knit and there's something about a new knitter that motivates a knitter who had forgotten her priorities. To-do list be damed! I'm knittin!

I've been knitting so much, that I've almost got my second Klaralund sleeve done. Woo Hoo! And I've started swatching for my hubby's sweater. Re-swatching is really what I should be calling it, since I had swatched for the sweater months and months ago, but didn't write down any information about needle size or anything. So I'm really just swatching to figure out what I had originally done in, I don't know, May? Of course, this is my second attempt at the sweater, so this might be considered re-re-swatching. My first attempt at this pattern was before we had gotten married, and I discovered that the boyfriend curse works both ways. The relationship worked out, but the sweater had a horrible death (it ended with my cat peeing on the back and discovering, upon "blocking" the piece after washing it, that the silk blend in 2x2 rib stretched out of shape by a good 200%). Anyway, I've got new yarn and my boyfriend is now my hubby, so I'm quite positive that it'll all work out this time.

My recent foray back into constant knitting has also allowed me to reflect on the 3 Day Walk. I told Eva the other day that I understand how people decide to walk the 3 Day more than once. I know now what I should have done for the walk to be more enjoyable (what to eat, when to sweep, etc.). So now I want to apply what I've learned. Thankfully Eva is able to keep her sanity and simply says "no" whenever I bring this up. Instead of walking, I'm just going to donate money to other walkers. And maybe pass on some tips that I picked up. By the way, I never did tell you (or maybe I did?) that there were 1700 walkers that raised 4.7 million dollars. How cool is that! Also, I haven't forgotten about the raffle prizes that I'll be giving away to my sponsors. I wanna do the raffle drawing right (I don't honestly know what I mean by that other than that I want to give it more than 5 seconds of my attention), so I'll probably do the drawing over Thanksgiving weekend.

There was probably more stuff I wanted to tell you, but with my spasticly short attention span I can't think of what it was. Plus, I have ice cream calling my name. Since I've been providing a public service by telling you about Warm Delights and 6 free Krispy Kreme donuts for your birthday, I gotta tell you about my favorite ice cream in the whole wide world! It's Dreyers Light Fudge Tracks. It's vanilla ice cream with fudge swirls and these little mini peanut butter cups. I wish that they would start selling the little mini peanut butter cups on their own, because I would put them on everything! Mmmm...

I think I've misplaced something... like a week

2005-11-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

How can it possibly be Sunday again? It's not like even done anything exciting. Just the usual, boring, not-much-to-blog about stuff. I thought I'd be able to show a picture of a finished Klaralund sleeve. But it appears to be the sleeve that won't be done, because I've had to rip it back a dozen times. Ok, ok, it's only been about 3 or 4 times, but it feels like a dozen. With any luck I'll actually finish it this time around. And then I get to do it all over again. sigh...

I also watched my hubby start glider pilot lessons. In case you're not aware, a glider (also known as a sailplane) is a plane without an engine. I only feel slightly better knowing that we recently got life insurance policies. (just kidding dear - you know I support you!). I took some pictures, which I'll post later this week.

Sorry this is such a short post. Hopefully this next week won't disappear, ya know?

Another year wiser?

2005-10-30T19:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I am more of smart ass.

I celebrated the big 3-4 today and am about ready to slip into a food coma. Before I do, though, I had to share some pics.

My hubby surprised me at work on Friday with flowers.

I told him that giving me flowers twice in one week (he had given me flowers at the end of the 3 Day Walk as well), that I was going to start expecting them every week. hee,hee!

We started the day be going to Krispy Kreme and getting birthday doughnuts (they give you 6 doughnuts for free on your birthday!)

Look, free doughnuts!

Mmmmm....

Better hurry, only 4 left!

After indulging in sugary goodness, I decorated my birthday cake.

My hubby helped by drawing a skeleton.

In case you're wondering, having a birthday right before Halloween meant that the birthday cakes I had growing up always had some sort of a Halloween theme instead of the typical clown/princess/balloon theme that most kids had. I grumbled about this growing up, but wouldn't you know that as an adult I love it!

We ended the day by having dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Steak in butter is yum, yum, yummy! It doesn't compare to House of Prime Rib (no restaurant can), but I sure managed to eat myself silly.

Ok, I'm gonna go lay on the couch and watch my new Family Guy DVD. Hmmmm... I think I need a slice of cake, too.

Day 3 (aka Just. A. Little. Farther. To. Go.): A Retrospective

2005-10-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

After a pretty deep sleep (well, as deep as you can get in a sea of tents in the middle of a community college campus), we woke up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. Yes, that's a lie. Maybe Eva woke up feeling this way, but I was ready to go home and take a real shower and then a nap. Instead, we got up and prepared to tackle our last day of walking. We decided that we should document this hurdle in a picture:

I discovered that morning that my heat rash was so painful that it hurt to walk. Thankfully, this discomfort passed after walking a couple of miles. But it was slow going at first and we didn't arrive at the first pit stop until it was closing.

Now, I had been told by previous 3 Day Walkers that adrenalin is what carries you through the third day. I have to admit that I was pretty pumped up that day. I was also extremely emotional and could break into tears at any moment. But what I think happens by the third day, at least for first time walkers, is that you've learned a lot of lessons from the previous two days, which makes for a much more enjoyable third. For example, I was eating pretty much anything they put in front of me at the various pit stops on the first day. Chips, peanuts, bagels, bananas, anything. I'd also eat at every single pit stop. I realized by the second day that this probably added to my dehydration and naseau woes that first night. On the second day I experimented at the various pit stops and finally figured out for the third day to just stick with bagels and banana with peanut butter. By the third day I also learned that if you're leaving a pit stop when it's closing, you're pretty much screwed for time the rest of the day.

What I'm trying to say in that really, really long-winded explanation is that when we got to the pit stop at closing, we knew to just take the bus to lunch and enjoy ourselves. I can't even begin to say how glad I am that we made this decision. It sucked to pass over an entire 4 miles, but I really wanted to be coherent at the closing ceremonies that evening and the only way I could do it was to avoid pushing myself too far. At lunch we ate a fairly decent turkey sandwich (especially compared to our previous two lunches), but my favorite food by far were the grapes. Eva managed to grab a bunch of them and they were juicy, cool, and oh-so-freakin'-delicious! I don't think I'll ever have a grape that tastes that good again in my lifetime, they were just that good. Anyway, after lunch we grabbed a seat in a baseball dugout and tended to our poor, achy feet. Here's Eva, still smiling away even while she's all bandaged up.

And I couldn't resist taking a picture of my lovely foot. (I apologize to anyone who might be eating while reading this!)

Even though I was still sore and tired after lunch, I was in a great mood as we continued on. I was even in a great mood as the route they had us on included hot, open desert with no shade.

Our next pit stop had a Halloween theme. On the previous two days I was generally so tired that I hadn't really stopped to look around, but the crew apparently had some fun setting this pit stop up. Here's Eva getting a free mammogram

and a faux dog letting us know where the p.p. were.

As we left the pit stop, we could see the a line of walkers coming upon it with the desert in the background. I tried to get a picture of it, because it was a great sight in person, but it's kinda hard to see in the photo, unfortunately.

So, the rest of the day had us walking through desert. More hot desert. Going uphill. Yep, uphill in the hot desert. The adrenalin everyone told me about helped, and we got a little giddy at some points of the day. We would start giggling over goofy things, like a bunch of women yelling "Hole" when we came across a big hole in the ground. Stuff that wouldn't normally seem funny, but seemed pretty hilarious when you're delirious with heat.

For me, my day took on a goofy twist around the last few miles. We had just left our last pit stop and had a little over 4 miles left to go. When we had gotten to the pit stop, I simply didn't have to pee. In fact, I hadn't had to do so in the last several miles. When you're walking in the heat and chugging water, this is a bad indicator. Very bad. And I was getting nervous. Well, after we had left our last pit stop I finally had to go pee. Not too bad, but I was really looking forward to the water stop we had coming up in a couple of miles. Then I found out that the water stop was just that. Water, but no porta potties. That's when my body decided it had to go BAD. Eva suggested a bush, but I declined. I started looking for a shopping center, because while we were in the desert, we were also in the middle of suburbia in the desert. But this is pretty much all we were seeing.

At long last we saw a shopping center and it looked like we were going to pass a sidewalk that led to it. Instead, the sidewalk was an underpass of sorts that went below the driveway going into the shopping center. I knew at this point that I simply couldn't wait any longer. I found a spot somewhat below the driveway that was sort of hidden and, um, well... you know. Eva was watching out for me on the other side, but I was in plain view of anyone who might come by from the other direction. Thankfully that didn't happen. Once I had finished my business, I found out there was someone else waiting to do exactly the same thing and there were lots of other folks doing the same thing amongst other bushes along the path.

By the time we got to the water stop, which was still a couple of miles from the end, I was getting really tired and hot, and I had to go pee... again. As much as I didn't want to, I knew I had to take a sweep van. As I told Eva when she asked what my instinct was telling me about this, I had decided to walk the last couple of miles on Friday and Saturday and came to regret the decision. I didn't think my instincts should be telling me what to do. So... I swept. When I met up with my hubby (who brought me 3 pink roses, one for each day) and mom at the closing ceremony location, I cried. I know there's no shame in being swept, but I had really wanted to walk those last couple of miles.

Anyway, the closing ceremonies were as emotional as the opening ceremonies and I, of course, cried.

I couldn't (still can't, really) quite believe it was over. Eva and I got a picture together and while we both look a little more tired than the before picture on Friday, I think we both still look pretty good!

Day 2 (aka OK, Maybe It Can Get Worse): A Retrospective

2005-10-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

After getting up to pee 5 times during the middle of the night (which is a pain in the butt, by the way, when you're having to crawl out of a tent that has a half-filled air mattress and feels like the equivalent of quicksand), I woke up sufficiently rehydrated. My feet were pretty sore, but I didn't seem to have any major blisters and the heat rash on my legs was bearable.

Eva and I got up at 4:45am with the intention of leaving the camp and walking by 6:30am. By the time we ate breakfast, packed, unpacked, and repacked our gear bags and figured out how to break down our tent, we didn't leave until 7:30am. Oops. (To give you an idea of just how tired everyone in camp was, including both walkers and crew, I asked one of the crew members to help me open up my travel sized bottle of Aleve after struggling with it. Well, after he struggled with it for a bit, he finally read the cap which said "Push down, then turn." We weren't exactly the most coherent group that day.)

Other than leaving later than planned, and having the added annoyance that they had run out of our route schedules for the day, we were in pretty good moods. The route they had us start on in the morning took us through Kiwanis Park and some nice neighborhoods. While there were official cheering stations that we would pass throughout the day, a lot of people gathered in front of their houses to greet us as we passed by. There were lots of girl scouts and other kids that we saw that were giving out candy (the first time in my entire life when candy not only didn't sound very good, but kinda made me sick to my stomach). While I didn't want the candy, it was great having them cheer us on. There was one block where the kids had drawn messages to us on the sidewalk and street. I took this picture of a pink ribbon that they drew.

We walked through these neighborhoods for most of the morning until we had lunch at a park near Arizona State University's campus. When we reached the park, we had officially walked 30 miles - half the walk down!

While we had more time for lunch than we had the previous day, we discovered that we didn't have as much time as we had originally thought and ended up heading back out more quickly than I would have liked. On top of this, they gave us a pretty crappy lunch, so I hadn't eaten much. As we walked through ASU's campus, I could feel the heat and lack of lunch already starting to get to me. While Eva was doing ok with the heat, her knee was starting to bother her. So, by the time we had reached the edge of campus, we were ready for a sweep van to take us to the next pit stop. Since all of the various sweep vans were decorated in some way (one had a gambling theme, another had a 70's theme), I had to take a picture of our decorated (though somewhat lame) sweep van.

Now, before heading out from lunch, I had called my hubby to let him know what time I thought we'd make it to the cheering station that was by my parents' house. He, my parents, and my sister were going to come by and say hi. Well, we reached the pit stop at just about the same time I had originally thought we were going to reach the cheering station. This isn't because we walked slower than I had originally planned, but because my math was unbelievably wrong. Again, I wasn't completely coherent after walking 30 miles. Thankfully I got a hold of him before they headed out to the cheering station. I mean, just because I'm stupid enough to walk 60 miles in the heat, I didn't think they'd want to stand out in the sun for an hour or more waiting for me to show up.

In any case, we eventually made it to the cheering station to see my family. Since we had a good rest at the pit stop I was feeling pretty good, much to my family's surprise I think. I'm sure they had heard the horror stories of the night before from my hubby. As we moved on towards the next pit stop, Eva's knee started to bother her again and since we still had 5 miles to go for the day, she decided that she should play it safe and take one of the buses waiting at the pit stop directly to camp. Since I was still feeling fine, I decided to keep going. I even continued to feel fine for the next couple of miles and really enjoyed walking through the Scottsdale Civic Center. Having grown up in Scottsdale, the Civic Center isn't new to me. But it was such a refreshing change from the city streets we had been walking on that it kinda took on a whole new look. Thankfully I managed to remember to take a picture

and had another walker take my picture

because my day went downhill right after this moment. I got to the pit stop late and didn't have a chance to sit and rest. I only had a couple of miles to go, so I didn't think this would be a problem. Apparently I was really, really wrong (and I had also apparantly forgotten that Eva and I had made it to our previous pit stop late and while she was waiting for the bus I continued walking without any rest). It seemed like everything fell apart at once. My feet became painful, my back started spasming, the heat rash on my legs was burning... yeah, I was a mess.

Our camp that night was at Scottsdale Community College. I was practically crawling by the time we reached the college campus. And to make everything that much better, the organizers had set up the food tent right outside the entrance to camp, but placed the sleeping tents in a practice football field on the other side of campus. As I made my way through the entrance to camp, near tears and nauseous, the crew members were telling us that we should eat first and then head over to our sleeping tents in order to avoid walking more than necessary. Um, fellas, maybe you shoulda space planned this better. Huh?

My hubby helped me hobble over to my tent to meet up with Eva and her boyfriend. After crawling into my jammies, he went back over to the food tent to get me some food. By the time he got back, it was so dark in our campsite that he then had to go drag a table and chair under a light at one of the school's buildings. It was at this moment, as I sat there feeling miserable... picking at my cold and dry chicken... and desperately needing a shower... that the defensive line of the football team, who were in middle of playing a Homecoming Football Game (can you believe they had us camping there when they had a homecoming football game being played??!!), came tromping by. Ah, yes, the wondeful feeling of humiliation. Of course, it was only after the exhausted tears finally started coming down that the football players then came tromping back past me. Gotta have that cherry on top!

Thankfully, the worst part of my evening seemed to be over. I eventually took a shower and was able to crawl into the tent to get some sleep. Two days down, one to go!

Day 3 coming soon...

We interrupt our regularly scheduled retrospective

2005-10-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know everyone's breathlessly waiting to hear about Day 2 and Day 3 of the walk, but I found this when I came home tonight:

With my curiosity greatly aroused I opened the package and discovered this:

Now I'm even more curious! I opened the "book of spells" up and found...

Ready?

Are you sure?

Ok, ok, enough teasing. I found

Warm Delights (yum!), a pumpkin pincushion (so cute!), and 4 skeins of laceweight 100% Merino Wool from Knitpicks (soooo soft!) along with a bed jacket pattern that was designed in tribute to the designer's mother who died of breast cancer. Very appropriate after the walk, eh?

In case you haven't figured it out yet, all of this was gifted to me by my very wonderful and sweet (mostly) Secret Pal. I cannot thank you enough Secret Pal!! I love all of it!!

Day 2 of the walk will resume shortly...

Day 1 (aka It Can't Get Much Worse Than This): A Retrospective

2005-10-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

After my frantic packing, unpacking, and repacking of my gear bag a mere 9 hours before opening ceremonies I finally got to bed only to wake up every hour wondering if it was time to get up yet. Of course, when my alarm finally went off, I was exhausted. Thankfully the adrenalin was pumping in no time and after another frantic round of "did I pack everything I need" we took off for the opening ceremonies. When Eva and I met up, we were both pretty excited, so my hubby decided we should get a before and after picture. Here's before:

The opening ceremonies consisted of an annoying spokesperson, but it was still pretty emotional and it didn't take long before I was crying.

Anyway, after a good cry, we were off!

It was right after I passed through this spot that my hubby took the picture of me in which he saw me smiling for the last time that day. I was, however, smiling for quite a while that morning. When we first set off we were walking through intersections of rush hour traffic. As the safety crews helped get all 1700 of us through the intersection we had a lot of people honking and waving at us. I'm sure all of the commuters were happy to show their support in our goal and it sure helped inspire us as we set off on our first mile of walking. Only 59 more to go!

We wound our way through Papago Park. It's a bit hard to see in the pictures, but it was really impressive to see thousands of walkers winding through the paths in the park.

Eva and I were having a great time at this point, so I snapped a picture of her

and attempted a self-portrait of me.

See, we were still smiling for a while after seeing my hubby in the morning.

We eventually reached our first pit stop. The pit stops were where we could get food and water. It was also where we could find the lovely porta potties. We would eventually have a love-hate relationship with porta potties. However, at this point we discovered that the volunteer crew members had tried to make them decorative by assigning a theme to each of the stops and decorating the porta potties (known hereafter as p.p. (which made me realize that porta potties abbreviated is appropriately p.p.)). Anyhoo, the first pit stop theme was Hollywood and the p.p. were decorated to look like stars' dressing rooms. Here's the one I used

Trust me, I got a few strange looks when I first got out my camera to take a picture of a p.p. But it didn't take long before I saw others doing the same. Once I was inside, I discovered that the stars named on the outside have a connection to breast cancer and their picture was posted along with their diagnosis date. And if you thought I got strange looks taking a picture of the outside of the p.p., you can imagine the looks I would have gotten if they had known what I was doing while inside

In any case, this pit stop was the beginning of the end of the fun for me. Because the opening ceremonies started late, or ran long, or something, we were completely off schedule. As walkers we didn't realize that we were going to be the ones to be penalized. But as we got to future pit stops, we were being told that they were closing in a few minutes and we either had to get moving or take a bus to lunch. So rather than stopping and resting at these pit stops as should have, we kept moving at a fast pace. I did manage to snap one more picture before we got to lunch

But after this it was just walk, walk, walk, walk, walk... well, you get the picture. I was stubborn and refused to take a sweep van (which would take us to the next pit stop). This was a pretty stupid move, because I discovered later that I was starting to get dehydrated. By the time we walked into camp I wasn't feeling so hot. I did, however, manage to get a shot of the camp entrance as I approached it.

Eva and I were exhausted and got completely lucky to discover that some wonderful angel had already put up our tent in the camp. We never did get to find out who it was, but it was probably a good thing for my hubby's sake, because I would have given this person a big, wet kiss right on the lips! Speaking of my hubby, he was also an angel. He and Eva's boyfriend were great and helped set up our air mattresses and sleeping bags for us so that by the time we had taken our showers we could just crawl into the tent and go to sleep.

I'd tell you more, but selective amnesia has helped me forget the pain and a lot of details.

Day 2 Retrospective coming soon...