My Weekend in a Nut Shell

Took my mother to Branson yesterday to shop a little (bought very little) and have lunch. Rather than shopping at the outlet malls (many to choose from) we chose to go to the new Branson Landing which is build along the water front in downtown Branson (down the street from Dick's 5&10). It is a nice venue if you do not have a mall close by but there is no shop there that you would not visit if you did. Nothing really original or unique. With in the area there is a Hilton hotel so if you were vacationing it would probably be a nice place to stay.

The real bite was there is a parking garage that was free when I was there when it opened it first opened. Well, the free is no more. They are cashing in on every car that parks at least $2.00 up to $8.00 if you loose your ticket per car.

The whole thing is a pain because you get a ticket with a code that you have to punch into get out of the garage then you have to put money in before the gate will raise. As you can imagine, it is a big CF trying to get out. Cars back up and people get impatient.

In addition to the kid and parents were rude. There is a trolley that runs down the middle of the shopping area. So I was trying to get Mom on and into a seat when some rude kid nearly bowls her over to get in the seat. I asked if we might sit there since I had been waiting and the mother mouthed off that they were loading to and needed a seat. Begrudgingly she made the kid move. Then getting off a kid in the back of the trolley was jockeying for position with another kid (both unsupervised) and nearly knocked Mom over. I was close to jerking a knot is his tail when the driver reprimanded him. I think he had had enough of these kids too.

If that was not enough, on the way back to the house this guy on a motorcycle was riding next to me and decides to pull in front of me. He almost clipped the front of my car then flips me a off behind his helmet. So of course I had to send one back at him. Mom asked what that was for and I told her he deserved on in return because I was not doing anything to menace him. Boy, what a jerk!

Today we will go to visit Dad's grave in the Veteran's cemetery. There is to be a ceremony conducted by the Korean War Veterans with a rifle salute. My brother will participating in the rifle salute. Following that Mom will be coming home with me for the week for a visit with family.

Well, that is my weekend so far......

Long Weekend

I am with my mother this holiday weekend. It has been raining on and off all since I arrived. This is a good thing since there has not been much rain here for some time. Southern Missouri unlike the Kansas City area has not been getting all the rains this season. As a matter of fact, it has been a long time since there has been enough rain here to make the creek flow that runs next to the property. Nice for a change.

As I sit here typing this I hear the spring time country sounds. Loud but also peaceful.

I got to see the new addition to the family. Her name is Babe. She is a mix probably lab and something else, approximately 10 weeks old. She is a very sweet girl who has big feet to grow into. What beautiful eyes she has.

She is a very quite puppy. No hyper at all or barky. Her favorite thing so far is eating and sleeping. Mostly sleeping. I think she is a night dog. She likes to sleep in the day time and comes alive after the sun goes down. She is already mostly potty trained, does not some into the house uninvited and pays attention very well. One big plus is she likes her aunty.

Tomorrow we are off shopping. Not sure where or what for as yet but what the heck who needs a reason to shop. May decide to do the outlets. Sometimes they have pretty good sales on holiday weekend.

What a Day! ! !

I, unlike my friend Chelle, did not have the day off today. My day started off with me finding a puddle of oil on the garage floor under my car. It has been in need of some maintenance that I have been putting off for a while. Well today was D-day for the maintenance. I had to drop the car off at the shop to have it checked out. Especially since I am going to be doing a little traveling this weekend.

The verdict turned out to be that there was nothing leaking so the mechanic was not sure where the puddle came from. So I just had the maintenance done. I got off very cheap at $400. The car is a 2002 Buick Regal with nearly 90,000 miles and the only thing I have had to do is change the oil, new battery, and tires. Not bad for 5 years.

I had been giving some thought to buying a new car with better mileage but I am over that now. Even though I am spending $200 a month for gas it is still cheaper than a new car payment.

I have a good start on the lace bottom shell. I am glad to be doing the mindless stockinette part. As mentioned I am using Red Heart Luster Sheen which is pretty nice to knit with. It does split a little but not as much as the LB Microspun.

I am not usually a blue person but I do like this blue since it is a little darker. Besides it was this blue or white as a choice and I did not want to do white. I would have had it completely dirty by the time I got it completed. I am looking forward to seeing this complete I think I am going t like it. If I really like it a lot I may do another in a different yarn.

Do overs in Process

OK. I got a grip and finished knitting the yellow sweater. All that is left is the binding off and assembly. I am glad now that I had to redo the back. I was able to fix the flaw that had been bothering me so I guess there was a reason that I made the mistake. I had a short row that probably was not visible to anyone else but me. You know how it is the you know it and it bothers you it needs to be fixed. I feel much better now that it is corrected. Now I can go on to wear the sweater and be happy with it.

As for the shell lace border. I did end up frogging it back also. I only had to go back 5 rows which does not sound like much but with it is 5 x 300 it adds up. I am ready now to focus on it and redoing these 5 rows and moving on to the mineless 80 rows of stockinette. Onward and up ward.

I think this is the last thing I am making specifically for Stitches. This is good because I need to spend more time on my yard than on my knitting for a time.

What was I thinking?

This is the lace for the bottom of the shell. I am almost done with the 23 rows x 300 stitches (knitted in the round) and now I see a bad patch that starts 5 rows down. I am going to attempt to fix this situation but if not I will have to frog it. Hope not.

Once I fix this minor thing it will be all stockinette for a while and with any luck I will not screw that part up.

I may need to slow down on my knitting for just a little while. I am making to many mistakes lately.

I thought I was going to finish the never ending yelllow sweater tonight so I was matching the fronup with the back to see how it was coming and noticed that I missed an armhole decrease on the back, which just will not do. This means taht I will have to from the back and redo it. I already did that on the front. I usually focus better than this.

All is no lost though. I will just have to take a deep breath and focus on one thing at a time. I need to get the yellow sweater done so I am putting the shell aside until I am finished.

What a Fun Day

I am in St. Louis this weekend to be with my friend Nancy and her family. Her youngest daughter graduated from high school so we had a party for her today. It was nice to be with them on this happy occassion.

Seems like only yesterday she was just a little red headed girl and how she has turned into a beautiful young woman. How time does fly. One minute they are small and in what seems like the blink of an eye they are grown. As you can tell I am feeling really old.

Another fun thing...I got to she my friends first granddaughter today. She is a beaut. She looks just like her mother did when she was a baby.

These are the friends I am going to spend my vacation this summer with at Cape Hatteras. We will all have much time to play with this little girl. I can hardly wait to see her on the beach.

The Tofutsies Project

The picture does not do it justice. The patterning is very interesting in that the cuff is shaded while the gusset and instep are striped. I love the feeling of the fabric. I used size 1 needles as usual but my gadge was a little smaller than normal so it was necessary to add a couple more stitched to get the desired fit.

The skein is wrapped very tightly so after completing the first sock the skein is just starting to loosen up. Since these are anklets, I can probably get two pair out of this one.

I like working with the yarn for the most part but it does split easily so you do have to pay closer attention to it because of that. The end produce is definitely worth it.

I am having a really wierd week at the office. My computer has decided to rebelle. I was in the middle of editing a document when all of a sudden my keyboard stopped working and the mouse when haywire. Fortunately, I had saved the stuff I was working on on a flash drive so I did have something to work with. I called our help desk to report it and got no assistance by the end of the day so I called again yesterday morning. Finally, I got someone to come help. This person was not sure what to do so took my computer to the shop and I have not seen it since. The fix should have taken maybe 10 minutes if they new what they were doing. No telling now when it will return to my desk. I do have another one to use for the time being but it is not the same. I hope I have it back soon.

Also, the guy that I have been working with on this documentation has been tied up for a while and finally had time to work with me yesterday but since I did not have my computer with the software I need, I was not able to get the work done. Is it Friday yet? I want to trade this week in.

What I Did on My Day Off

I took the day off Friday to get the paperwork completed for the mortgage payoff. Did you know that in most states everything is not official until the release of mortage is recorded with the Recorder of Deeds? I found this out when I received the papers from the mortage company. It cost $24 to get the job done.

Since I was in Independence anyway, I had to stop by Knit Craft and found the wonderful yarn on the left in the sale bin for $3 per skein and got the brightly colored Trekking 135 (I think Chelle has some of this).



After the trip to Knit Craft I went to have lunch at Ophelia's which is on the corner. Ophelia resides in the building that used to be Osco (a.k.a Skaggs/Katz). It was such a treat. I had a lovely Blackened Scallop Spinach salad, which was devine. They serve warm bread with an oil/baslamic vinegar dip. OMG was that wonderful.

Since I was heading north already, I made my way up to Liberty to the shop there and on the 50% off shelf found the Artful Yarns Fable (top right) which is 85%pima cotton, 15% silk. It looks gold in the picture but is acually pink, rose, yellow, and green. Lastly, There were two skeins of Regia. They are the same color but different lots which to me make not difference what so ever. Each is going to be on a different foot so I don't think it make a difference.

I had such a good day. I just reminds me of what a wonderful time I can have when I semi-retire in approx 5 years if all goes well. If I can be good and save my pennys I can live comfortable.

In the Bag

I decided that I wanted an small bag to have for evening at Stitches so I did this one yesterday out of the One Skein Wonders book. It will be felted soon and embellished with probably some funky felted flowers. I think it will be really cute. May make a larger version at some point. It was a really quick knit.

As you can see my big baby Gracie is very interested in the ribbon scarf. She has watched just about every stitch as it progressed.

Gracie likes to keep up with the latest projects and usually ends up lay all over them just to give them a little inspection. She is usually very thorough. If necessary there might even be a nap included at no extra charge.

I had thought of putting some fringe on this but I think that I like it as it is. Fringe can be kind of fussy some time.

There is another scarf I am think of doing that is crocheted. I have been so involved with knitting that I have not done any crochet for some time. Might be fun for a change.

Stay tuned for the finished flelting and any other new thing I may want to throw in.

Big Green Socks

Finally, here are the guy socks. The turn out to be a perfect fit. He love them. They were for my friend Daron.

We played poker last night at a fun raiser for Pee Wee football. I was hoping that these would be lucky socks for him but unfortunately this was not to be. Even so the poker was a lot of fun. I lasted about an hour longer than he did but alas I was downed by 3 aces and 2 8's over my 3 aces and 2 3's. Of course I went all in...with 3 aces how could I not.

Oh well, it was for the kids and it was much better than having them come to my door with candy bars and making me feel bad for not buying them. I have adopted a strict policy now that I do not buy from kids at the door anymore. I used to buy from them all but the last couple of times I did and had to pay up front the merchandise never showed up at my door. The other reason is that I feel if you want your kid to play ball, cheer lead, whatever, I do not want to pay for it. You need to pony up the extra money for them to participate in that activity.


As you can see I have changed my template. Not sure I like not having more color but have not finished tweaking it yet. I like the stretched format I am think of other things I can do to spruce it up and will do so as time permits. Let me know what you think and if you have suggestions.

Finally Blogger let me upload these pictures. I have had them ready to show you for a while. Thanks Blogger for cooperating this time....please remember how you did this so we can do it again this easily next time.

Here is the Criss Cross scarf I am working on. It is simple yet looks complicated. The first 66 rows are a combination of garter stitch and seed stitch that are then divided into strips of 5 stitches each that follow the same stitch patterns. When done with it is back to putting everything together to create the part that goes around the next. Once again you do the split for the strips and repeat as the others then when they are completed you weave then. To finish up you put them stitches back together again and mirror the 66 rows from the beginning. I am about 50% done with it.

Ah...the big bag. Here it is in all its glory. I have not felted it because, can you believe I am not sure it is deep enough. I think I may finish it off with a darker trip so the BO's may be coming out. I want to do some more pockets too before the grand felting. I think it is going to turn out great.

And now for my newest favorite. This is the scarf I am doing in the Lion Brand Incredible. The colors really to not show well her but the are beautiful. I really like the gold, teal, and cranberry. The Incredible is not my favorite to work with but I like the affect so it is worth it. The only thing I really do not like is the way it twists.

The guy socks are done washed and ready to give to the recipient. I am playing in a Texas Hold'm fund raiser tonight to raise only for little league football. The guy who is receiving the socks will be there and I am betting (pun intended) that these will be his lucky socks. I am anxious to see how they fit and how much he likes then. I think he is expecting something very wild but I think he will be surprised at how tame they are.

Once again, I have started another pair of socks. I am using the Tofutsie that I got in Columbia at Hill Creek. I am finding it interesting to knit with. I for the most part like the feel of it but it does split easily. More on this next time.

A Little Bit of Progress

So here is the back of the yellow sweater. Yes, I finally got it going. I did this last night so it is going pretty fast. I love how the Mirco Spun feels but I still and not thrilled with how it knits. You really have to watch it for splitting. The good thing is that if you need to fix a stitch it works really well to drop down many row to fix it. The fabric heals very well. All you have to do is smooth the stitches out and you can't even tell that you dropped the stitch.

I wanted to post a cople more pictures but blogger would not cooperate. I have the big tote bag read to felt. It is going to be pretty big. I am anxious to see now it felts. Will probably do the felting this week some time.

and I have started a scarf from Lion Brand Incredible Copper Penny. Very pretty but I am not sure I like knitting with it. I have not done a ribbon before. It tends to twist pretty badly. This make it a much slower knit for me.

These are all my things for Stitches. Hope to have several more things done by then.

Inventory Time

I have decided that I am going to make a list of the projects I want to compelte for Stitches. I want to think about the level of effort to complete each then I can prioritize them. Maybe that will help me get them done.

Here is what I have decided so far.

1. Yellow Sweater-WIP The front is yet to be completed.
2. Criss Cross Scarf-WIP 50% done
3. Felted Tote-WIP (almost ready to felt) 95% don
4. Clapotis-I have been wanting to do one for a while
5. Another Short Sleeve Sweater
6. Felted Evening bag-In the One Skein Wonders
7. Socks-Maybe using the Tofootie I got at Hill Creek

I think this completely doable. The first three should be done very soon. The socks and evening bag should be quick knits. The Clapotis and other sweater could be project for my trip to Cape Hatteras. I think I am going to have a lot of knitting time there.

At the office I do not have a cubicle. Where the contractors sit is a bull pin so we have 6 of us in the same area. As you might guess there is no privacy. It is like being in a fish bowl. Now that the weather has turned nice I have been going to Dean and Deluca's at lunch to get a salad then sitting in the park. It is nice to get away from the office for a while where it is quiet. I sit and knit for a bit then back to work. It makes a nice break in the day.

What have I been working on?

Here is my lates new thing I am working. The number of my WIPs is growing. This one will be a quicky. I have decided to do a felted tote to take to Stitches. I think it is going to be very interesting. I am using Lion Brands Landscape which is wool and acrylic. The neat things is when it felts the acrylic of course does not. The result creates a nubby texture to the fabric. I did a booga bag in this yarn that I really liked. I have two different shades of the same color family so it will be striped. I am anxious to get it completed and felted. That is the thing I love about felting, the end product has so many possiblities.




Also on my WIP list is the yellow sweater. I have the back and sleeves completed and will start on the front probably tomorrow. Should have it completed very soon so I can put it together. I hope to get another sweater done to before Stitches. I have some yarn that was originally purchased for another sweater but once I got it started I did not like the pattern. I think this is a frog situation to be used for something I will like better.



My focus right now is to get some things made to have for Stitches. I would like to have something for each day to wear. I know there are going to be many interesting things to see there.

In my wandering through bloggs I ran across this collar. I immediately thought of my friend Chelle. She loves to do freeform and I think this is the ultimate freemform project. Any number of varieties of leaves could be included. The novelty yarns add such a flair. It is called the Indian Summer Color http://www.magknits.com/Jan07/patterns/indiansummer.htm . I think it would be fun to make but not sure I would wear it.

What's new? Not Much

Yesterday was a very exciting day. I wrote the big check to pay off my house. It is all mine now (as soon as I get the deed and cancled mortgage). I was so moved with I dropped the check in the mail. It was such an accomplishment. Something I did by myself. I have now been in this house for 20 years. I never dreamt that this time would come.

When I bought my house I looked at it as an investment and that I would be here only a couple of years then move on to somewhere else. You know how it is you start out and go day-to-day. All of a sudden you turn around and it is 20 years later.

My plan is to be totally debt free by the end of the year. I think this is doable. All this is to position myself to semi-retire by the time I am 60. That is 5 mor years. Hope I can make it. Wish me luck.

I really have not have much going on lately. I am almost totally recovered from my recent illnes. The problem is that I have been going to work then coming home and going to sleep. Now that I am much better I am trying get myself out and doing something after I get home.

I and my friends Chelle and Mary have started a Woman In Training program throught St. Lukes East Hospital. It is a training program to ready us to do a 5K walk. Last night is was rainy and cool but we walked anyway. My goal was a mile but I did not make it the full mile. I did do 1/2 though. This is good for me since I have been sick and also have not been doing a lot of walking this winter. I am going to make more of an effort to get out after work for longer walks so that I can work up to the 3 mile total goal. I know that this will happen one step at a time. I have complete confidence. This is a good thing.

Since I have been sleeping so much I have not been knitting very much in the last few weeks. I am still working on the guy socks for my friend. I am waiting for foot measurements to complete them. I now have two socks with no toes. When I do get the measurements I can finish them up.

I have the back and one sleeve done for my yellow sweater. I will start working this week on the rest of the sweater to get it completed. I like this pattern and will probably make another out of a different yarn. Maybe KnitPicks Shine Sport. I like the feel of he Lion Brand Microspun but it is difficult to knit with.

I think my next endeavor will be a shawl. I think I might need one to take to Sticthes. You never know, even in the summer, what the temp will be in hotels.

Back from the Near Dead

This has been a miserable week for me. I started out last Friday with really bad allergies then ended up getting much worse as the weekend went on. By Monday, I finally made it to the doctor only to find that I had a pretty bad lung infection. No pneumonia though nearly as bad. Evidently, I inhaled some pollen which got into my lungs to cause the infection. I am on my second round or Zpak with steriod inhaler, my regular albuteral inhaler, steriod nasal spray and antihistamine. Also, strict instructions that I could go to work but then home to rest. No major activities like cleaning, lifting, pushing or pulling anything. Mostly, I just came home and went to sleep. I think I am finally caught up on sleep now.

Yes, I am feeling much better. I have most of the congestion out of my head and am breathing much better now. The cough is pretty bad so I still have a ways to go to get back to nornal. Should be in good shape by next weekend.

Since I have been doing all of this sleeping needless to say I have not been knitting. Although I can knit without looking at it I have not learned to knit in my sleep yet so I am behind. I started the Fiber Trends clogs last weekend but felt so bad that I have not worked on them so I am behind. Will make another attempt today to get the first one done. I hope to have pictures of the finished product soon so stay tuned.

I was able to upload the rest of the images I had. Not sure if it was a Blogger problem or a problem on my end but anyway here they are.

I found this wonderfun Soup cookbook. It has some great recipes for some very interesting soups. The best things is that the recipes make 4-6 servings rather than a big soup pot. Can't wait to try one of the recipes.



This is the lovely rovings that I found at Hill Creek Fibers in Columbia. It is very lusious and spins like a dream. I bought a pound which should spin up in to quite a bit. I think I will probably Kool Ade die it and make something fun with it.


Ah....the yellow sweater. The Lion Brand Microspun is a little different to work with since it does not twist very much which allows it to split easily. Once knitted it is wonderfully soft and I think I will love to wear it once complete.

The wool soaker is interesting. I think there is a solution that it is put into to somewhat waterproof it. It is used with cloth diapers. Any mother who uses cloth is a trooper. It is so much easier to use disposables. I looking for a pattern for this I am surprised at how popular they are. I need to sit down today and finish this one up to see how it goes over with its little user.

As I mentioned in the previous post, many in the SS&K group have started working on clogs. I am doing the Fiber Trends but there are a variety of patterns being used. It will be fun to see how they all turn out. Will post progress soon

Upload problems

Well finally I was able to upload a picture. For some reason I have had difficulty uploading pictures the last couple of days. I am thrilled that I finally was able to get this one of the Trekking socks at least. The color shading is much prettier in person but it show pretty well in the image.

If blogger would permit I would have others to share. That not being the case at this time, you will have to imagine ther the back of the yellow sweater is done and I am going to do the sleeves next just for variety. I have also started a wool baby diaper soaker that is cute, done in a multi color yarn. This is form my friend who had her baby recently. Lastly, I would be able to show you the mernino roving that I bought in Columbia at Hill Creek Fibers.

I have not been doing a lot the last day or so due to allergies kicking in. I did go to SSK today and enjoyed being with everyone but I was exhausted when I got home and had to take a nap. When I have one of these bouts I have difficulty sleeping as well as being miserable. As soon as they trees get completely leafed out I will be in pretty good shape.

Today I did begin my Fiber Trends clogs. There is not a lot to them but you really need to watch the pattern carefully because are a lot of wraps, m1,k2togs and if you don't keep an eye on them they get away from you. I think this is one of those patterns that don't make since so you just have to do it and not try to make since of it. I equate it with the first sock knitted. Once you do it it make since, I hope. Looking forward to getting them done.

Well, stay tuned for more images with I can get them uploaded. Maybe I will have new ones to include.

Bad Blogger....Bad Bad Blogger

OK...I have been a really bad blogger. I have not been in the mood to blog lately. I think it is the season change along with the anticipation of daylight savings time. I really really hate the day when the time changes. I don't know about you but I miss that hour the whole time until I get it back. I think it messes with my internal clock.

In addition to that, my allergies have already started. I have been taking a lot of antihistamine which dries me out a lot and makes me very tired. It starts when the trees start to open their buds and grass starts to grow and they both release pollen. Once the trees leaf out and the grass gets cut for the first time it is not so bad but does carry through the summer. When stuff starts dying in the fall, then I get the fall allergies that go along with the dust and mold.

I have been knitting but have nothing really that I am ready to show. I have a pair of socks on the needles and a sweater that are both progressing right along. Will probably have ths socks don this weekend. It will be a while on the sweater but that is ok.

I am working on something new for a friend who just had a baby. She is using cloth diapers and wanted a wool soaker. Not being up on the latest baby stuff I did not know what these were but now I do. It is a diaper cover that is treated with lanoline to help waterproof it. So I am working on a test knit of one for her to try. I guess this has gotten to be quit a bit item with the mommies. After doing some research, there are many site selling these form bit prices. They are even selling them on ebay so you know that has to be big. Will see how this first one goes. There may be a market there.

Will have some good stuff to show next time.

Here is the wonderful yarn storage complete with yarn. As you can see it is already full so I obviously need to get more. I really like this because although it has fifteen spaces I can leave out a couple of dividers to make the spaces bigger. Not bad for $33.



Here is the sock update for the sock that I was not going to do. I know I said I was bored with socks but I need some knittng to have in the car and socks are easy to take along anywhere.

A friend has requested to be included on the sock list so I will probably find some really fun yarn for those. I think he will wear anything I make and be happy with them. He is fun that way. We had great fun Saturday night playing Texas Hold'em. Unfortunately, I only had maybe three good hands so I did not win.

Ah....as promised (to myself) I have started a sweater for myself. I think I am going to love it. I am using Lion Brand MicroSpun which is a little difficult to work with because it does not twist together very well but the feel is worth it. It is very soft and has a nice drape. This is not normally the color I would buy but I like it for Spring.

Here is what the finished sweater will look like. I am looking forward to finishing this one soon and making another. These sweaters are so versitile.