Mighty Aphrodite

You Are Aphrodite!

A total shining star with a ton of admirers And no wonder: you live life to the fullest! When things get bad, you can easily take off to a happier place But occasionally, you need to deal with problems head on

What Goddess Are You?

Clever Blog Title? Not today!

I had a nice weekend, Saturday after class at the dojo, I went to Purlescence and hung out with Nathania and Kevin for a while. We had a good time chatting about anything and everything. I bought the Ribby Pulli pattern, I love the fact that you get essentially 4 patterns in one. I really want to knit the short sleeve scoop neck version. Maybe some Bamboo yarn will do well with that.

Then on Sunday, Sensei and I went to San Francisco to play golf and visit my mom. When I used to live in SF I would go and play 9 holes at the Golden Gate Golf Course and I thought that Sensei would really enjoy the green hills and the short course. I didn't play that well this time around until I got to the last hole and I just nailed that ball, out drove both men that I was playing with. It was great! Then I chipped it up on the green and single put for par. Too bad that I could not have gotten in the groove a bit earlier.

After golf, we went to my moms to visit and she was showing me all the great stuff she has been doing. My mother is a second time ovarian cancer survivor and she has been involved with volunteer group at California Pacific Medical Center where she herself has spent many of weeks as a patient. As a part of her volunteer work she has used her hobby to spread a little joy and strength, the Bravery Bracelet. She has given several out to patients at CPMC and they all have seemed to really enjoy getting a handmade gift from someone who knows exactly what they are going through.

She has a fantastic inventory of beads to make just about anything you can think of. She also showed me so other pieces at she has created and I of course said that I liked one on particular if it was in shades of red, what else would you expect? So that was on Sunday afternoon around 4pm. What did I get in the mail today, Tuesday? You guessed it, she made my red bracelet. My mom loves me. Now if I could only knit as fast as she can make jewelry I would be thrilled!! So anyway, I put it on immediately and have been showing off my mothers piece to everyone here at work. Lots of oooh's and ahh's. I am pretty proud of her volunteer work and her hobby that keeps her busy in the big city. Here is her eBay store.

On another note, I was asked recently if I ever found my phone, the answer to that is yes. My friend Micki showed up at the dealership the day after I bought the new one and explained that she had not checked her email and didn't know that I was looking for it yet. She happened to need something out the of glove box of her car and when she opened the door, there it sat. So I have the sliver shit back. She is pretty scratched up (I have dropped her to many times) but she works great and has every number that I have ever needed stored. So I am happy to have gotten her back. The other thing I am happy about is the Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo that I bought at Purlescence. It is great yarn! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It is springy and shows great stitch definition. I made a swatch of stockinette and rib together and have carried it around in my purse for about 2 weeks to see how it would hold up (a suggestion from Janet, she is quite a great help to me, I *heart* her.) I am soooo excited to knit this yarn. I am going to make a t-shirt or vest or tank sort of thing. I have some patterns that I have in mind, but please if you have any recommendations, now is the time to speak or forever hold your peace, ( that is a phrase that you don't hear that often. I know of one occasion that I should have heard it!)

Late Eye Candy Prize

I was the lucky commenter, I mean tenacious commenter on Janet's blog, Twisted Knitter. I received my lovely prize of Noro Kureyon 148, enough to make a Booga Bag. I would have had this posted in my blog already but my battery ran low on my camera and I couldn't find the power cable to download this photo. Story of my life, I lose everything. I think I might have left the power cable at my grandmothers. G'ma if you have it, let me know before I run out and buy a replacement. But I am excited about this yarn, I am not sure if I am going to do the Booga Bag or use it for something else. I have been eyeing the Lizard Ridge Throw which uses Kureyon too. So we will have to see. But I wanted to thank Janet for having such a fun contest on her blog.

Fat Fingered, Not Stupid!

It was gently told to me this afternoon that the reason no one could find my blog was because I had Stitches spelled wrong in the URL. This of course brought back horrible memories of me spelling Caesars wrong on very important (at the time) invitations that went out in the mail. I know how to spell "stitches" I ARE NOT DUMB :) I just typed to fast and didn't notice the error. So this is everyones fair warning, update your bookmarks, your Bloglines, your Blogs, or whatever. I am will be making the change in the URL and your link will most likely not work after that. I am not sure what will happen to te content prior to the change, but I will figure something out.

So the URL will now be http://twistedstitches71.blogspot.com/index.html

St. Patricks Day and Birthdays (Photo Heavy)

Yesterday I went to Selma, that is south of Fresno (yes, I am from a farming/hick/okie what ever you want to call it area) for my grandmother and nieces dual birthday celebrations. Mimi turned 85 and Caitlin turned 5. My grandmothers sister made both the cakes. There are 85 candles on the cake and she blew everyone of them out! In a couple of tries of course.
There is my princesses cake.
She had the blowing of the candles out a bit easier, only 5.
And finally she got her turtle neck shrug and tam I knitted for her. He real birthday was in Feb. And as you can see she will more than likely not be able to wear this until next winter, notice the mini skirt and sandals? I knew I should have sent them back in Feb!!! Oh well, she liked it, she said that she felt like an artist wearing her beret. I made the sleeves to long, but that was fine, we just made cuffs and the hat fits a bit funny in the photo but I am going to say it was because she had pigtail braids on her head, yeah, that is it! We really rushed to get this photo taken because it was 80 degrees yesterday and I didn't take the time to get everything looking right, poor baby was about to sweat.
Both my niece and nephew love to come to Mimi's house, they have great food, lots of attention, games and puzzles....

But when they hear the words, "Its time to go" this is what you find...

Josiah hates to leave, he is trying to be stealthy. My day started at 6:30am and I didn't get home until 11:30pm. 6 hours in the car too. But it was worth it, I got to see some family and have good food and play with my niece and nephew.

Mimi's Birthday

Knitting content as promised. Sunday is my grandma's birthday, we call her Mimi and she will be 85! This past Christmas I made her the Fiber Trends Felted Clogs and for her birthday I made her this felted purse, the Sophie Bag from Magknits. She expressed an interest in the bag that I made my sister-in-law for Christmas so I thought it was a good idea. I cast on for this project Monday March 12th, yes, I know I was cutting it WAY short and I felted it this morning, Friday March 16th. I was hoping to get it finished last night while I was at Boba Knit (love Boba Knits!) but it was not to be, I was up until 1am. I used 2 and a half skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky in Roasted Coffee. I started to follow the pattern then I thought I was going to run out of yarn so I altered it in an attempt to only use the 2 skeins that I already had but that failed and I had to get another skein so I ended up winging the rest of the pattern. This is starting to be a habit with me, I have yet to tell you about the red mohair capelet project that I have now renamed, "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Pattern" Capelet. But back to the bag, I got the inspiration to knit the bag from Janet, she inspires me often. I have felted bags before and every time I try to do something a bit different, have a new technique or feature on the bag. This time I decided that I would put a magnet closure on the bag. It was a bit hard to figure out how I was going to do it but the great girls at Purlescense helped me out with the closure details. I will have better details about the bag on my FO page later. Here are the photos, I need to get better at taking pictures, bear with me!




Mimi's purse at the dojo!

Rant #2

Yes, this is a knitting blog and yes I will have some more knitting photos and content later today (Mimi's purse knit and felted.)  But I am more than disturbed by an event that happened at work today.  In  previous blog I wrote that I felt it was a shame that someone in a position of power could act on personal feelings and exercise their power against you.  Well today it was all confirmed.  There was an exchange of words between two other employees in a semi-joking manner, however the exchanged ended in the words F-&^ OFF (the full version of the word, not edited!)  Now, parallel that with what I said to another employee, "It is 5pm and DHL is waiting for me,"  my words were deemed "Rude and Abusive" and I was formally disciplined in writing. It was stated that it was my tone not my words, excuse my French, Bullshit!  For the record the person who used the F Bomb, I love her we are friends and I in no way am bitter towards her, I know she did not say it with malice, nor did I say my words with malice. This just proves to me that some people can't handle positions of power and that in this office you apparently can tell someone to F OFF as long as you do it with a smile :)  I feel better now, back to work.

What Color Red are you?

When I saw Twisted Knitters blog, I couldn't help myself. Red is my color!

You Are Apple Red

You're never one to take life too seriously, and because of it, you're a ton of fun.And although you have a great sense of humor, you are never superficial.Deep and caring, you do like to get to the core of people - to understand them well.However, any probing you do is light hearted and fun, sometimes causing people to misjudge you.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorredareyouquiz/">What Color Red Are You?

Dispatch: Be on the look out for a late model silver LG

OK everyone, STOP. Have you seen my phone? My cell phone? It is little, silver LG phone with a circular mirror on the front. I am lost with out it, I need it back. I don't know where it is, I had it before lunch. My friend Micki came by and picked me up for lunch, we had a nice chat and she even brought me chocolate. But I did not use during lunch and this afternoon I reached for it to get a number out of the address book and poof, it has disappeared. The very last time I remembered having it was on my desk, I called a co-worker who has the day off and then placed it next to my keyboard when I was done. My mom has always offered the explanation that maybe my personal items grow legs and walk off, but I have been good to that phone, I am always careful as to where I place him. Now if Sensei said he lost his phone, there would be no big surprise there. I know the logical thing to do is call my friend Micki and see if it dropped in her car, but her number is IN THE PHONE!! I have called the restaurant, not there. I strongly believe that someone has the phone because I NEVER turn my phone off, it had a full charge and now when I call it, it goes directly into voice mail, someone has turned it off. It is just not my day today. So, if you call me and I don't get back to you soon, then you will know why!

Cry Wolf

As most of you all know, men can be whinny babies when they get sick, mine is no exception. I was at Boba Knit having a nice time seeing some familiar faces and meeting new one when the phone rang and it was him telling me that he was not feeling good and that we are not meeting up at the golf course after knitting. He asked when I was coming home and I assumed that he was just wanting an audience for his whining, but I found out different. I was not home no more than 20 minutes and he was running to the bathroom and he prayed to the porcelain god. This time he was not crying wolf, he is actually sick. So my evening has been trying to make him comfortable and disinfecting the house so that I will not get sick. Needless to say, he is on the couch tonight. Which should leave a little bit of time to work on my first sock. I casted on earlier today and have only done the ribbing on the cuff. I had the beginnings of my sock at Boba Knits but was intimated to bring it out with Cookie present, I am in just a bit of awe of her and her patterns and I didn't want to embarrass myself. I am sure that I will be signing up for Nathanias sock class at Purlescence before it is all said and done.

I am using my new Knit Picks circulars because I hate dpns and I am knitting some sock yarn, 100% Merino wool, hand painted in reds, slivery grey and black. I picked it because of the reds, I love red if you have not all ready figured that out and did I mention that I hate dpns? At this point I don't even remember where I got this yarn. But I am excited to do this even though I may fall flat on my face.

Comedy and Tragedy

The tragedy of today was that I had to frog 2 tiers of my Lady Eleanor. I originally had to only frog one, but I apparently lost my head and did not pick up the live stitches on the other end and had to go down 2 tiers. In the process of frogging, the yarn kept knotting and then breaking. I ended up wasting about 1/4 of the ball of Noro Silk Garden. I am almost back to where I started frogging.

The comedy of today was catching up on the blogs that I read and came across this YouTube link. For the record, my grandmother and great grandmother are crocheters and I love everything they produce, but this is funny. Again, grandma, I know you read my bog , this is only a joke. The video is kind of long, but worth it. Click here.

Not a Millionaire this time

I am writing this blog entry from work, so what does that mean?  I did not win the Mega Millions lottery last night.  Because if I had, well I would not be blogging from work, I would have been blogging from a luxury suit that a one night stay would be equivalent to a months worth of income.  Then there would be some people in the world that would find out just how much I either like or dislike them because I would have the money to back it up.  I don't think that I would change all that much if I won the lottery.  I know that I would make right everything that I have ever done that was wrong if at all possible.  Like I would go back and pay for the lipstick that I stole when I was 14 from the local drug store.  I did it to see if I could get away with it on a dare.  That was the bad thing about me back in those days, don't dare me to do something, I would have killed myself to prove you wrong.  I once attempted to drink the whole bottle of Bacardi 151 (flask size, a pint or more maybe?) on Pismo Beach because I was told that I couldn't do it.  Well, I came darn close. Bacardi 151 is highly flammable and we were all sitting around a campfire....but that is a whole other blog entry into itself.  It would have to be titled, Why you should not drink! I have grown up a lot since then.  Back to the money, I would definitely pay for my niece and nephews college education, make my grandmothers comfortable, send my mom on a trip of a life time, I am not sure what I would do for my brothers and their families but I am sure that they would think of something.  I couldn't forget my best friends, Gina and Irene either.  Then my next move would be to talk to Warren Buffet and get financial advice so can keep most of my winnings!  It is nice to have a dream/plan...

 

About knitting, I am beginning to be a bit selfish about my projects, finally.  I am working on my 1st sweater for myself, still.  The Refined Raglan from InterweaveKnits Winter 2006.  I am into the waist shaping part.  I am 1/3 the way through the Lady Eleanor, I would like to have them both knitted by Easter, I am going to Las Vegas and it would be nice to have for the trip.  And I am currently working on a mohair lace caplet with yarn that my Secret Pal 9 gave me.  I will finish it tonight at the Santa Clara Knitting MeetUp.com and wear it tomorrow hopefully, that is the plan at least.  I will have pictures the next post.  I know, I hate blog entries without photos, next time!

 

No focus

I am trying to gain focus in my life, all aspects, not just knitting and I am having a very hard time. I have a list of things to do, it is a long list and one in which has tasks on them that are very time sensitive which could mean trouble for me if not completed. If you don't already know this about me, here I am confessing to the world that "I am a procrastinator!" I will procrastinate EVERYTHING, even knitting (my passion in life.) The procrastinating has gotten out of hand. Partly due to the fact that I have never suffered sever consequences due to my "putting if off to later" act. Not that I am asking to get slapped with a hurtful repercussion to what some would call laziness. I don't believe it to be laziness at all. I think I am having a sever lack of focus and or concentration that has been lasting for about 7 years at least from what I can remember.

My knitting projects are a good analogy of the lack of focus. I have no less than 12 WIP's (works in process) that I have going. I know that is not a lot to some and to others they may think I am insane. To me, 12 is a lot! I believe in having more than one project going at a time but this is seriously ridiculous for me, only me. One of the twelve was supposed to be a Christmas gift, has anyone noticed what month we are in? I could list the twelve projects but that would only create more of a lack of focus. And to add to the problem I keep seeing new yarns to buy that I could knit for myself to wear when the weather is warmer. I know, cry me a river, start the violins.

However I did not have any lack of focus when it came to watching a movie this weekend. Saturday night Sensei and I went to see Zodiac. I thought it was great. I love non-fiction movies. I am sure that they took some creative license, but it did stated they used actual case files. What was odd for me was I used to live in Vallejo and had been several times to the park off Columbus Parkway that he killed the young couple. Now I was not even a glimmer in my dads eye when that took place, but still it was weird to me. The movie was filmed well, the costumes and music was time appropriate. There are some very thrilling moments but not a lot of gore. Not to mention, it has a very big cast of stars. Go see it if you like non-fiction movies.