sherriknits

Before I get to my little story about my class with Cat Bordhi, I get to announce that I have finished clue 3 on the Mystery Stole.  I have one week to get through clue 4.  The encouraging thing to me is that I am going to shorten it and this is where that gets done…I get to skip from row 218 to row 303.  I’m not sluffing off, I am only 5′ tall and I think a 77″ stole would be way too long.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed at being behind over 200 rows until I read the fine print. 

Now on to my Cat story.

Our class with Cat was at 7:30 this morning.  We did not get much sleep last night so I was pretty tired.  My friend and I stayed in Seattle last night but we still had to get up wake up at 5 a.m. and we might have talked until after midnight.

  A class with Cat is always entertaining and I highly recommend anyone taking one if ever they have the chance.  We were there to learn the new method of “sockitecture” that she has come up with.  It is pretty amazing.  You’ll have to get her new book that is just out if you knit socks at all. 

Well, we were going to knit the sock double-stranded, which means taking the yarn from the inside and outside of the ball.  Wouldn’t it just be the way that I would end up pulling out half the ball trying to find the end?  I have many times been able to get the end with minimal excess yarn, but this time, I had this big tangle of yarn which was quite frustrating to me.  The good part is that the yarn pulled easily from it so it wasn’t all that hard to work with.

At about 9, Cat gave us a 5 minute break so I decided to run up to the 4th floor to check in for the little trade show that her class was part of.  When I returned, Cat was madly knitting on my little sock.  She was a teeny bit frustrated, but mostly laughing.  Evidently, she loves to pick up someone’s knitting while they are gone and knit on it and then set it down before they return for the fun of it.

She decided she was going to wind my mess of yarn into a neat little ball but as she wound, she got a knot in the yarn and try as she may, she could not get it out.  Therefore, she decided to hurry up and knit on the sock so she could hide what she did! 

Unfortunately for her, I returned before she had covered her tracks.  I told her I had totally forgotten to knit 8 rows before I started on the increases and she kept assuring me it was no big deal, this was a practice sock anyway.  lol   She just didn’t want me to find her knot. 

What was really fun was that I told her I knew she wouldn’t remember this, but 3 years ago at this same trade show, we were taking a class that was incredibly stressful.  Her suitcase was in the little back room, so she was trying to discreetly sneak through our class with it and she happened to run over my yarn (or string) and it tangled terribly in her wheel.  We were both down on the floor trying to free it and it was the stress reliever I needed from this (very poorly taught) class. 

So, I got my copy of Cat’s new book signed “I hope we tangle ourselves together again one day!”  My friend got hers signed “Maybe some day I will get to do some secret knitting on your sock too!”

I will take a class from her every chance I get, even if I have already had the class.  Today’s class was kind of similar to last year’s, but we weren’t able to share her secret method until her book was out.  I learned so much from her today.  She is so gracious and will take time to help anyone who needs it and teach you all kinds of fun things besides what she started helping you with. 

I forgot to take a picture of the sock before dark, but here’s a look anyway…

And our late day sky today…I forgot about it Saturday and today seems like Saturday anyway.

Tags: my life

The last few days are a blur to me.  Good blur, though.

The other day at work, the noise and activity continued across the street.  It is very fun watching this grand old theater getting dressed up again, even if the constant warning signals from the equipment is very annoying.  They are giving her a new coat of paint.

 (that’s my reflection in the window…lol)

I could NOT believe it when I left work and saw what they put on the roof!

 (Do you remember the one from the wedding that my son and my then-to-be son-in-law made it appear everywhere I went after I said it would NOT be part of the wedding!)  Do these plastic things fly?

Yesterday was the big game day.  We left town at 12:15 pm to make it to the 7:05 game.  Sounds silly for a 2 hour drive, but by the time we got there with our two cars, we barely could find a parking place on the street.  We did get to park within a block of Safeco Field, though.  We were probably the last ones to get a spot.  We didn’t have much time before they opened the gates at 5:05…we had to make several little stops on the way.  Next year, I will set the goal of leaving at 10.

Here’s my handsome little man waiting to go to his first major league game.  My kids didn’t get the sock picture at all.  However, the newlyweds thought it was not at all silly to take pics of themselves!

It was early when the Fox Sports Network had their cameras rolling.

It was really cool to see them interviewing some of the many guys who were knitting. 

I took my Jaywalkers to work on as a mindless knit.  Last year I had been working on a Nancy Bush sock and it was way too hard to concentrate on while trying to watch the game.  We had 18 people all together in our party and I couldn’t even count the 7 stitch repeat.  (maybe the fact that there was a lady behind us who talked non-stop, we all began to wonder if she ever came up for air…)

So, I switched projects.  In no time at all, I did the typical-for-me thing.

How’s this for pretty?

The bride actually agreed to knit…she hadn’t touched needles in about 3 years and then had only learned because when she was class advisor in her school, she had gotten the kids started  knitting wrist bands for a fundraiser.  Her little sis and a friend had taught the group of kids to knit but when they were constantly coming to her later for help, she had to break down and learn herself.  Soooo…in the car on the way up to the game, I gave her a quick lesson in knitting continental-style as opposed to throwing…and she just started knitting!  (a natural?)  She, like me, is left-handed…I was impressed with how easily she got it.  We do knit right-handed.

She has about 2 inches of a dish cloth started!

Everyone else seemed to have a great time, too.

I did make good progress on my sock.

However, I got that far to realize it was way too big.

The Mariners lost, but we had a great time so we won.  I got to see some good friends there…my friend who owns Village Yarn and Tea and one of my rep friends from Skacel.  I did buy a few things from Village Yarn and Tea.

 I’m just a sucker for bags and they had it in my current favorite color.  The yarn matches!  Actually, I am so enjoying lace knitting that I bought this SuriBlue and got their shop pattern as well as a pattern called Stole-n-bases. 

I also got a belated birthday gift!

Those are chocolates and very short needles that I’ve wanted to try.  Thanks, Lauri!

I couldn’t resist taking a pic of the brothers-in-law.

The ride home was something else.  #1 son was driving the Jeep and got ahead of us once we hit the freeway.  We were rather horrified when we saw him take the Renton exit by accident.  Traffic was heavy and we couldn’t get over.  I called 3 cell phones before one of them answered and hubby told them how to get back to the freeway since they didn’t take the easy, obvious route.  Shortly after the phone call, we got into the worst traffic mess….5 lanes of freeway going in to 1 lane.  The kids got on the freeway ahead of us and ended up home at least 20 min. before we did.  It took us ages to get thru the slow-moving or stopped stretch of the freeway.  I am now thankful for practicing knitting in the dark.  I turned on the light while we were stopped and frogged my sock up to the ribbing.  I then decided to do a wider rib of 6×2 and did this in the dark with no lights except once when I couldn’t get the last purl on the needle to work.

I actually knit back to where I had been.  Notice the closeup of the clock

Can you see what it says?  12:47…and we were an hour from home.

Are you still with me?  We did get our date tonight…since we were pretty tired, we just went to our favorite place for a bit.  The roses have been cut…I can’t remember if they re-bloom, but it seems to me they do.

We have a wedding tomorrow, then I am headed to Seattle to spend the night so I can take a class from Cat Bordhi at 7:30 a.m. Sunday. 

Tags: my life

more on the title in a minute.

Yesterday was our 33rd wedding anniversary.  I did have to work in my shop yesterday because the city was having an artwalk so I needed to be there.  It was fun and I forgot to take my camera out on the street.  I had some ladies with spinning wheels in my shop and it was so pleasant, that whirring sound of the wheels and the smell of wool.  It was so peaceful…and then we suddenly were “serenaded” by an alternative rock band that was nearly blowing out the windows.  All I will say is it was interesting.  (When hubby and I first got married, he was in a rock band and I lived many years of having a band practicing in my basement while I was up on the second story trying to get my little toddler to sleep!  They were loud, but they were never that loud!  Thankfully they weren’t there more than an hour and a half (my guess).

We did get to go to dinner.  It’s nice to have been married this long and still like each other. 

We weren’t home long last night and we got a phone call that there were huge explosions and a fire downtown.  Since our family business and my shop is downtown, it didn’t take us long to get down there.  (altho I was sitting in the car while hubby finished washing a little boy’s hair!  we had rousted the girl out of her bedroom to hang out with him while we went.) 

It was devastating.  An 87 year old business was engulfed in flames that travelled to several other buildings.  Our son actually took several pictures that ended up on the news station website.  Here’s one of them.

I forgot to take a picture of Saturday’s sky, but it never stopped raining all day.  We’re having record rainfall this year.

And now, to the title of the post.  I hesitate to get too excited, but I think I am back on track with the mystery stole.  I knit the whole 2nd clue using the written directions and if I lost my place (frequently) I constantly had to tink back either to the beginning of the row or at least to a point I recognized.  It was really eating away at my self-confidence.  The charts are so big that I was having a lot of trouble using  them previously, my eyes were going everywhere. 

Tonight, I decided to shrink down the tiny chart (which still prints out huge on my printer) and get it on one page.  I am on clue 3 and it is just starting to move along easily again.  I didn’t like knitting “blind”.  Now if I have to tink back, I only have to go a few stitches back unless I’ve really messed up…but that isn’t as easy to do if I can see what I’m supposed to be doing.  I do hope I will now make better progress.  Hubby asked me on Friday night as we sat at Starbucks with our daughter and boyfriend if this wasn’t supposed to be fun.  It was stressful for him to watch me going back and forth on one row all evening.  I wasn’t too bugged about it but he was.  lol

Anyway, for the moment I am cautiously optomistic!

Tomorrow is my sister’s birthday as well as #2 daughter’s boyfriend’s birthday.  Tuesday is hubby’s birthday.  And Thursday is Stitch n Pitch!

Tags: my life

 Yesterday was so wet and all day long I listened to these men working with the power sprayer on the building across the street from my shop.  I was trying to balance a checkbook and that warning signal that sounds like a truck backing up went all day.  It was fun watching them, though.  It’s exciting because they are restoring the old theater across the street, something this town has wanted to see for a long time.  I’ve watched them haul out a ton of junk.

About the only cool thing about this building as it is is that once in awhile a fellow with a sax comes and plays for awhile and it’s just beautiful.

Today I made a little more progress on MS3…I am on row 137, not much hope of being caught up before tomorrow morning…not thinking I need to sit up and knit 63 rows.  It moves slowly when I’m visiting with friends, but sometimes that’s more fun than worrying about progress.  I got to spend the afternoon with a friend and I’m not sure who got more knitting accomplished but she finished her beautiful shawl a few days ago and we looked at my blocking kit trying to decide when we’d have the wherewithall to put it together on a board.  Not much progress on that front, but I can’t wait to see the shawl done.  I should have taken a picture, but I will do that soon.  There’s something to be said for a simple shawl with a beautiful lace edging.

It must get boring seeing this shawl every few inches but it just wanted to go outside tonight and blow in the breeze a little bit.

I am still trying to capture the beads in a photo…they are pretty when the light hits it just right, very subtle.

We have some exciting news in our family.  The newlyweds were going to move about an hour and a half away, but there was opportunity for him to take a position as youth pastor in our own church and the way was clear for him to do that.  Here they are this last Sunday when the announcement was made.

To the left is the very sweet girl who has helped fill in when we needed it.  She’s headed off to school to study for youth ministry herself.  She’s so good when you hand her a microphone…she mc’d at the wedding and people were absolutely amazed at her.  Many of the youth gathered around her to pray for her.

Our church is full of so many talented young people.  It’s been such a blessing watching them grow up and become what they were meant to be.  Hubby and I feel like there are a special few who are like our own kids in a way. 

Tags: my life

Yesterday was the little imp’s birthday.  I should have looked closer at the pictures I got, not so many good enough to share. 

Our family has a tradition of “birthday breakfast”.  He was up early and was excited for his request for french toast.   But important things first.

This was the year for musical cards…he got 4.  I bought one for him in January or so…and then the newlyweds got the same one! High School Musical of course.  He also got Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean.  We had dueling cards for awhile yesterday.

We aren’t sure he understands the concept of a gift card, but when he gets to go buy a dvd, it will make a lot of sense to him!  He wanted to get “Night in the Museum” but he actually got that for a gift.  We watched it last night and it was hilarious.

He also got to go to lunch with Daddy.  Every birthday person gets to have that privilege.  This year we moved up from McDonald’s to the favorite pizza parlor in town.  Make that “pepperoni, cheese, sauce, that’s all.  And ice water, please.”  The favorite waitress wasn’t working yesterday, though.

He blew his candles out in the silliest way I have ever seen…one at a time!

(Can you guess what his favorite shirt is these days???)

Today I continued to move along on my mystery stole.  I only have to backtrack one row if at all.  Today, though, I was struggling through one row (why is it that one will just give you trouble over and over? ) and I realized I didn’t even know which row I was on…my tape was covering 2 rows and I had no idea until I realized one of them had beads on it and this wasn’t a bead row.    Gosh, this silly thing will find any way to confuse me.  I have been able to work on it while carrying somewhat of a conversation with others, though.  I have stayed with the written version of the chart and still feel like I am knitting blind but I don’t make as many mistakes…my hope is that I can go back to the visual charts next project, but this one has no repeats so no opportunity to memorize.

I am on row 123 now, almost halfway through the 2nd clue.  Since this Friday we’ll get a clue and then next week we won’t, I’ll be caught up soon, I’m sure.

A friend stopped by today and blessed me with 2 books on cd for my iPod.  If I can figure out how to get them onto my computer, I’ll be a happy camper.  I’ve done it before but the ‘how’ is eluding me tonight!  My iPod is safely in my purse after taking a little trip down the hall yesterday.  I don’t want to point any fingers but everyone had wondered why it was where it was but me (who didn’t see it there) and one little imp.  I only could find my jumbled up earphones under my pillow and am amazed I didn’t wake up hubby trying to find it last night.  My Palm Pilot makes a pretty good flashlight but I never found the iPod until this morning.  (it seems someone might have asked me why it was where it was, though..don’t ya think? )

Back to knitting and the Mariners…..

Tags: my life

Last night was date night and did we ever need it.  We haven’t been getting our regular ‘down times’ and I notice it.  We got a pizza and drove out to our favorite place.

The roses are coming to their end but they’ll come back if the lady is taking care of them, which I’m sure she must be.

I took a little walk on the dock.  These rocks have significance to me and they’re really here just for my own remembrance.

Today I made progress on my MS3 and actually passed where I was last weekend.  I’m glad I started over, but I don’t care to do those 100 rows again.  I bet we get to do them on the other end of the shawl, though.  Hopefully I will feel better about them by then.  Everything is going smoothly and I’m several rows in to clue 2.  My hope is to catch up next week when we have a little extra time.

We figured out the strangest thing tonight.  We lose our internet connection at odd times.  Our daughter noticed that it seemed to be whenever hubby came home with his Jeep.  Tonight we tested it and it really is what happens!!!!  He drove away and came back several times and every time it worked then quit.  He tried parking in a different place and now we think that might be what it is because it is working better tonight.  Any ideas on that one?  We’re trying to figure out if it’s the alarm system or what.

And here is today’s sky.  It was nice earlier today, but this evening it was threatening to rain.

Tags: my life

I decided to just start over on the mystery shawl.  I felt a little emotional over getting through about row 80-85 since I did them so many times, but a friend showed me the optional chart written out and that is working for me.  I kind of feel like I’m knitting blind because I like chart knitting…but I am not tensing up as I near row 80 or so.  It’s all going pretty smooth and since I always thought it was an easy knit it’s just going as it should.

Sometimes I just make it hard on myself.

I’m starting the heel on the Jaywalker, but didn’t take pictures of the progress.  That one has also taken a little journey.  I thought it just seemed so big so I knit it on 0s.  It looked great.

The only trouble was, it wouldn’t go over my heel.

So, while riding in the car, it got frogged.

I started knitting it again on size 1s and it’s much better.

Yesterday was therapy for the boy.  We hadn’t been since April because of the wedding.  Summer will be hit and miss for both us and the therapist, but it’s always been this way.  She did some testing this time.

He had to stop the ruler with his thumb when she let go of it.  He caught it every time, sometimes just in the knick of time.  He also did some jumping.

Today was hot, hot, hot.  I went to lunch at a seafood restaurant on the river.

I nearly over-heated on the way back to work so decided to go home and change my clothes.  Summer skirts sometimes are not made to keep you cool.  I ran in to work and grabbed my keys and right back out and a wind came up that fast.  By the time I drove home and went back to work…10 minutes…the temperature had dropped 20 degrees!  The fog was coming in from the ocean.  It’s ok, I was hot for the rest of the day.

And last but not least…my little world travelers are both home safely.

I’m kind of holding my breath on the laptop…it shut off twice today and won’t open one of my Quickbook files, but I decided to not fret over it today.  I’m just happy to see them.

Tags: my life

Hubby and I got away fairly early on Friday.  We got a 2 day date!  I think this is the first time either of us could remember getting away and actually having some quiet, down-time.  We got to Seattle in the early afternoon and checked into our room.  We went out and got a bite to eat and drove around downtown Seattle a little bit.  It was crazy….lots going on!  I took a few pictures, but none of them were really good enough to waste space here.  For you coffee lovers, though…here is the Starbucks executive offices.

I wanted to get a picture of the original Starbucks but the crowds were so crazy and we didn’t get on the right street because we were sick of waiting for lights to change.

We got back to our room early and spent an enjoyable time relaxing for awhile.  Then we had to drive over to Barnes and Noble to spend our usual Friday night.    The difference was, we didn’t have to drive an hour home.  We of course had to visit Starbucks there…but it’s not a B&N Cafe as we are used to and we had to sit in there without anything to read.  (Although I have been to that one several times and never knew I wasn’t supposed to bring things in to Starbucks just to look at!  I’m glad I never set off any alarms!)

Hubby was pretty tired and went off to sleep at a normal time.  I could not quit thinking about my Mystery Stole so I got up and started working on it.  MS3 and I are  not on speaking terms at the moment.  What’s crazy is the this is not a difficult pattern, but why I spend more time going backwards than forwards is beyond me.  I decided to put it down for a few days.  I was up until 2 working on it!!!!

In the morning we went to breakfast and actually just sat around the room until 11!  We can’t ever think of a time we just did that rather than being out and about and barely seeing the room.  It was great! 

Then it all kind of changed.  lol.  I realized I did not bring any mindless knitting with me and we were going to have lots of time to kill at the stadium before the concert.  Soooooo….I looked up several yarn shops in the phone book and told hubby just one was fine for me to stop at.  He wanted to figure out the parking at the stadium….but he said we had more than enough time to do that.  Well, we ended up way off track on the first shop and had to call #1 son for driving directions.  Since we wasted so much time driving through residential streets trying to figure out what in the world we were doing….it was getting a bit tense.  I also asked for directions to another shop.  That seemed easier so we switched plans and headed to that one.  Wouldn’t you know it?  It was downtown close to where we needed to be…but no parking.  Hubby dropped me off.  I won’t say much about the shop … I was so excited to go there but I had a really hard time finding some sock yarn (do love what I ended up with) and needles..and they didn’t seem to  understand that when I said hubby is driving around the block and I need this wound quickly please that I needed to get out of there.  I was feeling sick over it because it took so long at every light and I knew if he had to go around too many times it was going to be stressful.  He finally appeared in the shop (BEFORE they started winding my yarn) and told me not to worry.  The shop was cute, though.

We then drove to Qwest Field.  We have gone to enough Mariner’s games that we knew where to look for free parking and it’s a good thing we decided to do this hours before the concert.  People were already heading to the stadium.  We didn’t have to walk far at all.  In fact where we parked by a business, they were renting their lot for $20 a space. 

It was hot, hot, hot.  We walked around outside looking at all the fun stuff.  They were giving out free hot dogs, water, and pop by the Brooks and Dunn truck.  We’d just eaten, but stood in line for water, it ran out right before us and we tried a Jones diet cola…not bad for free. 

We got in line as a crowd started forming since we’d been told they’d open the gates at 2:30.  Thankfully we’d bought water but it was so hot and I almost finished mine.  For some reason, hubby didn’t open his.  We stood there baking and by the time they opened the doors at 3…we were all pretty hot, but in good spirits.  I had to throw out the rest of my water because it was open, but he got to keep his.  Our tickets were on the 3rd level and hubby said we should just walk up rather than find an elevator.  I think he might have regretted that decision later!

It’s a long walk when you’re hot and tired.  He wanted to walk around a bit but for some reason, I got concerned about our seats.  I am horribly afraid of heights.  He said he thinks all reason left me.  lol  

I wanted to go find our seats and let me tell you…they pointed up the highest section and said follow the alphabet until the double letters started, then find our seats  (we were ii)  As he started climbing, I fought panic but stuck with him.  Gosh… 35 rows up and it was already high.  I’m not sure if it was good that there was really no one else there yet or not.  Here is our view:

Please note the fact that the roof is hanging right over us.  I managed to take this picture after I finished bawling from being so freaked out.   I do have to laugh.  Poor hubby had a permanent crease in his shirt from me grabbing it when I felt like I’d spill out of the seat.  It really IS better when there are people sitting in front of you.  He is so patient and talked me back to rational thinking.  I was trying to figure out how in the world I was going to get back down, though, I didn’t think he’d enjoy seeing me crawl or go down backwards.  LOL

I was more than grateful for sock yarn at that point.

Sorry it’s blurry but I was not done shaking yet.  I don’t know how I managed to get that much knit, but by then people were coming up and I felt more secure in my seat.

A little aside, I am sick of this kind of thing ruling my life.  I had to rationalize my thoughts and looked around at everyone else laughing at how high they were and actually run down the steps.  If I believe God is in control, then I need to act like it even when I don’t feel like it.  I hope that’s progress.

Hubby really wanted to go walk around and convinced me that to sit in that seat from 3 until 11:30 pm was not very feasible.  Down we went.  I can do it easily if someone is walking in front of me.  We enjoyed roaming around but there is something I totally regret.  There were seats outside the food area that we think now were not ticketed seats and we could have easily had one!  I was kind of ticked that our tickets were NOT the cheapest ones and I couldn’t see how any seat there could be any worse than what we had.  I later met a lady who spent even more than we did and she was on the other side in about the same place.

This plane flew in circles around Qwest Field for hours. Someday I will think to zoom in so you can actually see what I’m trying to get a picture of.  It said “KC 2nite  and the name of the radio station”

When we made the climb back up, I told hubby I wasn’t going to do that again.  It was too much in the heat.  I would rather stand than climb all those steps again.  We stayed up there for 1 1/2 groups and then he wanted to go get dinner.  We took all of our stuff and ate down there and then found a great place to stand.  It’s good it was great (although it was behind those seats that we could have had) because we stood there for over 3 1/2 hours!  My legs ached so bad all the way home and all day today. 

We went to see Kenny Chesney but enjoyed much of the rest of it.  What I forget about events like this is that many people get pretty rowdy and it can get a bit much to deal with when they start knocking in to you.  It was still fun. Hubby was a professional musician when we got married and he just loves all the lights and equipment and everything about the production.  All our friends laughed when they heard what we were going to…because now all hubby does is worship music but that part of him will always be there to see the big show so the kids gave him tickets to The Flip Flop Summer tour.  Here he is looking at all the equipment down below where he wishes he could have walked.

 
We loved when Brooks and Dunn did “Only in America”….they had several video screens behind them of differnt flags, and then at the end of the song, different members of the military came out and stood across the stage.  I’d have gotten a picture but they got a standing ovation and it was way too cool to think about taking pictures.  Hubby sang that song at church several years ago when the whole worship team wore cowboy hats and stood behind a scrim so we could only see the outlines and red, white and blue shirts. 

Anyway…Kenny Chesney really knows how to put on a show and appreciate his audience.  I love that.  Look how beautiful it was.  (my Saturday sky picture)

See that bright spot down on the floor?  Here’s a closeup.  He came up out of the stage and played for a little while. 

 It’s pretty awesome seeing a show like this.  Outside, warm…lots of energy.

At the end, he signed a guitar and gave it to a little girl in the audience. 

When it was all over, the crush of people leaving was incredible.  We walked down the ramp and hubby had someone step on the back of his sandal and loosen the strap.  If he’d tried to stop and fix it, there would have been a domino effect of people falling so we just kept moving.  I tried to take a picture on the last round before we hit the street…the camera was over my head and I just clicked…and missed the mass of people, but you get the idea.

We got home at 1:30.  Hubby had to be at church by 7:30 this morning and the middle kids were playing on the worship team this morning also so they had to be there early too.  This left the little imp and I home to get there by the time 2nd service started.  I got up at 8 and could not believe how bad my legs hurt.  When I decided we should start getting dressed and maybe make it to first service so we could have the rest of the day home…I couldn’t find the little guy.  He was asleep in our bed after getting up around 6!  He slept until 11:30 and I gave up and zoned out on the couch.  That’s a rare occurrence but I just didn’t have it in me to drag him out of bed, get him dressed (tons of verbal reminders) and figure out how to get myself ready too. 

The day was relaxing.  I worked on my new sock yarn a bit.  Can you guess what it is?

Pretty, eh?

Before  I show you…here is the boy doing his sprinkler imitation.  LOL  Big sis didn’t get the whole picture, but you see the fun he has.

Here’s hubby convincing me he should go to Stitch n Pitch on July 26 to see the Mariners…

He didn’t want me to put this on here … but then said I could.  He’d been sleeping and had put my knitting on his chest so he didn’t mess it up.  I asked him if he was knitting and he showed me he was.

Here’s the evidence that I did the work.

The daughter was taking pictures of me unbeknownst to me and I am not sure I really even combed my hair today so this is all you get to see.

And here is what I’m making.

If you’re still here after such a long post, thanks for sticking it out.   I’m finally making a Jaywalker sock…a few years behind everyone else.

ps.  My computer has been repaired and should be home Tuesday!!!!  No word on that blessed iPod.

Tags: my life

It sure feels like it.  Gosh…the pattern was not that difficult.  I think I re-knit 5 rows at least 5 times, maybe more.  I’d be going along fine, then it would be off…over and over.  I had to get up and walk around, do laundry, etc. to ease the frustration.  Once I got past those blessed rows, it was pretty much smooth sailing.  What’s the deal, anyway?  Anyway, completed before the next clue (by a few short hours!), here is clue 1 complete.

And during one of my breaks this evening from knitting, I had to show off the new shirt.

We’re headed out tomorrow morning for a night away.  Looking forward to it…and I do plan to slowly start on clue 2 if I feel in the right frame of mind!  I hope not to put myself through this every week, I know I may likely fall behind and that’s ok.  Life goes on whether you think  you have a deadline or not!

Tags: my life

Did you do anything fun to celebrate Independence Day? 

It was a busy day for us, mostly because I wanted to go to Macy’s for their one-day sale and it gave hubby the perfect reason to go to Guitar Center.  We drove up the freeway in the Jeep with the top off, my hair was just lovely by the time we got back home.  lol  The kids were jammed in the back seat.

This was actually after we left Macy’s.  Let me tell you…we had quite the time loading our stuff in the jeep!  Hubby got some super bargains, not too big, at Guitar Center, the kids got some stuff at Ross…and I made a haul at Macy’s.  We had to stuff things in everywhere we could. 

Look what I got!

Those are all serving dishes.  It was because I got this from daughter’s boyfriend.

I told him I’d never have had to go spend all that money if he hadn’t gotten me started.  lol  Nah…I’m a shopper and I knew the sale was coming.

I also got the last color I really wanted.  I think it’s called Plum.

Excuse the dust but they all come out of the box this way and hubby wanted to get going while I was trying to take the picture.  He never complains, but thinks it’s a bit silly. 

On the way home from shopping, we drove out to our favorite place.  The kids had never been there, mostly cuz all we ever do is park and look at the water.  Today we walked down on the dock and sat awhile.

Mom, could you please just hurry?

I thought I’d get a picture looking back up towards land….and someone popped in the picture.  I never liked having my picture taken like my kids do!

We couldn’t go home without having a snack.  (the little imp could live on ice cream)

Now to the knitting.

I bought myself a new book and am having fun reading through it.  A friend took a class in Bohus Stickning and I have obsessed over wanting to learn it ever since I saw her cuffs she made.

Last night, I was getting ready to go to bed and I thought…hmmm, I haven’t knit on my stole all day, maybe I’ll just knit one row over and one back.  Wellllllll…..I ended up knitting several, and then dropping a stitch and couldn’t find it so I had to go back to my lifeline, which was in there some wonky way.  I had to go back 2 more rows from that and then, obsessed as I am, I had to knit back up a few rows.  I was rather upset at myself for even starting it so late.

This morning, I got up early and spent some time on the porch rocking and knitting.  As I was knitting, I saw a mistake way back where the lifeline was.  I knew I had gotten off and just did a cheat fix because I couldn’t see where the problem was.  After I knit about an inch and a half, it was very clear where it got off even though the specific place didn’t show.  I kept knitting and convincing myself it was ok.  I could learn to block in a way that it wouldn’t be so noticable (and it wouldn’t have been to anyone but me anyway).  I just couldn’t see going back.

I sat down to knit after our afternoon venture and wouldn’t you know it?  I came to a stitch that I could not figure out what happened.  I’ve seen a few of those and haven’t figured out if it is an uncompleted stitch or what….  after I tried the next pattern row, I realized it was off so I started tinking back.  Well, you know how sometimes the mistake just keeps going with you?  I finally decided (after getting quite frustrated) to just frog back to the lifeline and fix that other error.  It is a pain trying to get this yarn back on the needles from the lifeline.  It is white and the yarn is vanilla.  I learned my lesson a long time ago and don’t use a color on white.  Since I got it back on the needles, I have now gone back 2 or 3 rows trying to find the error that was already there (I knew that it happened the row before the lifeline and kick myself for not putting that lifeline in when I told myself to…the row BEFORE the error).

So, this is what it looked like when hubby is impatiently patiently standing there waiting to go to the bride and groom’s house (they’re on their honeymoon still) to watch fireworks. 

It is a little smaller than that right now.  I spent the time while waiting for the fireworks to start trying to roll the yarn back up.  Hubby was scolding me for doing it in the semi-dark after I got a knot and had to break the yarn.  Arrrggghh.  I can’t seem to learn some lessons.

I do know I will be happier with this when I get going again..even though I was only a few rows from being done with clue 1. 

I got a really cute gift from a friend yesterday.

They are stitch markers and they say:  I believe … Harmony … Wisdom … and an ice cream cone.  I love them and it’s fun to have something that makes you think about that person who blessed you. 

And now…I leave you with a few pictures of the honeymooners.  Take note of the tree that they are passing … she flies by on the top and he is well below it.  She got to do this in Costa Rica last November and loved it so much.  They’re having a great time.  Might as well, when they get home…life begins. 

They actually have a lot to look forward to…she’s always known she’d be married to a youth pastor.  They have great things ahead of them.

Happy 4th!

Tags: my life