ahhh yes master...

I have decided to complete my Master Knitting Level One program. Okay, I better say the truth, I have decided to start my Master Knitting Level One program. Thanks to the wonderful motivation from Brooke, I have decided that I need to get this done. We are meeting up on Monday to work on our swatches. I want to get to work on the written portion of the program as well. Knitty's new issue has a little blurb about it...

I worked a little more on my scarf. I ended up scrapping the one I was working on and starting fresh. Matt's sweater piece is still MIA and I have been to down trodden to start it over again... okay okay okay it is all just laziness.

I am off to find out some info on knitting...

Happy Knitting

Manic Mondays...Oops I mean Manicure Mondays.

Okay, so it seemed that last Monday I had a " Manic Monday" but last night I learned that I will be having "Manicure Mondays" ! I trotted over to Amsterdam with my pal Lindsay to talk to the manager about working on Monday nights for their Martini's and Manicures. They don't need someone right away but she said she would love to take both of us on! The cool thing about it is that I won't be doing a full manicure, just a file, buff and polish. I need to buff up on my polish skills some more So, that will be some nice extra cash in my pocket. The down falls? I have to be up until at least 2:00 A.M. that night Good thing I have Tueday's off!

I have no knitting to report. I have to go back a few rows on my scarf that I am working on. I was one stitch off and it set the whole pattern off center! grr! Oh, I was asked what the yarn size was. There are three different versions, but they are all done with different types of lace weight.

I am off to work my late shift today! happy knitting my friends.

weakness struck.

I knew that it would. I fell victim to some lovely silk yarn from Kaalund. It is so yummy to work with.





Of course, this doesn't give you any idea on how beautiful this color really is. I am working on a lace scarf for me!





It is the one on the far left. I had actually intended to make the middle one, but I started the wrong pattern and I really like how it is turning out, so I kept it that way.

Matthew's sweater side is still MIA. I have come to the realization that I am going to have to knit another left front piece. :(

I am working on invitations for Amber's baby shower. I have the cutest idea going right now! I am so dan proud of myself! I will get a pic of them if I can...

happy knitting

life or something like it...

I have been barely going through the motions of my supposed life. I found out why today. I went to the Doctor because it seemed that lately my heart would start racing and I would get jittery and zone out and almost want to puke my guts up. Well, I found out today, not only am I border line Bipolar (which I have known about for a few years) but I am also starting to develop an Anxiety problem. What the F&%^ is wrong with me? My wonderful Doctor (Dr. Cohen at Healthy Outlook Family Medicine Which was voted 7.7 of 10 points on City Search) tells me nothing.... that anxiety problems usually accompany depression and Bipolar, I just have to go on a different medication now. BLEH!

I had my little sweater for Matt almost finished. Unfortunately, I lost part of it somewhere. I have now idea where it is at. I am going to have to re-knit it. I am on day something for not buying any yarn. I think it has been over a month. I am quite proud of myself. I feel, though, that after today's news I might pick up some silk yarn that I have been dreaming about since I bought some for my secret pal.

Work has been good. I had a crappy day on Saturday, my boss made it all better though by telling us that we had a mini meeting he wanted us to stay for and surprised us with beer! Ya gotta love a boss that will do that!

Well, off to knit before I have to pick Amy up.

Happy Knitting

feeling quite accomplished, but...

I have gotten Matt's sweater almost done. He is going to look so Freakin' cute in it. I have decided that he will get it for his birthday. He is also going to get a sandbox from me and Amy. We have settled upon the turtle one.


How cute is that?

My nephew's birthday is a few days before his. We are pitching money in for a drum set for him. My poor poor sister... what is she thinking?????


So where does the but.... come in at?

I have decided to throw in the sweater and send back the test knit to SWTC. I just can't do it. I hate the yarn and I hate the pattern. I know that I won't finish it and I don't think that it is fair to them, for me to be holding onto something that I can't get done in time for them. Maybe in a few months I can work on something else, but not now.

Off to work on something...

happy knitting

what's going on???

I have been slowly working at decreasing my stash! Did you know that the only yarn I have bought in the last month has been for my secret pal! Cool huh? I have a few purses to show off for it but have decided to work on baby patterns. They are a quick knit and you feel more accomplished than you would with a purse.

I am working on this pattern right now. It is from Rowan Babies.









I am making it for Matthew.

I also have these two patterns lined up. The first one is going to be knit from some stash yarn and the other I am making to match the little pants I made for "baby Austin" when he arrives.
I am going to knit sweater all in one color so it doesn't look quite so girlie!









If I have learned one thing about knitting Rowan patterns it is that they run quite big. I have also found this to be true in Debbie Bliss patterns. Which will leave you to ponder this question....
Are babies and little kids bigger in England than they are in the US?

Happy Knitting

OOOOOOO yarn.....

I got my last package from my secret pal the other day.... Lovely! I forgot to borrow the camera from my sister yesterday so I will have to post of a picture of it later. She sent me some awesome stuff. Definitely things that I would have never bought for myself.

A sock making kit from Hello Yarn, in berry and purple and blue shades. Beautiful.
She also sent me some chocolate. A little happy face button that I have adorned on my knitting bag! Then there was some Mango lip gloss inside the box too! I love love love lip gloss/chapstick. I am literally addicted to the stuff. If I go out somewhere for more than two hours and I don't have any with me I have to go buy some... it is a sick habit... I also got a lovely little skein of purple yarn that was super mega soft. I had to knit it up right away. I will get a picture of that up as well. I made the shocking pink coif pattern from knitty. It is more a pastel purple coif. I love it. I can't wait for winter and it's not even that hot here!

I am sending out my last package to my secret pal. I had some family issues to take care of before I could deal with other life. It took me a long time to decide on what to send but I hope that she likes it.

I am just doing housework today. It has been put off for the last week and it really needs to be done. Oh, I finished the pair of drawstring baby pants that I knit up for Amber's baby. Everyone keeps telling me that I need to make a little matching vest or sweater for them. I look at them and realize that they are right. I am going to check and see if there is one out there for the yarn, if not I will make one myself.

Happy Knitting

Animal House.

These last few days have been filled with multiple trips to the vets office. On Tuesday I had to take my cat Pepper Ann in because she hadn't been doing her normal upheaval of cat food. It was a lot worse. I found out that she has a severe urinary infection. It had reached her kidneys! Usually something that can be taken care of, but because she has been on medications before and it hadn't gone away. She is going to be on a special prescription only diet that alters her pH for the rest of her life. Good thing I will get this at a discount!


I then had to take my little Chihuahua Maggie in yesterday because she is starting to give out milk. Mind you I told my sister like a week ago that I thought she was getting a little pudgy in that area and she told me I was crazy. Well, Tuesday night I had her on my lap and all of the sudden it was wet on my leg and there was milk coming out of her! Mind you, my little dog is 11 years old and we thought she was spayed because she has this little tiny scar on her tummy. Aparently, she isn't. So went back to my sister's office on Tuesday and found out that Maggie is having a false pregnancy. Great! So, she goes in on Monday to get a hormone shot to stop it.

I have gotten a little knitting done. My goal right now is to try and get as much yarn used up from the stash as possible. So far I have knit up three little purses. I want to make something bigger, but I don't have enough yarn to make anything but purses or socks or mittens or hats. I figured that in Arizona the best option was to make purses. I was thinking about working on a few hats to send to my cousin and his girlfriend for the winter time.

Adam and Sarah live in Kentucky so they can get use of out them. Get this, my cousin and his girlfriend moved there so he can go to professional wrestling school! Yep, we all have a little hillbilly somewhere in our families!!!!! I am just kidding. I am actually really proud of him. He has been trying out for the pro wrestling circuit and made it to the final cut the last two times. One day he will be there. He is following his dream and this all that counts right?

Well, Happy Knitting

So, what happens when you clean up your yarn? You find some roving that you had tucked away! I found some lovely brown and white roving that I had set aside for when I got better at spinning. I am going to spin this up and send it to my secret pal as she is quite fond of brown shades.

Today, I have no real plans and I love it. I am off to the grocery store, we haven't done real grocery shopping in two weeks. So, we will see how much junk I come home with. I am then off to Bookman's to take a few more books that we have laying around and are just filling up space. I am not sure how much we will get for them but we can get them out of here. After that, whatever Bookman's won't take I am heading to the goodwill and dropping those and more junk off. It is a great spring cleaning day.

I was waiting for Amy to get out of class today and think I decided what to make with a wonderful skein of yarn that my secret pal had sent to me. This is the colorway that she sent to me. As always, the picture doesn't do the colors justice but you get the idea.




I have been itching to do some cable work and was thinking about doing a thin cabled scarf. I have a book of cable patterns that I will get the pattern from. Or maybe I can find one off the net.

I was also reminded that at Christmas time last year I had said that this Christmas everyone was going to get Christmas stockings. I am not sure if want to do that this year. Although, they would be a fast knit. hmmmm.. we will see.

Oh, Finished stuff to report. I finished up my soysilk purse yesterday. My sister, great loving person that she is, helped me sew the lining. I then machined sewed it in, I am not too crazy about the way it looks but it doesn't look bad so I think I will leave it. I also have some dpn holders that I knit and felted that just need to be adorned. Those are going to my SP, too. I can't wait to send them out. I think that I should have it all ready to send out by the end of the week.

I am off to run errands. Happy Knitting.

what purple, green and yellow and hasn't been touched in days?

You all guessed it. It's Testy. I thought that the front parts of the sweater would just be smooth sailing. WRONG!!!!!!

I have devoted myself to working on a purse in some soysilk. It was one of those hanks that I picked up when SWTC had a sale. I am not too crazy about the colors after I have been knitting with it. They are just patterning kind of weird. Definitely not supposed to be a purse with that yarn. The purse is going to be a gift and I am quite sure that the recipient will approve of both the colors and the patterning.


I stopped in to get the summer issue of Interweave and got Yarn Harlot's book. I have had it for just over 24 hours and have read the entire thing... Great Book.

I am trying to find some fabric that has yarn or knitting or sheep on it. Any one out there know where I can find it let me know...

Happy Knitting

Down with taxes...at least until extension time...

Okay, so being the total procrastinater that I am, I waited until the last minute to do my taxes. I went to go get my W-2's and two of them are missing. Mind you, I have it quite easy to pay taxes. I get to still use the 1040EZ form and all, but.... I misplaced two of them. One for my school info, the other from a place of work. Grrr. So I filed an extension online. Quite easy. So, I have to go and call on Tuesday and get the new forms sent out to me.

I am pretty sure that Amy or I accidently threw them away. They were in non descript envelopes. We both cleaned the top of the book shelf off twice since I got them in. We are both to blame for this...


I have no knitting to report. I just have been working on Testy. I don't think i will take another test knit for a while. I haven't been spinning. I opted not to get any roving. Although, a big thanks a lot for the peer pressure goes out to the girls in my SNB who whole heartedly agree that it is perfectly okay to buy roving on a yarn diet... What if I was going ruin a regular diet? What about jumping off a bridge? What about doing drugs??? HHHHMMMM HUH HUH HUH??? Okay, I see it's different now... Yea yea yea whatever ;) JUST KIDDING

My secret pal left a little comment for me asking me if there is anything that I really wanted or needed. Know what is nice about that? There isn't anything. I can honestly look at my life and see that I am rather content. Yes, of course there are the things that are going to be coming later in life... Secret Pal, I am assuming that you don't wanna marry me or give me kids... ;P

(Here is where I get cheesy...) Have you had moments in your life when all of the sudden everything feels good and feels right? I am having one of those moments right now.

I guess that wasn't too cheesy. But it has been a long night and I have to be up early tomorrow for a roller set... OOOOhhh the glamourous world of cosmetology...

Happy Knitting

Time Selfish?

Amy told me today that I am a home hoarder. What is a home hoarder? Well, Amy thinks that it is me... or to be exact- it is me slightly scrunching my face or a small amount of detest in my voice when she tells me that she is going to be at home for a couple of hours when I get off work.

She had taken a few hours of vacation and had to go in at 7:30 tonight. I guess that I must have mad a sound or something but in truth, she was right. As much as I love her, most of the time I enjoy having the few hours after work to myself befor she comes home. I have found it is a great me time for relaxation and just ahhh time. It's not that I am a house hoarder, it is just that well, when I get off work and she is home I have to start dinner right away and do other misc stuff. I can't just flop and play with the dog and just goof off. It doesn't happen very often so I shouldn't complain but I am and I probably will continue to get time selfish.

On to knitting. I finished the back of Testy. I have the pattern figured out. For the front part, too. The front pieces are going by so much quicker than normal. Yay! I have to just type out the corrected pattern, now.

So, I was asked to other day if I would barter. I said sure. I am going to make her a purse. I get to choose the colors and the style. I already have the yarn picked out, but I don't know what pattern to use. If anyone has some ideas on a purse pattern for worsted weight yarn, please let me know. I have searched the usual sights... Knitty, about.com, etc and not crazy about any of them. So, please let me know if you know something that I would love...

Happy Knitting

Oh. I almost forgot... here is the tip for yesterday...

Finding that some of your rows in knitting are a little uneven. That is goes from tight to loose to tight to loose? Pull out enough yarn for the row at the beginning of each row. That way you can keep your tension.

If you don't look at it, its not really there....

I have decided to use this wonderful method on my organization. If I just don't look at the whole pile of yarn, I will be okay... I have been feeling a slight knitting slump lately.

It is nice to know that I am not alone with my boredom. Kirsten was feeling quite blah, Shannon had the non-knitting fever, and who knows who else is out there.

I am going to meet up with the girls for dinner tonight before we knit. I don't know how long I can stay to knit , as I have to go to the Fiber Factory and pick up a pair of handcarders from a wonderful lady.

I am on day4 of the yarn diet. I am wondering how long this is going to last. Get this, I am even taking some yarn that I bought last week back to the store.. I realized that I just don't need it right now. The nice thing about being on a yarn diet, is that I have been looking at all the books and magazines I have. It's funny how there are some patterns that I had passed over time and time again are grabbing my attention. So, if I don't organize my stash today, I will at least organize my books.

Question: Does buying roving to spin break my yarn diet?

Happy Knitting

off to straighten the stash

Saturday night I forgot about a party that we had to go to. I remembered at nine o'clock in the evening. So, I threw someting semi decent on and we headed over there. A good time was had. I played this game.





It is called Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. Kind of hard to explain but you get to kill other people's bunny cards. I am so buying this game next week.

I am officially out of fiber to spin. I am awaiting hand carders for the alpaca. But everything else is gone gone gone... It is all nice little hanks of yarn. I have to set the twist in all them but it is spun. I was thinking of making some novelty yarn one of these days. We will see how it goes.

Yesterday was family haircut day and then it was off to my the movies with my sister and my niece. We saw Beauty Shop. My sister had passes that she one from work so we went and saw a movie that we normally wouldn't go to. It was alright but I am glad I didn't pay for the movie.

I feel like a have a ton of things to get done but I know that it isn't true.
Here is my to do list.

• Grocery Shopping
• Get Gas
• 2 loads of laundry
• organize yarn
• Drop off bags at the goodwill

A lot of driving today. I had just wanted to lounge around the house.. Oh well.

Happy Knitting

this and that

I worked on testy a little more last night. Nothing really new to report. I am once again considering buying the book Adorable knits for tots. I browsed through it again and falling in love with it... Maybe next week or next month.

I have also decided to put myself on a yarn diet. I am going to go through my yarn and sort it out.

I have decided to do the following sorting:

Pattern already decided
Looking for Pattern
Sock yarns
Bits and pieces

I will sub-catergorize the yarn from there.

I was thinking about the yarn that I have patterns for to put them in ziploc bags and the pattern inside so I don't forget what I want to knit. Well see, it just really depends on how much energy I have when I start to clean...

Happy Knitting

I am feeling quite testy..

So, I had to frog 4 inches on testy. The pattern was way F**KED UP! I couldn't figure out how to get the pattern to stay when I was doing my decreasing. Well, I happened to look at book that I had lying around and I found the answer to one of my problems with the pattern. With the type of rib pattern that it uses I can't do normal decreases. I have to bind off or the pattern will get fudged up way bad.

So, that was taken care of, but I still kept ending up with a purl 2 on the end and I needed a knit two on the end. Well, looked and looked and read and read and read and read the patten over and over again and then it hit me. It was off by two stitches. The math decrease was wrong. It was right for the small and the large but not for the medium. So, know that I have that taken care of I can knit my little heart away... at least until I get to the front panels of the sweater...


I got some yarn today to start working on a small fairisle project. I had to only buy two skeins, so I won't get into too much "trouble". I am going to force myself to finish the back of Testy first before I try to work on the Fairisle project...

Happy Knitting my friends

It's getting smaller....

As much as I wanted to spin last night I diligenty worked on Testy. Okay okay, I confess I did finish up a bat of roving and plied it, but I did get a lot done on testy. I worked on the decreases for the back and it is taking great shape. I am just about finished with the arm hole decreases, the next part will be to work on the neck and shoulder shaping. I don't think I will get a picture of it up.

I did learn about decreasing in a rib pattern while working on this, so that is quite helpful.

I am working until 8:00 tonight. Blegh. All my clients are later in the day, so I think I may be able to get some good knitting time in...maybe, just maybe...


Happy Knitting

Tip Tuesday and kids stuff...

Today I am feeling rather lazy about putting a tip up. So, I give you this site. It is one of my favorites. The tip that I am linking is how to decrease evenly across an row when there aren't an even number of stitches. Quite helpful. I have used this site a lot in my knitting and I hope that it helps others out, too.

I was going to meet up with Brooke and Jack today for some knitting this afternoon, but my sister called me when I was sitting inside Lux before they got there. She was stuck in a meeting and Logan, my nephew, was barfing all over the place. So, duty called. And being the safe driver that I am I was logging onto my email from my phone while driving to send an email to Brooke, hoping that she would get it before she left.... Once again, I am soo sorry about that!


Speaking of nephews, we found out today that Amy's little sister is going to have a little boy. She isn't too sure what she is going to name him yet. They just can't pick out a name that both of them like.

And speaking of babies... my aunt called me last night to let me know that my cousin's wife had a little girl. She was a month early but is perfectly healthy. They named her Jaeden (JAY-den). They couldn't decide on a middle name so they are going to fill that in later.

Which brings me to baby names... When we do have kids we have decided on the names Garrett Jaeger...(no not the liquor sillies) and Indigo Pary. We also like the name Chloe Vedette for a girl too. Brooke had challenged some of you to ask me what I wanted to name my future child. Since there was no one out there willing to take the challenge I will just tell now. I wanted to name her Ute Svetlana. (Prounonced OO-tah) I just love love love that name. Amy refuses to let me name our kid that so maybe on the third one...

Oh well, happy knitting

wind wind wind the bobbin, unwind wind wind the bobbin....

So, as my sister watched me put my wheel together she was singing that little ditty and got it stuck in my head for the last few days.

I must say that I am quite proud of myself. I decided to get an unfinished wheel to save money. So, when the wheel came I had to pick out a finish for it, then sand it, wax it and put it together. Thanks to the helpful employee at Lowe's who only muttered nope after asking if they carry a wax stain, I learned uber amounts of info on stains and finishes. When we got back I sanded my wheel down, this wasn't really a task as I used a 4" X 6" sheet of sandpaper. Then with the wax that lowe's supposedly didn't carry I waxed and polished every piece of wood. Then came the production. Quite easy. The hardest part was putting in the last two screws where I had to screw into a piece of silicone for the treadles. But it is beautiful and working and I am so dang proud of myself.

Kirsten asked if it is possible to actually raise alpaca's out here. I know that there are a few farms in Arizona but most of them are in the northern part of the state. You are supposed to shear them every 15-18 months but we couldn't let them go that long. As we were shearing them I stuck my hand down as far as I could into Joe's fluff and it was at least 10 degree's hotter than outside of his body. Poor guy... good thing he's "naked" now.

I was going to meet up with the other knittin' mom's today with my nephew Matt, but he wasn't feeling his best. The poor kid has our families immune system. He was getting over a cold, so I didn't want to infect all the other little one's out there. Maybe next time.

If anyone is interested in meeting up tomorrow around 11:00 to go knit let me know. I put a post up on the yahoo group list. But let me know either way.

I am off to work on Testy. I have got to get that thing done.

Happy Knitting

I am the proud owner of a spinning wheel, or at least my apartment complex office is... Now here is the frustrating part... I didn't expect my wheel for quite some time at least another week, so after getting my hard earned cash on payday, I headed out to some stores to see if I could find a few new work clothes... Nuthin'.... I figured that I should mosey on home and there was the little sticker on my door.... Dang it... if I hadn't lollygagged around, went to the normal bank, and went straight home I could be spinning right now. I then couldn't pick it up yesterday as the office is closed on Saturdays. So, here I am sittin' and waiting until 1:00 to pick up my spinning wheel. So close, yet so far away...


On, the spinning front, we sheared my sister's alpacas yesterday. What a sight that was to see. I didn't get any pictures, but it was a good thing. I hadn't clipped anything besided human hair in 9 years and boy was I rusty at it. Shearing alpacas was definitely not the same thing as clipping dairy cattle. They were as good as they could be, I mean how would you act if someone creature was coming at you with a motorized thing and you had no form of communication with them? I am not too sure how great the fiber is, but I am going to give it a try. I was going to send it off to be carded and turned into roving but I think I am going to pass on that one. I really have this desire to turn the big bag of fluff into some pretty little balls rolacks to spin. A rolack is hand carded fiber that looks like a great big fluffy dust bunny. Nice description huh?

I am off to work on testy..I fear that I won't be getting much done on her in the next few days...

Happy Knitting.