Back to Work

Well, today was back to work after another long and somewhat busy weekend. I had fun helping Sherri at her store yesterday - It looks terrific!

I've thought a lot about various projects...I really need to make a list in the sidebar about my Works in Progress. Maybe if I had to look at that list each day I wouldn't let things go for so long! (then again, maybe not...)

Today I will rip out 2 of my projects and think about starting over, neither in the same pattern as before!
- First: the Socks that Rock...they don't really speak to me - at first I was liking how they looked in the toe up sock, but decided that they would look better as pomatamus socks. But then they did this really funky strange vertical striping thing that I couldn't decided if I liked it or hated it. Then made an error that was (for me) unfixable. Here is a pic just after taking out the needles:















Look at the interesting stripes!
So, now what do you think this yarn should become? I am not ready to give it a 3rd shot just yet, but maybe in a few weeks.

- Second: The Sweater (see the previous entry). I will rip it out tonight too. I still really like that pattern, but I'm not sure that I can handle the stress of dropping all those stitches - look what happened with the first set of dropped stitches (disaster!) To be honest, I didn't drop a single wrong stitch in the swatch... But now I am trying to think of other ideas of what I could make. I am set on a sweater, but what kind? what sort of sweater would show off the beauty of that yarn? Again, I'll give it a few weeks to think about.

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I got a nice compliment from a co-worker today! She said that the local farmers market has a booth with someone who sells felted bags. She said "Lauri they wanted $xx for them!! And none of them are even close to as nice as yours are!!" Not that I am thinking of selling bags - I am not productive enough to make that many. But the compliment sure made my day.

Talking about nice felted bags. I bought the Noni Carpet Bag pattern on Saturday. I found Twisted Knitter's blog showing the exact bag! I have been wavering as to which colors I should use. I am really leaning toward the black and grey with red flower as in the original and in Janet's. But a colored bag might be fun too...so much to think about!


So to close for today, I have to share a picture of the pink rhodies in my back yard - beautiful!!

Sunday afternoon thoughts

After sleeping half the day away....(literally) I have managed to be somewhat productive.

I didn't set my alarm this morning. I always wake up fairly early, and if I don't my cat is the backup alarm, making sure that I'm not late. Except for today. I slowly woke up, rolled over, snoozed for awhile, then looked at the clock -- 11:25!!!! I missed church.

I started the sweater last night. I did a swatch a few weeks ago, and it looked good, except when I counted, recounted and had someone else do it too, we kept comming up with an absurd # of stitches to cast on. So many that you KNEW that it had to be wrong. So last night I started and just did the # that they called for in a medium. I knit 7 rows, then stopped for the night because trying to drop the correct stitch is too scary to do just before bedtime.
...so I waited until this afternoon...
Everything was going well until the last 10 stitches...then tragedy struck.
I dropped the wrong stitch and didn't realize until the last stitch. "No Problem!" I thought. "I know how to go back and pick up a stitch.

I didn't take into account the slippery rayon yarn and addi's, this is what I was left with: (hint - look at the upper left)

that and a temper tantrum! So I am putting that project away for awhile.
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I made a bit of progress on the spinning yesterday. I really like this roving, the colors are beautiful. (the pictures just do not do it justice.)

I am finished with the warshrags for now. I plan to make more eventually, but I need to work on a few other projects again. Here is the collection:
Well, after a week of rain and abuse from the birds, here is my garden. If you look closely, you may notice that there are several cucumber plants that have gone missing....those darn birds! I never knew that they would eat the plants!

Other than the missing cukes, the rest of the garden is looking pretty good. (yes I know that the corn is too close together! There are at least 3 of those plants that were half dead a week ago, so when they go things will be about right...)

I guess I should go and frog the sweater, but not quite ready to start over yet...

Terry the Cat

So, as promised this will be the story of Terry the cat.

He is a 'very special little boy'. Not just a little strange, but very wierd! And sweet.

Terry likes to try and help me knit whenever possible too (if only he had opposable thumbs...), instead he just likes to eat the yarn or the ends of the needles.

This first picture is of the neighbor's cats sitting on my front step, and Terry wishing that he could go outside and play with them. Sadly Terry is a strictly indoor kitty. He would probably get eaten for supper if he went out to play with them.





I discovered almost 2 years ago that Terry has Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Yes cats can suffer from that too! (Thankfully almost all the problems are upperGI - a bit easier to clean up...) Thus Terry is on a very rigid diet of a low allergen food that is supposed to keep him from getting sick. When he has an exacerbation he gets to take prednisone. Yes, that's right, a crazy cat on steriods!!

I have discovered hoewver that there is at least one food that he LOVES that doesn't make him sick. Motts brand MANGO PEACH APPLESAUCE!! He thinks that this is the best treat ever and will lick the plastic bowl clean and want more! (he only gets to lick the bowl after I've finished 99% of the applesauce.)

When Terry was a kitten, he would get lonely if I was in the shower on the other side of the shower curtain (so very far away!) and would jump in too, as long as he didn't get too wet. He stopped doing that long ago, but still thinks that the only good water in the house is the water straight as it comes out of the faucet. Even if it entails risking almost falling into a full tub of bath and bubbles!!

And last but not least, Terry like most cats has a bit of an attitude. He does what he wants, when he wants. We've been working on the 'no cat on the table' thing for years...I've given up - look at that defiant look!

No longer a 'thief'

So, tonight I became an honest woman.

I bought my own wireless router - so I could stop using my neighbor's unsecured wireless connection. (I already had my own wired connection, but what fun is that?!)

It was a bit more complicated to set up than I expected, but completed in just over an hour. Once again I can sit upstairs in bed and blog, chat, or just surf the 'net. :-)

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So, catching up on a few things that I have wanted to write about for awhile with no time to do so...


Isn't this picture the best!!!??? I took it just before mom flew back to South Dakota. Do you have any doubts as to what I might look like in about 30 years? ha! Really, I think that this is the best picture that we've ever had together!

Working on another post, coming soon about the crazy cat Terry. In which I will explain this picture and more!!
coming soon!!

Last day of vacation

So, today is the last day of my vacation. I have enjoyed myself, but I'm not quite ready to go back to work! I would love to have a few more days! The good thing is that next weekend is Memorial Day weekend! (silly me - I just realized that a few days ago!)

Jill left just after lunchtime. She is now at the airport, waiting at the gate.

She finished the 'warshrag' this morning!

Doesn't it look terrific!?! Her first FO. Great job Jill! I can't wait to see the orange and pink one.

I finished the black and multicolor this morning...

then quickly cast on for the next one!
With all of these dishcloths, you might think that I like to warsh dishes...

Vacation

I love vacations!!
(Jill is on the left, I'm on the right)

Jill and I have been having so much fun! Forgot to even take any pictures at all of the first 2 days! Sorry.

We went to Astoria and Cannon Beach on Thursday. It was a beautiful day, nice and warm, sunny. On the way home we had burgers at Clark's -- yummy!

On Friday we went to Seattle. Pike Place market, Westlake mall, WeavingWorks...where I bought some lovely roving. Started spinning almost right away when we got home.


While riding to and from Seattle (Jill drove), I had the rare luxury of knitting in the car. Made great progress on the black trekking sock. I didn't want to do a plain sock, but I also knew that and complicated design would take away from the yarn, so I came up with this.

Today was originally for being lazy, but somehow that can never happen around me! We started out for a drive and ended up at the Cedar Falls Nursery. And bought plants for a garden. I didn't count on how hard it would be to break up the sod so that we could plant the garden...but here is the finished product tonight: corn, cucumbers, shallots, acorn and butternut squash and tomatoes!

We even managed to spend a few hours at The Yarn Corner with Sherri and Bunni. Made progress on a new 'warshrag', corrupted Jill into buying yarn and needles.




Now, Jill and I, ever the socialites...are sitting at home on a Saturday evening, blogging and knitting. We lead an exciting life, even on vacation!!

mystery solved

I love the internet! It never stops amazing me just how much information is out there and how easy it is to find out everything there is possible about a subject...

take an azalea for example. Did you know that there is an Azalea Society of America?
But they didn't really help me any more that the nice woman at the home depot. No, through many many google searches and narrowing the fields. I have come up with this:

The Irene Koster Azalea.

count down...

Only a day and a half until my vacation! The way I am getting so excited about this, you might think that I had huge grand plans for a fabulous trip or something. I'm just so excited for a few reasons: I haven't had a vacation for ages and ages - the time off last summer to help mom while she was in the hospital was NOT a vacation. I haven't seen Jill since Easter of 2004! And I am ready for a bit of time off.

...
Side note:
As I type this someone in the neighborhood is obviously learning how to drive a manual transmission car. I keep hearing the grinding, etc. Ouch, poor car!
...

It is HOT today. Right now it is 83 degrees in my bedroom. I have the window wide open, but there isn't any breeze at all. I kinda enjoy the heat, sorta. Being from the midwest, I still have a tendency to laugh when people here in WA bemoan the heat when its only 85 or 90 degrees! (Cue the old gramma voice) "back where I came from we didn't say it was hot until it was at least 100 degrees!"

Well, whether or not it is really 'hot' I am sweating as I sit here and type.


So, about the flower. This is pretty funny. I cut off one of the stems of the flower clusters and a leaf, and tried to go to the nurseries and plant stores. Well, all were closed by the time I got there, so I ended up at home depot...never a really good option...Well they were 'very, very' helpful. The 'helpful' lady pointed out how it looked like an azalea or a rhodie, so that must be what it was!

Thank you very much...Maybe I should work there too!

Sunburned

Today was the most beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect warm-but-not-hot temperature. I had the day off, and had no obligations - just church in the morning, then nothing to do except enjoy the day.

Jill is coming in 3 days! So I guess that I did have to clean the house a bit - get rid of the numerous things growing in the refrigerator…I can’t really say that they were a science experiment! Did a few loads of laundry. Vacuumed the room that Jill will stay in (she's allergic to poor Terry the cat!)

In the midst of doing all this I sat out on the front steps for at least 45 minutes on 2 separate times - knitting in the wonderful sunshine; and worked on the weeds for about 30 minutes too. So Lauri is pink this evening.


Not quite as pink as the adorable ‘warshrag’ that I finished while sunning myself, thank goodness, but I think that you might be able to see in the picture just how pink the tops of my feet are and my shins too.


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I also spent time last night searching, and today working a bit on a new format for the blog! No more details yet, except that it will be fantastic. As long as I can figure out how to change the template and get the new one working…not quite sure how to do that yet.

One last question. Can anyone tell me what kind of flower this is? It looks like a rhodie or azalea, but the shrub doesn't really look like it, the flower buds were completly different. And the flower has the MOST AMAZING fragrance!

I've caught the fever...

OK, now I am addicted too!

Also, I finally caught on to how I can use my camera phone to email pics to myself, to save to my computer, to upload to blogger...aarrgghh - complicated but definitely worth it! Now I'll be dangerous!

haha!

Spammers

Well, little ol' me is not immune from spammers in my comments section! As a result, I've changed the requirements.
You have to be a registered member and also must use the word verification. Hope that this will help.

Headaches...

I am sitting at home in the middle of the day today...with a migrane / sinus headache. I tried to go to work today and lasted about an hour before I decided to call it a day.

Wanted to knit for awhile - didn't work! The ribbon scarf was too boring. The pomatomus socks and my shawls all take too much brainpower. and spinning silk is way toooo aggravating when you have a headach and are wearing clothes that love to stick to the fibers.

Its been awhile since I've tried to watch TV in the middle of a weekday. There is just NOTHING worth watching. Boring.

I might just start working on a plain sock with no pattern, or curl up on the couch with my cat.

Fridays

Today was a great Friday (even tho I have to work tomorrow...)

I slept in a bit late - it is nice having a somewhat flexible start time! Got to work at about 7:30, but didn't start on the clock until after 8:00. It was nice to spend the time really talking to coworkers.
Nice slow schedule today. It allowed Liz and I to start making progress on some of the projects that have been on the back burner for awhile. Then we spent an hour in the afternoon touring the new addition to the hospital - its going to be nice, but I have a few reservations about some of the things.

Got off work on time again! :-) Wow.

Once home, I frogged the toe-up 'socks that rock' and started over again with the pomatomus pattern from Knitty. I am now on the 6th row of the pattern repeat in the leg. It isn't as hard as it looks. I am again having problems with the yarn colors pooling - worse that with the toe up sock...but I kind of like how it is pooling! I'll have to go several more rows to see how things knit up.

In addition to knitting, I managed to get 3 loads of laundry done tonight! (What on earth is wrong with me?...this is just a bit too 'functional' for me.)

Looking at my house today - I realized that it is in terrible disarray! And I have 12 days until Jill gets here, so I ought to get to work! But I'd rather be outside or knitting -- or preferrably both simultaneously.

beautiful day

Today was such a nice day. I even found myself telling someone that it was HOT outside!

The bonus?...

I got off of work on time today! (Its pretty sad when you're leaving work at the end of an 8 hour day and everyone is asking you why you're leaving 'early'!) Spent some time knitting at The Yarn Corner with Sherri. I'm ready for the next increase row of the ribbon scarf - it will be 1280 stitches after the next row.

After I came home, I was able to spend nearly 1 1/2 hours working in my yard and flower gardens! Everything is looking so beautiful, green and colorful flowers too. I spent most of the time tonight working on the tedious task of trying to convince the grass to stay within the boundary of the lawn and NOT into the gardens. That, and battling with the weeds! But I do love my yard - that is one of the things about my home that I love the most.

I cooked supper for the third time this week!! That is a major accomplishment for me.

I looked at the "Meadow Flowers Shawl" tonight as I got home after a walk - it was telling me to finish tinking the mistake row..."please?" I just couldn't deal with it. I have gotten much better at tinking recently...however tinking lace is just no fun at all. So the flowers will have to wait another day.

Still alive and well...

I'm sure that it seems like I've dropped off the face of the earth...those of you who know me know what's been happening.

2 days after I wrote the last entry, I met the real estate agent at what would become "MY HOME!!" September was a whirlwind - everything that is involved with buying a house, packing up everything you own to move about 1/2 mile away!

I've spent the last 7 months getting the house to be my 'home'. Coming along well, but still work to do. Lots of painting, ripping up of nasty carpet... And most recently - finding out as much as possible about water heaters since mine died and flooded the basement!

Mom has come and gone already! She arrived here just in time for Christmas! We had almost 4 months together - lots of fun. (She even knit a scarf!! I was a good influence on her) She left about 3 weeks ago, and is liking it back in SD. But I think that she is missing me as much as I miss her. But, she is enjoying working in her yard, sorting through 'stuff' for a garage sale, etc.

More to come soon.