Purl?

Tomorrow is my brother Kelly's birthday and as usual Lisa style I am late with everything and his present is no exception. I started this hat Monday night and I have finished it today on my lunch hour. So I am going to rush to the post office directly after work to get it post marked today and he will have to just get it one day late! See my FO page for the details.

And as you can see, the newest addition to the knitting crew, my laptop. I think I will have to name it, we have already bonded. It has a pearl color to it, maybe I should just call it Purl?!?!

In other knitting news, I have finally casted on for my Lady Eleanor Stole. Here are a couple of progress shots. I am into my 3rd ball of Noro Silk Garden now.

Karma

Apparently we have been nice to someone in this lifetime because we have had the good fortune of coming into a brand new laptop. This thing is amazing!! I have never owned a laptop, I have used them, but never had the fortune to own it. I must say that this is very exiting for me, I feel so Carrie Bradshaw sitting here in the coffee shop and blogging right now to you all. I know that having this laptop will change my life in many ways, hopefully it will be for the good and I won't want to throw it across the room at a moments notice. I will say that I am a bit concerned of the stability of the portable computer after reading so many of the Yarn Harlots issues with her laptop. But I am going to keep my fingers crossed and baby this electronic life changer and hope for the best!! I will be posting photos very soon, I know I have been saying that for a bit, but now that I have this electronic jewel, it will be easier for me to blog and post photos, yea!!!!

Unfinished things

I got an email today from a co-worker, she forwarded me a joke of sorts that just struck me funny. So I  thought that I would share it with you.

 

Dr. Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace
is to finish all the things you've started and never
finished."

    So, I looked around my house to see all the things
I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the
house this morning, I finished off a Bottle of Merlot,
a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Booker's
bourbon, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the
remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of
the cheesecake, some Doritos and a box of Godiva

Chocolates.

    You have no idea how friggin' good I feel.

    Please pass this on to those you feel might be in
need of inner peace.

 

I am feeling like I need some inner peace right now, maybe I should look for some unfinished things in my house.  Oh wait, I know what is unfinished, Ursula, the yellow baby blanket.  And I supposedly have only 3 days left to finish her.  I just want you to know that I am officially off the hook on having the blanket done on time.  I was approached by a manager here at my place of work and was asked to work in another department this Saturday for 10 hours of OT.  I am already an idiot for trying to complete that blanket in such a short time, I would have been a certifiable idiot if I passed up 10 hours of OT!!  So I will not be attending the baby shower this Saturday and I will be at peace with finishing the blanket gradually but prior to the birth.  Can someone give me an Om mani padme hum or Amen, which ever you prefer?

 

Speaking of finishing what you have started; this month I have decided that I was going to start and finish the Monthly Dish Cloth patterns that I get from the group that I belong to.  I have been a member for about 4 months, they have 2 patterns a month and have only finished one.  Everyday I get emailed to me 10 lines of the pattern, 10 lines only and I still couldn't complete one.  So this month I am making up for my slacker ways, I casted on for 2 and will have them done at the same time.  In all honesty, 10 rows of knitting on a dishcloth is not that much, so there is no reason that I couldn't get 2 done.

 

On another note, I again have been sucked up into the American Idol craze.  I watched last nights show and I just have to say, some mothers should invoke a little bit of tough love on their kids.  I know we all should support our children in what ever they want to do, but to allow your child to audition for a show that you know full well that they humiliate those without talent is not doing your tone deaf child a favor.  Some of those people really can't understand why there were not chosen, they are a taco short of a combo plate and then prove it to the world when they leave the audition room.  Enough said. 

 

Another Christmas Present

I finallay was able to give my best friend Gina her Clapotis that I knitted. Since we were not able to see eachother during or before Christmas I was able to finish it up after Christmas and I gave it to her This past week. I don't have one of the Clapotis with her wearing it, so the blocking photos will have to do. Maybe I can get her to model it and post that. Well see.

Anyone know a good trained monkey?

In 5 days time, I have knitted only about 6 1/2 inches of what should be about a 30" baby blanket. I am not known for my math skills so much, but a blind deaf monkey could tell you that there is NO WAY that I will have this blanket knitted by Saturday January 20th. I would have to knit at least 6 inches of blanket a day to come even close and I would still be binding off in the car out side the party. I measured my gauge and figured out that there are 8 rows in one inch. There is no light at the end of this tunnel. I just hope that my friend Ursula doesn't stab herself with the knitting needles when she opens this unfinished seed stitch and cabled blanket from no where pleasant. And I am sure you are asking your self, "Why would she knit a yellow blanket?" Well there is a great answer for that, she does not know what she is having and she decided that the bumble bee pattern at the baby store was too cute to pass up, so she is going to have a yellow blanket and I am NEVER knitting ANYTHING yellow again as long as I live. *grin*

Christmas gifts as promised...

Here are only a few of the gifts that I knitted this season for Christmas.
Cody's Brown Skull Cap
Caitlin's Felted Purse
Mom's Irish Hiking Scarf

Ok, I have to get home, I am running late (sounds familiar right?) and I have to get dinner cooked. More to come in the next couple of days!

Happy New Year? Late...

I know, I am late with the Happy New Year exclamation, but I am always late to everything. I wouldn't want to do something on time and have the earth suddenly stop rotating the sun now would I? For example, I was late to work to day, I waltzed in at 10am with a hardy "Good Morning" to everyone, sat down at my desk and started to write my blog. Please, no worries about me completing my duties today, piece of cake! But completing my knitting projects on time, that is another story.

As I had said before I received my yellow yarn for the baby blanket that I need to knit for a girlfriend of mine. Tuesday I casted on to size 7 needles 230 stitches. Yes, 230!! Then after finishing the border I realized that I miscalculated the number of stitches and had to quickly rearrange the pattern to make it work because I certainly was not going to frog the 20 rows that I had just completed, I have a deadline. As Tim Gunn would say on Project Runway, "Make it work!" So I tried. And the more I knitted the blanket the more I was unhappy with it and over lunch I mentioned to my co-worker Colleen (no, not my mom) that I thought my friends baby shower was coming up and that I had to kick it in high gear. No sooner than I said that, she called to get my mailing address and informed me that the shower was January 20th. Now I am in a bind. Do I continue with the blanket as is and not be remotely satisfied with it or do I frog it and start over? You see the problem is that I was making a ribbed/cabled blanket with a seed stitch border and after knitting 20 rows it looked to loose and I am a tight knitter naturally. So I did what some would think as unfathomable, knitters would say, that is life, I FROGGED IT! I just can't gift something that I am not happy with. I have already broke one of my New Year's Resolutions, No knitting deadlines. Today is January 11 and I have as of 11:45am casted on my size 6 needles 220 stitches and have completed 4 rows of knitting. I am hoping to get at least 3 or 4 rows done at lunch and tomorrow I will let you know how late I stay up tonight knitting. Photos of Christmas knitting to come, I promise and progress on the yellow baby blanket that we will call Ursula too.

Santa was good to me

Ok, I guess that I don't know how to blog via email because I wrote this on December 29th, 2006!!

I hope that all of you had a very Merry Christmas, Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or what ever holiday that you celebrate at this time of year. Santa was pretty good to me this year, I was very surprised. There was minimal family drama, oh come on, you can't expect the holiday season to come around and have NO DRAMA (insert Mary J Blige song.) I am writing the family edited edition of this blog entry, hehehehe.
Sensei and I went to my Mimi's house for the Christmas weekend with Mugsy in tow. She is a real dog lover and she enjoys spoiling him to death, so much so that he got a little sick in the middle of the night on the bed. Merry Christmas to me.
Christmas day was spent over at my brothers house with his family. My nephew Cody is now 14, I can't believe it. He is a very talented artist. He plays the guitar and can hear music and repeat it after a few minutes of picking it out on the strings. He was playing chords of a song over and over and I thought that I recognized the tune so I asked him if he was playing "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones and he said yes. I then told him that he was playing it to fast and he informed me that he was playing the cover version from his favorite band. Then he smartly showed me that he new the correct tempo of the song. He couldn't believe that I knew that song, I think I earned "Cool Aunt" points with him. While I was there at the house for Christmas I knitted him a second Skull Cap, London Beanie, Head Hugger, which ever name you prefer, in a superwash wool brown in color. If my music knowledge didn't impress him, I know that knitting him that hat while I was there did. I gave it to him and I got a "COOL" out of him and then he went to skate board.
Tonight Sensei and I are heading to "The Streets of Bakersfield" (I know another song), to visit with my little brother and his family and exchange gifts. I can't wait to see the look on my niece's face when she opens up her present and sees the little felted purple purse that I made her. I think she is going to love it. Besides having Christmas with my little brothers family we are going to play golf with him and my cousin tomorrow morning, 7am!! When am I going to get a day to sleep in?? But this is just another opportunity to beat Sensei at golf again. Now my little brother, no way I can beat him, but Sensei is within my reach still.
Now on to knitting news...
I have attempted to cast on for my Lady Eleanor Stole 3 times!!! Yes, you read that right, 3 times. I have never done entralac and I thought that I was doing something wrong because it looked horrible, the base triangles looked like cornucopias, there was no way that this could have been right. Last night at Social Knitting I describing what a dork I was with the LE and one of the lady's told me that I had it right and it would straighten out after a couple of tiers were knitted. WOW, did I feel even worse. So I am going to have to try it again. But the good news is that the yellow yarn that I wanted to knit a baby blanket for a girlfriend of mine came in yesterday. So this weekend I will be casting on to swatch for the blanket because I am going to use my new book on cables to make the blanket.

Ok, I have rambled on and on and I know that this was not very entertaining, but I am sure that you will get over it soon. Have a safe and Happy New Year!!

Whew that was close...

Yesterday ended up being a good day for me. It was my birthday. Lately I have not been a fan of getting older and yesterday was no exception, however it was an event filled day to say the least. It started with Sensei and I waking up to go to work, not a mention of Happy Birthday from him. I couldn't believe it!! My mother calls to wish me a Happy Birthday and I missed her call. Sensei called to sing Happy Birthday to me and I missed that call too. So I am in the car in front of the house letting it warm up and I listen to my messages. I proceed to call Sensei and we chat as I now drive away from the house. I then try to return my mothers call and she doesn't answer the phone. I am now on the freeway going to work and listening to the radio, Adam Corolla has Hootie and the Blowfish in studio doing an interview, I love Hootie and the Blowfish. I am zipping along enjoying the radio show and look down to notice that I was going about 80 mph. I am in a 65 mph zone, I said to myself, I need to slow down, I would hate to get a ticket on my birthday! Then 2 things happen at the same time, I look in my back mirror and notice a shiny black and white CHP car 2 cars behind me, but still in FULL view of my speeding Honda Accord and my mother is now ringing my cell phone. I drop speed immediately and pick up the phone. I inform her that I believe that I have narrowly escaped getting a speeding ticket just now and that if I had gotten pulled over that there was no way that I would get a ticket IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. Besides I could talk my way out of it right? So we go on chatting for just another minute and the CHP has now made a move on me, he is right behind me. I signal over, I am thinking that he has some where to go, some bad people to bust. But sadly, he then pulls even with me and looks right at me grabs his seat belt pulls it forward and mouths something along the lines of "did you forget your seat belt?" but it was with a bit of irritation. I then gave him the academy award winning dumb struck look, smiled sweetly and put my seat belt on. I will not be getting the Oscar, he pulled behind me and lit up the lights and pulled me over, on MY BIRTHDAY!!! He gets out of the car and I roll down the window and the conversation went like this:

Officer: You know I pulled you over because you were not wearing your seat belt.

Me: Yes, I know, I am sorry but it is MY BIRTHDAY and I was on the phone with my mom and she was wishing me a Happy Birthday.

Officer: Well that is no excuse and besides you were not on the phone with your mother the entire time. (this is when I figured out that he caught me speeding and was pacing me to give me the ticket, he had been watching me but I slowed down.)

Me: Your right but I had been getting calls since I got in the car and it just slipped my mind.

Officer: I need to see your license and registration.

So I pulled out my registration and got my wallet out. Now my wallet has the trump card if my birthday will not get me off. So I slid my license out and exposed what was hiding behind my license. I would love to say, but since this is a public forum, I should really not expose the exact contents of what is behind my license so that I may protect the innocent. I then prop the wallet open on top of my knitting bag in full view of the officer so that he may glance at it. He did. This is how the event ended...

Officer: Is that your husband or your father?

Me: No that is my brother, he is a Sergent Detective in _______________________.

Officer: Where is that?

Me: It is south east of Fresno.

Officer: Ok, well you really need to be wearing your seat belt at all times.

Me: I understand and I usually do:

Officer: Tell your brother that the CHP rocks! (no lie, he really said that.)

Me: I will, thank you very much.

Officer: Drive safe.

Yes, I didn't get the ticket. Whew!! I called my brother and thanked him for my birthday gift, he said he didn't get me anything and I said thank you for being a police officer, that was gift enough for me!

When I arrived at work this is what I saw...

I got the book of cables that I really really wanted. Thanks Holly!! And a tray of sugar cookies and teas from Jackie, they were yummy too.

After work I went to my favorite yarn store, Purlescense to get some more knitting done before I was off to dinner with Sensei. When I came in Chloe came over and handed me a large envelope that had a gift certificate from Sensei. What a surprise. It was fantastic that he thought to do that, support my yarn addiction, hehehehehe. So Chloe and Nathania are going to be on the look our for the perfect red yarn to make me my first sweater.

Also, I have posted the photos of the Red Felted Tote on my Finished Objects page. I must update that too, because I have many more finished objects that that.

Also, here is the photo of the great things that I have received from my Secret pal in Illinois.

She really has gotten to know me and has really read my blog and it is evident by they things that she has given me, my love of cables and purses, she got me a cabled purse pattern with all the tools need to make it, it was great!

A flower a day...

Will keep the frown away :)

Here is the orchid of the day, that is right, no knitting pictures just yet. I thought that I would go with a classic looking orchid this time.

More of Gma's 80th B-day...

As promised, the lady in the middle is my 80 year young grandmother Jalaine with her two older sisters, Wilma on the left and Beth on the right. My grandmother is the baby of six kids. She had a great time as you can see.

And this is the Clapotis that I knitted and presented to her for her birthday. It is obviously blocking in this photo. But the funny part about the blocking process is that I had to get a box and pins from my grandmother in order to block it at my other grandmothers house because she didn't have any thing I could use. So the Clapotis spent the week blocking in my Mimi's spare room until I could get back down there to gift wrap the wrap. Since I did not have the Clapotis to wrap, I had to find something clever to use to wrap it in that would take only a couple of minutes, see the wine box with the hot pink and purple wavy stripes on the right of her? Clever huh? And to the left of her is the largest wicker basket ever and it is full of yarn for her to crochet her heart out that my mom and uncle gave her. So I have gone full circle with the Clapotis from cast on to birthday gift.










My humble contribution to the party was the table decorations. I decided to make orchid arrangements (surprise surprise?!) with curly willow branches. The photo does not show the curly willow that well, but trust me its there. However it is also an interesting photo of my great aunt Wilma and my 2 year old nephew Josiah. I put rocks and fake water in the skinny vases, I had a really good time making them, 12 of them in all. From the photo here you can see that she thought they were real and had real water in them. Grandma passed them out to her guests when the party was over. She was so happy with them that she wants to make some other arrangements similar to these. So I promised that I would come down after the Holidays and we would go to Michaels and purchase everything and spend the day making silk arrangements.

Desktop Photo

Isn't this a fantastic looking orchid specimen? I loved it so much that it is my new computer desktop background photo.

Monthly Dishcloth KAL

I absolutly forgot to mention that I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL. I am so excited. We started a new dishcloth this past Friday, December 1st and I got my first 10 rows done that day. But since I had to travel over the weekend and help with my G'mas 80th b-day party I have not gotten a chance to get day 2, 3 or 4 knitted yet. So I am way behind. I have a feeling I will be caught up by this evening. I plan on getting a few rows done at lunch. Wow, it is lunch time now, got to go knit!

Spelling lesson

Since I can't post any photos of my completed knitting because they are Christmas gifts for some people that read this blog, I thought that I would share my love of Orchids. Here is your Orchid for the day, maybe I will make this a routine in my blog. And yes Mom, your gift is finally finished! I finished it last night while watching TV. And when I have not torchered myself enough, I started my best friend Irene's gift this morning. And later today I am going to be casting on for my boyfriends knitted cap that he requested. Seems that his head gets cold when he goes out to golf in the morning. So I have a brown colored yarn to match his brown golf shoes.

Family news, my maternal grandmother turned 80 this past Saturday. We had a very nice party for her with lots of friends and family in attendance. I think I have mentioned that she crochets, well my mother and her brother bought my g'ma (grandmother) the largest wicker laundry basket that Michaels sells and FILLED it with yarn. I mean lots of yarn. From what I heard, I didn't count them, there were about 58 skiens of yarn. So we all have put in orders for aphgans. Get to hooking g'ma! (OH, I don't think that sounded right, hehehehe) I will down load the photos of my very young 80 year old g'ma for you all to see. I would hope that I look just half as good as she does when I turn 80!

Some of you know this but for the others of you that don't, I was a cheerleader for about 10 years in my younger days, much younger days. And I have a little cheer for you all that I did on Saturday. Here goes...

U-C-L-A (insert pumping fist in the air) RAH RAH RAH !!!

I am sooooo happy that USC lost on Saturday. It was fantastic!!! And if you know me or have ever read part of my blog, you know that I am a HUGE Notre Dame Fighting Irish fan. So ANYONE that beats USC I am a fan of. But I do have a warm spot in my heart for UCLA anyway, my father was a UCLA fan. Which leads me to a story (totally unintentional) unrelated to college football, but it is sort of funny and shows what a real dork that I am.

I am not sure what year this took place but I was not very old, could speak well and had learned to spell some very simple words. So my dad gets tickets to the UCLA basketball game and we go to his mothers house in Panorama City for the weekend. I, being a daddy's girl and wanted to do EVERYTHING that he did, I begged him to take me. He obviously could not because he didn't have an extra ticket and UCLA basketball games were selling out during that period of time. But my dad always liked to play a joke on you and have a little laugh, so he tells me, "If you can spell UCLA, I will let you go to the game." He asked this because he knew I would fail. But I gave it my best... "Y-O-U, S-E-E," then I was stuck, and with my best puckered lip and wattery eyes, I said, "Daddy, how do you spell L?" He laughed and hugged me and said that he would see me after the game. When he got back, he gave me a UCLA key chain showing me how it is really spelled or I guess not spelled. I don't have the keychain anymore, but I still remember that night.

Why do we care?

With the condition that the world is in these days, I don't understand why Britney Spears and Paris Hilton now being "Best Friends" is such breaking news. I understand that we sometimes need a break from tense and emotional situations and a bit of entertainment is in order. Go see Casino Royale, quit caring about Britney Spears, Ooops I Did It Again!

Now on to knitting news....
I can't seem to get my moms Christmas gift quite finished. I need some uninterrupted knitting time to finish it off. And then I can concentrate on the other million knitting projects that have to be done by December 23rd and I have to still block these things too. I have to finish my best friends gift, I have not picked that up in about 3 weeks. But I am finding myself searching out cable patterns now; I think I am hooked on cables now. Anything that has cables catches my eye. I was at the grocery store last night getting a couple of things for dinner and while at the check stand I see this small booklet of knitting patterns for babies. I was intrigued so I picked it up and thumbed through it and pass by a little cabled cardigan, so of course I bought the booklet, it had cables in it!

Turkey Lurkey, Cables Schmables

It is very strange, I had written a couple of entries to my blog, saved them as drafts to add the photos to them and then publish and lost all the stuff that I wrote. So I am pretty bummed because some of what I had to say was pretty witty. So here is what happened since the weekend before Thanksgiving weekend:
Saturday 11/18: Played poker with the girls from work, I did well, but I am not sure that I will be accepted into the WPT. Found my FAVORITE wine of all time, EOS Petite Sryah, bought 2 bottles-drank one at poker night.
Sunday 11/19: Played a 9 hole round of golf with Sensei. *Snicker* I won. He was not that happy. Especially since I had not even picked up my clubs in about 9 months.
Monday 11/20: I recieved my first Secret Pal 9 gift. Very cute and very true handmade sign, "Will Work For Yarn" Photos will have to be posted later, (you will find out why in just a minute.)
Tuesday night 11/21: Went to Target to get a couple of things for my road trip to Selma for Thanksgiving. Went to Michaels to get some yarn to start my moms Christmas gift, I will be knitting it at Thanksgiving since she will not be in attendance this year. Laundry, must have clean clothes when going to grandma's.
Wednesday 11/22: Go to work at 7:30am, get out early, leave at 10:00am. I came to work packed, but forgot to take my grandmothers birthday gift to block at my other grandmothers house, so I had to go back home to get it. Yes, my mothers mom and my fathers mom live across the street, it is great for when we visit them. Sat on grandmas couch and knitted while she sat in her chair and crocheted. Later that evening, my brother and his family arrive at my other grandmothers and we all visit. My niece came and slept with me, we had a little pajama party.
Thurday 11/23 Thanksgiving Day: Got up, helped make dinner, set the table etc. We all gathered and ate a wonderful meal. We played with the kids and I found out that my nephew is a Lighting McQueen groupie! He has seen the movie Cars about a 100 times. He can recite scenes from the movie and he is 2. So we heard "Kachow" and "Mater" all evening, it was very cute. I also had to capture on video him saying Piston Cup, because the way he pronounces it is hilarious. I will have video later, (again, you will know why in a minute.) My brother and his family drive home that night and I take my grandmother to my uncles house to visit. We watch Survivor and then went home.
Friday 11/24: I sat on the couch in my pajamas drinking jasmine tea and knitting until 3pm in the afternoon, it was a GREAT day! I got the majority of my mothers Christmas gift knitted. Then I went to visit my other grandmother for a bit, she fed me and then I went back to the other grandma's.
Saturday 11/25: It is the big day, the big game, I have to get home to see it. I wake up, call my friend Irene who I was to see the night before and didn't work out. I pack up all my stuff, at least I thought I did and went to Irene's because it is on my way home. I was at Irene's for about 20 minutes and my phone rang, it is grandma informing me that I left my digital camera behind. Torn between going back to pick it up and just leaving it until next weekend (I will be returing for her 80th birthday party) I decided that I should not be needing it this week and I can wait. It is Monday today and I have found 5 things that I need to take photos of, Murphy's Law I guess. That is why I have no photos of my Secret Pal gift, not photos of my darling niece and nephew over Thanksgiving, they are trapped on the camera in Selma, CA. So, now back to Saturday, I leave Irene’s house at 11:30am and I am headed north. I arrive in San Jose about 3:00pm, not much traffic at all, thank god! And I get home, Sensei is not there, but I see that he has made an effort to pick up the house, a SMALL effort, but when he got home, I ooh’d and ahhh’d over his “efforts.”
5:00 comes around and it is the kick off to the BIG GAME, Notre Dame vs. USC. Suffice it to say, I am in mourning right now. My Irish lost. It was not an easy loss to take either, Sensei is a USC fan. All I can say is, we have next year.

Sunday is my Stitch n Bitch gathering but before I went to that I had some window shopping to do. I went to Purlescense and then to Commuknity, I knitted awhile at Commuknity and then went to Stitch n Bitch. It was a nice day and it was nice to see some new faces at the SnB this time around.

And now we arrive to today, Monday. When I got to work, it felt odd, I had not been here for 4 and a half days. But work did not disappoint, the phone started ringing off the hook and the papers piled up, it definitely is Monday.

The knitting that I have been doing is all Christmas stuff so I can’t say much about it in detail and no pictures yet, that would ruin the surprise. But I must say, I finally tackled cables. I was so afraid to do them and now that just seems silly. Awhile back, Emy told me that all you did was knit the stitches out of order and when she showed me what she meant, it looked pretty ok. So I started something that has cables, for the knitters out there, IHS, and WOW. How really silly I was to think that it was to hard. So what do I say now? Cables Schmables!!

I will have photos and video posted later, promise.

More Christmas Gifts Completed

As you know, I have been knitting fast and furiously these past days to make up time that I had been unable to knit while sick. I thought that I had planned out all the things to knit for Christmas, but foolish me decided to just "see really how long it takes to knit a small tote/hand bag and felt." Well, surprisingly enough, not long! I have to admit, I think that I just might have found a new knitting obsession, the wonderful world of felting. Now my Christmas knitting project list has been revamped and reorganized.

Shame on me for not getting the before photo of my very first felted bag, but I did get the semi-completed bag (I just have to finish sewing in my handles, please ignore the quite large and shiny safety pins holding them in place.)

So after I felted that bag, I knew that I needed to get some "other" knitting completed, like Gina's gift. So I picked it up and looked at it and said, "this yarn is feltable and I have 3 more balls of it right now." (insert evil grin and laugh) So I drop that project, pick up the unused balls and casted on for a different bag, and the starting gun went off. I was determined to get the bag knitted and felted in a single night. When it got to be 9pm I was getting a bit tired and worried that I was not going to make it. But as you can see from my "before felting" photos here, I finished.

On this one, I used Patons SWS in Natural Earth. And as you can see below here, it felts very nicely.

I have now bought handles to go on the striped bag, I just have to sew them on and I will be sitting pretty OK for Christmas gifts. So if you are a woman and in my family, don't be surprised to see one of these come December.

Now, let me see what else I can felt...

Etc, Etc, Etc...

I am really not sure why this did not post on Monday Nov. 13th when I originally wrote it! But here it is now...

The King and I was FANTASTIC!! My best friend Gina for my birthday/Christmas took me to see The King and I on Saturday. We were a bit late due to the Veteran's parade down town, they had streets blocked off and what streets that were not blocked off were like parking lots! But I finally got parked and then scurried over to the theater as fast as I could in heels. The show started without us, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't wait for me, but then again, who am I really in the grand scheme of things. The only part that we missed was her arrival on the boat to Siam. And when I say "her", Anna was played by Debbie Boone and she was really much better than I had anticipated. The King of Siam was played brilliantly by Francis Jue. He is no Yul Brenner, but I will say that he took command of the role was very very good. All the singing was beautiful.

That was Saturday. Sunday I spent most of the day working on knitting Christmas gifts for friends and family. I am seriously running out of time. And Mugsy is not understanding that yarn and items that I am knitting are NOT play toys for him. I caught him with a ball of yarn in his mouth sneaking off to destroy it in the other room. Lets just say he sees it my way now.

I have to say a big SORRY to my secret pal for buying myself something that she had bought to give to me. My family can relate to that, I do it every holiday time to them. It is just a good thing that I blogged about it so you knew ahead of time! (You see me looking for the silver lining, right?)

And lastly, the only thing I have to say about K-Fed and Brittany is, DUH? I lost my $10 bet, I said that it wouldn't last a year and a half. It is a good thing that she has a stong mother and good handlers, she is really to stupid to be in control of all that money!

Knit ya later!

FRIDAY!!!

Sorry for the long absence from the blog but it was beyond my control! I am still feeling really tired and worn out. By body had to battle a really bad virus and I think it is finally victorious. My dog Mugsy is a little bummed that mom is not home for the entire day. He got a little to used to laying with me on the couch and watching the Peoples Court and Oprah!

I am happy to report that I have gotten the first of my Secret Pal packages in the mail to my Secret Pal in Massachusetts. I went to one of the many yarn stores here in my area of the South Bay Area, Purlescense. They were very helpful in my choosing some yarn for her. She likes bulky yarns and blue was one of her favorite colors so I chose Malabrigo in a vibrant blue sapphire color. And while I was there I saw that they had the 2007 Stitch n' Bitch Daily Desk Calender so I had to have it! Since I got such a late start on send my Secret Pal stuff off, I am going to have to get the second one off pretty soon, it has a long way to travel.

My knitting progress has been sort of slow. I seem to think that I can get 10 things knitted by Christmas, then I wake up from my dream and realize that I have now only 43 days left before time runs out! I seem to start other projects before I have finished the other three I have going! I am still at a loss as to what to knit for my brothers and one of my nephews. None of them live in cold climates, so I will have to come up with something. The more I am writing this and thinking at the same time which is rather challenging lately, I am NEVER going to get something knitted for everyone! I would have to knit 10 hours straight every day to maybe come close. Oh yeah, I will be at the mall on December 23rd frantically looking for gifts! I thought knitting was supposed to be relaxing, who ever said that didn't mean it for the holidays.

I really wanted to get my Lady Eleanor Stole knitted for myself for Christmas to wear when I go see the family, something to show off you know. Well, there is always next year! Oh and tomorrow, I am going to see the King and I, I am so excited. My best friend Gina ( Hey G ) is taking me for my Birthday/Christmas present. Yes, I am one of the many whos birthday and Christmas almost cross paths. But I can't wait to see the big dance scene with the King swinging Anna around the dance floor. I will give you all details later.

Secret Pal Card

Thank you to my Secret Pal for the card. It was a nice little pick me up after being in the hospital. The chocolate coin was sweet! I am gaining strength everyday but not as fast as I need. This recovery is pretty rough. But I have been told that I am fairly resilient and what does not kill you only makes you stronger. After this, I should be able to take on Mike Tyson!

Almost back to normal...

I know that it is unusual to not hear from me for a few days but this time I had a REALLY good reason. Monday October 16th, I went home from work with the worst head ache that I have EVER had in my life. I took a ton of Tylenol, then I went on to prescription Ibuprofen and then followed all that up with Darvocet. By the time Tuesday evening came around and the pain was worse, I knew that something was wrong. So off to the O'Connor ER I went. A little morphine, CT scan and spinal tap later I was admitted with Meningitis. They were not sure whether it was bacterial or viral so they immediately masked everyone that came in contact with me and found me a private room to be with my infected germs. But cutting to the chase, they found that it was Viral and not bacterial which if you were to have a choice, viral is the better option. Bacterial can kill you apparently and now I understood the need for my caregivers layers of protection. I will say this, I have NEVER felt such misery in my life as the pressure and pain in my head continued with what seemed like no end in sight. Even know, I am not feeling 100% but I am feeling better. I was discharged from the hospital Sunday afternoon October 23rd with a prescription of Vicodin. Getting the perscription filled is a whole other story and if I try to tell it now, the pain in my head will get worse. But Vicodin for most is a fairly strong pain reliever, it is a narcotic. I think my body was having a little giggle when I started taking that because all along in the hospital I was given Dilaudid, which I was told that is 10x's stronger that Morphine. But I am doing better, getting stronger every day. I am shooting for going back to work on Wednesday (tomorrow.) But I know that I have to get in touch with my Secret Pal so that she doesn't think that I have fallen off the face of the earth for good, I was just gone for a week. But I have to day, I got out of the hospital in time to make my Stitch n' Bitch meeting and I told my boyfriend, "Look I could still make it SNB" Of course he though I was nuts. I was really kidding with him, but I did miss seeing everyone. So, I will be checking in with you all in a couple of days.

Knit ya later...

Yarn Shopping

Today was the Grand Opening of Purlescense in Sunnyvale. There was a very big crowd, I got there just about 20 minutes after they opened and there was hardly enough walking room. And at the rate that they were selling yarn and the amount of people, it looked like they were going to run out of yarn, and that is not really a bad thing! The store is beautiful, they have done a great job. So my contribution to the new store was the purchase of Scarf Style and 2 skeins of navy blue and 2 skeins of gold yarn. I was needing the Scarf Style book for the Lady Eleanor Stole that I have Noro yarn sitting and waiting to be knit. And well the navy and gold yarn is for my Notre Dame scarf that I am going to knit. It was a small contribution, but it is important to support your yarn store.

I am so close to finishing my Clapotis that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just one more increase and I will be down to my decreases. I need to hurry up and finish it because I have to start my grandmothers birthday gift soon if I want to get it to her on time. I will be getting lots of knitting done tomorrow, I have a karate tournament to be at for our school SJJKC and they are fairly long. I will have plenty of time between our students events to hopefully walk out of there with a completed Claoptis! I will have to let you know what happens.

Bicycle Riders

At one time I used to live in San Francisco and the amount of bicycle riders was huge. If you lived in the city and you drove a car, you had to learn to get along. And for the most part, the bike riders obeyed traffic laws. Well this morning here in San Jose, I found an idiot bike rider. I am at a stop light at the intersection of Market and San Fernando and I had a red light, a bike rider comes up along me and just cycles into the intersection! Oh, but did I mention that he bumped into my car before riding into the intersection against the red light? So I was a bit annoyed with this guy and he has cycled on ahead. But I end up catching up to the guy once the light turned green because a delivery truck was double parked and he darts out into my lane without looking and I had to slam on my breaks so I didn't hit him. And no, he had no mirrors on the bike either and again, he goes on and I end up at a red light. Once it turns green I move forward and I start to approach another delivery van (its downtown, what do you expect?) and just past the van half way into MY lane is the idiot OFF his bike leaning over with his back against traffic picking up his backpack, he is now certifiable an idiot. The manufacturer of my car gave me horn and I used it! He then has the nerve to look at me like I was crazy! And that is how my day started. I hope everyone elses' day was not as annoying.

On another note, I think I have found some great yarn for my Secret Pal. I still have to get a few other things too.

Runway & Survivor

I meant to post this yesterday but I got to busy and forgot. OOPS
For the record, I am a Project Runway fan. I love the art of the design. I am actually in awe of someone that can design and make clothes. I can barely sew a button much less hem a skirt or pants. I did try to make curtains once, I was told that it was REALLY EASY. Well, easy my ass. Fabric, thread, scissors and tiny sharp needles are NOT my thing! But I digress.
Project Runway is about to end its 3rd season, I have seen them all. This season is by far the best one yet. I thought by the second episode that Michael Knight was going to win and I fee even stronger about that now that I see who is in the finals. We will see if I am right soon.
I am just to addicted to reality TV. But let me clarify what type of reality TV. I like watching the shows that are contest based. You have to have a certain level of skill or talent to participate. I am not a fan of show like The Bachelor or any "hook-up" shows. But I am a huge Survivor fan.

This season start was a bit different. I am not exactly sure if I am or should be offended by the division of the tribes. My boyfriend RB and I are an inter-racial couple and I had mixed emotions about this season. I thought that it would be interesting to observe the behaviors of each tribe as they were divided but felt that it was going to possibly set our culture back a few steps in regards of our prejudice levels. But now that they have integrated the tribes again, then I guess the experiment is over. I truly believe that this was just Mark Burnett's way of boosting his ratings for this season. But like his tactics or not, he does produce good television and we all are talking about the show on Friday mornings! For instance, almost the whole tribe turned on JD last night!! Just goes to show you men, don't lay around barking orders and being lazy, you will be voted off the island.

Not late as usual...

Still another day of sharing a car with my DBF. I sure hope that we get that car fixed soon, getting up at the crack of dawn and going to work is cutting into my knitting time! Anyway, today he had to be in a bit earlier and I suggested that he go ahead with out me and come back to get me when he got free and take me to work; translate=Knitty Gritty starts at 8:30am where I live and this is the only chance that I get to see it. So I said that I would be ready at 9:00am. Well, I kinda lost track of time and I was rushing to get half ready so I could watch the show and finish getting ready during the commercials. I had my current project on the couch with me knitting as I watched the show, today Cat Bordhi was on demo'ing her scarf. So you know that I was totally engulfed in the show and my knitting that I didn't move during the commercials and finish getting ready. But let me give you a bit of back ground on my DBF, he would be late to his funeral! The man is hardly ever on time, but this morning was a different story. So back to the couch; I was knitting, my teeth were brushed, my hair was pulled up, I had half of my clothes on it is 8:55am and the gate latch opens! He is here and I am not ready and I am sitting on the couch knitting, well at least I was until I heard the gate open. I dropped the needles and yarn, ran in the bedroom and furiously started getting dressed. He greets the dog and walks in the room and the look on his face, well it was something between anger, anxiety and confusion, mostly confusion. Needless to say, I was out the door in just a few minutes because we were both now running really LATE to work. I thought I could try to explain how gripping the Moebius knitting was and he would understand, but reality set in and I opted not to explain but to smile sweetly and talk about his Fantasy Football team. I know, smart girl!
On another note, I am waiting on my yarn order from Ewe-Phoria Yarn. I have 6 skeins of Noro and one large skein of their handpainted 50wool/50silk. They have really great yarn and great customer service too. I highly recommend them. So once I get my Noro I will have completed my amount that I need to knit the Lady Eleanor Stole. I am getting excited about it, I now just have to get the pattern.
On my last note of this post, I am so happy that a new yarn store is opening up soon Purlescence Yarns. I have heard such great things about the owners that I am excited to see the new place!