Just a Quick Post

It is late and I am tired so this will be quick.

I have been working on the round throw and it is coming along well. I have finished all of the red and started on the white. It is taking longer to get around it now that it has grown. I will finish the white in stockinette then do something pretty with the blue. I am thinking I may do an i-cord bind-off but that remains to be decided. I will post a progress picture tomorrow.

I am taking a belly dancing class tomorro night. Lord knows I have enough belly to dance with. I think it will be fun and a different kind of exercise.

Well, I am going to sleep now. More tomorrow.

Wonderful Evening

Recently on DirecTV a new channel appeared in the line up, Ovation http://www.ovationtv.com/. It is a performing arts channel that offers a variety of programming. I happened to discover this channel while surfing one day when I heard the most wonderful voices of the King Singers. They are an a cappella ensembles of 6 men with incredible voices. While once again on the internet I happened across the Folly Theater site which had the schedule for the Harriman-Jewell series and to my delight the King Singers were appearing this week. I was lucky enough to get standing room only tickets for the event. Yesterday I got a call that there was a cancellation and tickets were available so I was thrilled that I would be sitting down for the performance, although I would have been willing to stand.

What a great performance. It was one of those that you wished would never end. The wonderful thing was to see so many young people interested in the performance. There was a bus load of students from William Jewel College. The performers were gracious enough to come out for autographs and pictures. The excitement of the students waiting to meet each one was very heart warming. Each performer was so generous in speaking with each person until the last one. This after standing and singing for a hour and half. This was thoroughly enjoyable and I look forward to seeing them again when they return next time.

I had taken my sock to knit on and found no time to think about it. But have no fear I will find time today at SSK. Also the red through is progressing nicely. I think this is maybe inspiring me to get back to the Hemlock Ring and finish it up. If I can get that completed and decide what I want to do with the Petal vest I will be close to caught up with my WIPs, I think. Then I will be able to start my new mitered jacket from the Reynolds Cabana I bought last week.

My goal is to not have more that one big project and a sock going at the same time. I just need to focus. I think I can, I think I can...... Now that Spring is coming soon, I hope, I need to concentrate on getting my house in shape. I have much to do this year.

What a Day!

I decided last night that I wanted to go to the casino because I had some food comps that ran out last night. Of course I was not there just to eat. I had my weekly $12 comp coupon to spend/donate. The machine I selected to play hit a bonus right off and for a change I got the major prize which was $235. Everything I play paid a little more. In essence, I played on house money, for a change and had a meal to boot. It was still fairly early when I got home so I got some more knitting in on the red round throw and got to bed at a decent time.

This morning when the radio came on the first thing I heard was that the roads were a sheet of ice and there were accidents all over. This made for an interesting traffic morning getting to work. I left the house at 7:45 and got to the office at 9:00. This is normally a 25 minute trip. Tomorrow is supossed to be more of the same then Saturday is to be in the 50's. I am ready for Spring!

Catching Up

So, even though I have not blogged in a while I have been knitting. This is the latest sock from some Regia that I bought at Stitches Midwest 2007. I bought a bunch so I have plenty to work with. I am thinking I probably still have enough to do a vest of even a short sleeve sweater. Will have to think on that.

I finished the Irish Hiking scarf done on bigger needles. I really liked the original version done according to the pattern but I think I like this one much better because it is looser and the edges do not roll. Since it is looser it really did not need to be blocked so it is ready to go. There is still plenty of time to wear it since the weather in Kansas City goes from 40s-50s on day and 20s-teens the next.

This is my latest project. It is one of the components of the Medallion Caplet from the VOGUEknitting Winter 2007. I the medallion to see how it would knit up. Not that I really want to do the caplet but thought I could use the motif for something. I like knitting it so much that I am going to keep knitting it into a round throw. I started out with the red because that is what I had with me at the time I decided to started it. Now the plan is to make it red, white, and blue and will be donated to my mother's VFW Ladies Auxillary to sell or raffle at one of the may festivals where they have a booth.

Every year my mother mentions that I could make something for them and I never seem to get anything ready for them. I think this will be well received and appreciates.

As you can see these are a couple of happy knitters, Mary and Jennifer, checking out the yarn at the Old Mill Stitchery in Liberty, Mo. We took a short road trip there Saturday to check out their yarn and see what was in the sale bin. Afterward we had lunch in the tea room. Look below to see my acquisitions.

This lovely cotton acrylic blend Reynolds Cabana was in the 1/2 off bin. I also purchased a pattern book that has a lovely mitered square jacket which is supposed to have 15 different colors of 1812 cotton. As you can see, I am going to be working with 5. Many of the 15 colors were only used for a small portion of the squares and I see no reason to go that route. The cost would have been too much so this is going to work just time.

I am very please this my current endeavors. There are many more things I want to do and would like to do them all at the same time but as we all know two hands can only do so much.

Today was a good day. I had President's Day off, even though I did not get paid for it. I should have been good and stayed home to get things done that I have beem procrasting getting done but I just could make myself do it.

I did need to get the oil changed in the car so I took it to the dealership on State Line which put me over on the West side of town. For reasons on clear to me my car continued to head West and I ended up in Lawrence, Ks. (better known as the home of Yarn Barn). It was fate, there was a parking spot in front of Yarn Barn with time left on the parking meter. What more could I ask for? I even had time to walk down the street to Tellers for lunch which was wonderful.

I also had something to take back to Best Buy which went so easily. If you do not have one yet, they have a Free Rewards card that, of course, tracks your purchases. One of the features of this card is that you do not have to have a receipt to return things. The customer service person can pull the item up and process the return. It would be great if other stores did the same.

My last stop was Costco. I had my yearly rebate check from my Costco Amex to redeem. As first I was a but miffed because I thought I had to spend the check at Costco but to my delight I could spend it or cash it, which I did. All-in-all I thoroughly enjoyed the day. The stuff I should have done will get done in time.

Jane of All Trades

Don't ya just love this Kansas City weather? Last night, instead of snow, it sleeted the snowed later in the night making for a bad rush hour this morning. Of course, I needed gas so I headed to the convenience stop down the street. Boy am I lucky I have anti-lock breaks. I applied the breaks before I got to the end of the street but started to slide into oncoming traffic. I stood on those breaks and finally came to a stop just in time. This was not a good way to start my day. Got to the gas pump and wouldn't you know the pump was frozen up so I had to pull around to another one. It was colder than a well diggers witch. From there things when pretty good even though it took 1 1/2 hour to do a 30 minute drive.

Now on to the Jane of All Trades part. I have been fighting with my sump pump lately and it finally croked today so the first thing I had to do was go buy another one. I always bet on a failure when I least want to be bothered with it so it stands to reason that it would be now. I have a neighbors who keeps telling me to let him know when I need stuff like this done but of course he was not home nor were my other neighbors. I jumped in the car and ran to Ace Hardware to get another one and got it installed myself, again.

This is a task that I end up doing about every 3-5 years so I kind of have it down pat. Ah, the joys of homeownership. That was $175 I would rather had spent on yarn or at least the gambiling.

So now I just fixed me some breakfast for dinner. Everything including bacon, eggs, and fried potatoes. Yes, I know that is not a good Weight Watchers dinner but I really don't care tonight.

Ok, I have whined enough. I am going to do some knitting and relax. I think everything is under control now.

A Week In Review

Ok just let me say that I pirated this photo from my friend Chelle's blog http://www.hangingbyathinthread.blogspot.com/ since I did not have my camera yesterday at SSK. This is the fruit of Kay's new endeavor Dome Hill Yarn, that can be seen at http://trivimp.blogspot.com/. Kay and her husband are building a geo dome house on some acerage to the east of Kansas City.

My selection was the brown Chocolate Truffle, third from the right. Currently she is offering sock yarn but will be moving on to worsted soon.

I am excited to knit this up to see how beautifully the colorway displays. I am hoping this will be soon. I am trying to make myself finish some WIPs before starting anything else. It will be hard but maybe it will spur me on to get things wrapped up. So on with the knitting.

It has been a busy week. I finished the Irish hiking scarf I was working on last week. It turned out nicely but unfortunately, I have misplaced my camera again. I do have batteries now but the camera has not shown up. I am cleaning today so it should be uncovered soon. I will definitely post the picture when I find it. Anyway, getting back to the scarf. I used size 10 needles as opposed to the suggest 8's. It is a much looser result, which I like.

As usual, I do have socks going that I have for car knitting. Some times at lunch, I go to my car and knit for a while just to get out of the office. I also take this knitting to the movies when I go. I have been knitting for so long that most usually I do not need to look at what I am doing so it is easy for to knit in the dark. Yes, I can also purl. This seems to intrigue people but is seems perfectly natural to me. I am trying to switch off at times and to continential, but I am not as confident in my skill as yet to be able to not look. I am sure give enought practice that will come too.

I am working on the third level of the petal vest. Since I do not have enough of the Toasty Toes for the complete vest, I an using a solid navy Cascade 220 for contrast. I think it will work out just fine. Once I get through this level I will be ready for the half level the complete the lacy part and up to the shoulders. At this rate it will be ready for next winter.

Boy, SSK attendence is really growing. We meet at Honkerbeans in Lees Summit and fortunately there is plent of room. We have gone from one table to two and now three. Yesterday we had three new in the group. I think quite a few are finding us on Ravelry. It is great to have new people. We are a pretty flexible group. Everyone comes when they can and stays as long as their schedule allows. The more the merrier, I always say.

On to the next week.....