Stepping out from the pile
Of work that is. Whoa, who ever knew that organizing a major fundraiser (along with a minor one) could be so much work? It's all these little freaking details that are putting me over the edge. Knitting? Ha! I'm brain dead by the time I get home. Won't you all be glad in a month when it is over and I stop bitching about work? Heh.
Things remain calm in Casa de Cranky Teenagers. I think they realize I'm already at Defcon 4 and are being nice to me. Minimal drama, kitchen is being done in less than 3 hours and I haven't ruined anyone's life in awhile. Wow, can ya believe it? Maybe this fundraiser thing is good?
However, I have been sucked into CNN since Sunday. I cannot tear myself away from the hurricane coverage. Sure puts a bad day in perspective. Least I'm not sitting in my attic while water is up to my waist swirling with shit and God know what else in it waiting to be rescued. My sister's father-in-law is a cop in Slidell, Louisiana. His wife and daughter evacuated to Tampa, he had to stay. Slidell is one of the worst hit areas and we haven't heard from him. Scary.
Peace and happiness, my friends.
Posted by Heather at 3:20 PM
Free yarn
Yep,
Free Yarn.
Thanks,
Pam for sharin' the love!
Posted by Heather at 7:11 PM
Wanna trade?
I have 4 skeins of Wildflower DK in a soft pink to trade. 51% cotton, 49% acrylic, 50 grams, 137 yards. Really soft, nice yarn. I bought it to knit a little bolero sweater for my niece, but it wasn't working so I picked up something else today. One skein has been unwound a little. Yarn has been stored in a ziploc in a rubbermaid container. No smoke, can't promise there won't be a stray cat hair. No cat puke, though.
What am I looking for? Well, I love to felt so any yarn for that. Laceweight is nice, too. Sock yarn. I don't like novelty yarn at all. Oh, the yarn was $4 a ball.
Things seem quiet in Casa de la Cranky Teenagers. The Princess has cooked dinner 2 nights in a row, did all my laundry and wanted to clean house. Think she wants off grounding early? Ain't gonna happen, but sure makes for a nice, quiet house. Oh, hush, you know you would do the same. Do me a favor, if ya like me at all, knock on wood for the peace to last. I need all the help I can get, you know.
Posted by Heather at 5:00 PM
$7,000 stitch markers
I've received a few emails asking about my stitch markers on Charlotte. Wow, you guys can see really well. These aren't just any stitch markers my friends. These are $7,000 stitch markers. Sure makes it a bitch when one flies off the needles, huh? Made out of gold you ask? Diamonds? Nope. See, they are elastics from my kid's braces. $3,500 per kid. And they wonder why I freak when they don't wear their bands. Straight, beautiful teeth and perfect stitch markers for size 6 needles. Money well spent, right? Oooo...I can live on the wild side and get a package of neon ones!
I so need a life.
Posted by Heather at 10:33 AM
Caught in a web
Is it really Sunday evening? Where did my weekend go? For that matter, is it really August?!? Just under a month until our major fundraising event at work, followed by our Christmas in October event for the children & seniors in our shelters followed by the Breast Cancer 3-day in October. Yea, I'm freaking out.
Not much knitting going on at Casa de Teenagers. After working a 9 hour day, I'm generally too exhausted to think that much. But, I have been trying to knit a little here and there. Socks are coming along.
I don't like doing ribbing very much, so it is slow going. I do love knitting socks on 2 circs though.
I've also started Charlotte's Web out of the yarn
Sarah and I ordered from
Mystical Creation Yarns. At first I wasn't so sure about the color (it looked more yellow that what I saw online), but now I really like it.
A little close-up.
If you are planning on doing this and don't have much experience with lace, do yourself a HUGE favor and join the Yahoo knit-a-long group. Someone posted a spreadsheet that actually made the horribly written pattern make sense. It was written by the people that make Koigu. Gorgeous yarns, but they should pay someone to write patterns for them. Jeesh.
Well, that's an update on my little corner of the world. Let me run back to my life where the Baseball Star just got off being grounded and the Princess is now grounded. Please remember people, that it is all MY fault.
I was the one that left her sitting outside the mall for an hour waiting to be picked up after she drove out to Queen Creek to get my friend, drove us to the mall and went back 4 hours later to sit there fuming while I took my sweet time showing up. All my fault, yep. Gee, going back to work tomorrow isn't looking so bad after all.
Posted by Heather at 6:27 PM
In support
Tonight I was going to veg out in front of the tube. Instead, I'll be joining
Eva doing something far more important. I'm sure you have all heard about Cindy Sheehan, mother of yet another fallen American soldier in the
fight over oil war on Iraq. As a mother I can feel her pain of just wanting to know why her little boy was killed for a lie. As an American, I support our troops, but I never have and I never will support this "war". So tonight my family and I will be joining others around the country in a candlelight vigil to show Cindy our support. And maybe somewhere in Washington, someone is listening. And maybe someone else's little boy or little girl won't be killed tomorrow.
Organizers are planning on people standing on all four corners of the intersection of Central Avenue and McDowell Road in Phoenix (and other locations around the Valley). Participants will stand on the corners with lit candles, beginning at 7:30pm. If you have the time to join us, please do.
Event Information:Standing with Cindy Candlelight Vigil to Bring the troops home now
Central Ave & McDowell Road in Phoenix
Wednesday, 17 Aug 2005, 7:30 PM
Bring your candles. Handicap accessible.
Please
RSVPAddress:
1525 .N. Central Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Posted by Heather at 1:45 PM
Hi
Just popping in to wave to everyone. Work is freaking insane and the teenagers are driving me insane. Let me just put a question out there. What would you rather do, a week in your room with no tv, radio, xbox, computer or would you rather do your kitchen chores that take 30 minutes? I thought so. My baby girl's heart was broken over the weekend. And maybe a little bit of mine. All I could do is hold her and cry along with her. I sure wish she was a little girl again.
Still knitting on the socks. Might be the only thing keeping me from running through the streets screaming.
I could really use a break from my life right about now. Anyone want it?
Posted by Heather at 9:13 AM
Crying in my mohair
Well, it was bound to happen. With no stitch counts to check my work, I screwed it all up. I'd show you a picture of what it looks like, but that would be pretty much consist of taking a picture of a skein of yarn and well, you know what that looks like. So, last night I figured out all the stitch counts of the next 50 rows. Hey, I told you guys I was a freak. But, in doing that I learned where stitch markers could go so that won't screw it up again. And I can obsessively count to my hearts delight.
Instead of
bitching and complaining twiddling my thumbs for the rest of the night, I finally believe I have mastered socks on circulars.
Illanna lent me her book and I've been futzing around with it for months. Please allow me to give you a HUGE hint. When Cat says don't waste your time with anything but Addi Turbos, she was not kidding. I tried my trusty Susan Bates and the wench let me down. The tiny stitches hung up on the join every freaking time I moved them across. So, I hauled it out to
Fiber Factory last night and dropped $25 for my newfound love. Wow...they are the crack of needles, let me tell you. The joins could make a girl cry. The cord is beautiful (no more bowls of hot water) and they fit in my hands perfectly. I still believe that there is a needle (ghetto or not, huh Sarah?) for every project and it doesn't matter what they cost. I love my Clover bamboo needles and my Boye 8 from Sarah. But for socks...oh wow. Think I can sell off the 2 cats that kept me up most of the week to buy a complete set of Addis?
Posted by Heather at 8:16 AM
Feelin' the love, baby
Today I got together with my friend Rachael for lunch. She is an occasional knitter and weaver. I was telling her all about my lace obsession the other day and lookie at what she brought me from her stash.
Can ya feel the love? Friends, that is 17 skeins of lace weight yarn that is 80% kid mohair and 20% silk in a soft pink. Around 1700 yards if I'm adding correctly. I almost cried. Oh, and that is Sadie in the background posing for you.
Since I was taking pictures, I thought I'd take pictures of the shawl in progress on my needles from Sarah.
Not much to look at right now, but I still love it. Odd pattern, though. Hopefully it will all work out. Did I mention there are no stitch counts at the end of each row? That is not going well with my OCD, let me tell you.
I've also been working on a project for SWTC, but I'm not sure I can blog about it. I'm almost done, so when I turn it in I'll find out. I'd get more done if the freaking cats would stay out of it. I should take a picture of that freak show when I try to work on it. Heh.
Posted by Heather at 5:19 PM
Bliss
Bags? What bags? They were abandoned quicker than my latest diet on a Monday afternoon. It's all about the lace now. Thanks to the wonderful
Sarah who loves me so much that she gave me her pointy Boye 8 circulars, I am knitting happily away on the Shawl. Seriously, I don't know what it is about those needles, but I love them. Perfect points, nice join and fit in my hands perfectly. After borrowing them from her, I fell in love with them, so she gave them to me. I feel the love, I tell ya. Ya want pictures? So sorry, today I suck and didn't take any. You will have to imagine the soft, fluffy shawl and the love of the needles.
::insert fluffy goodness here::Did that work? Didn't think so. Tune in tomorrow. Moving on...
Now, I want every single 5 of you out there enthralled with my blog to go light a candle or knock on wood or something. 3 days into school and the Teenagers still like it. We are doing our homework without
a police department negotiator complaint and we don't hate all of our teachers
yet. Minor crisis averted yesterday when the Princess cried for over an hour because she hasn't talked to her
love of her life, can't live without, we are getting married someday boyfriend for more than 20 minutes a day in 3 days. Are you kidding me? Thank God he called before we had to declare Defcon 4. Oh the drama. Shame I can't sign her up for one of those Spanish Soap Operas. I could live in the luxury I've never grown accustomed to. That's ok. I can wait for the Baseball Star to be a second baseman for the evil empire Yankees (Yea, while we are on that subject. How in the world do I live with myself for raising a child who is a Yankee fan? I have failed miserably as a mother, I tell you.) and a star running back for the Vikings in the off-season. Pardon me if your monitor is now dripping with sarcasm.
Posted by Heather at 10:15 AM
Hopeless I tell you
So, what do you do when you are at your weekly Stitch and Bitch get together, finish your upteenth felted bag but forget the dpns to make the handles? You cast on for another bag, of course. Or perhaps that's what you do when you have 12+ bags and an obsession for more.
Sophie, knit in Lorna's Laces Bullfrogs and Butterflies in the Glenwood colorway that was purchased from
Knit Happens.
And...another Sophie in Patons Classic Wool. Because, well...I need a black purse. Right?
So, as to not appear as obsessed with bags like I know you all think I am, I will be attempting this.
A Faeroese Flower Shawl in Misty Alpaca.
I haven't had much luck working with such thin yarn, but I'm determined to make this. Isn't it beautiful?
Soon as I finish my bags that is... :)
Posted by Heather at 6:01 PM
Circus monkeys
Life has been a tad crazy in mi casa. School clothes shopping (it's over, it's really over!!), working 50 hours last week and the circus monkeys that share our home. Remember how I was telling you about my darling kitties and how they have learned how to get into my plant shelves? Proof. Tigger is the orange one (forgive the unoriginal name. We adopted him out as a baby and gave him that temporary name. It stuck when we got him back) and Sadie (who is a boy, don't ever take a kitten to Pet Stupid to figure out the sex) is the white one.
They jump up, they jump down. They jump up and fight up there and knock my shit over. In the middle of the night. "Heather, close your bedroom door.", you say? Oh no, because then all 4 (yes, I have 4 cats) of them cry outside the door and scratch up my carpet and doorjams because they miss us so much.
If this wasn't proof enough that they are freaking circus monkeys, I give you this.
The hubby put up our new ceiling fan (replacing that fugly light monstrosity) yesterday. Sadie decided to help. That is a 10 foot ladder. Even funnier was watching him get back down. Tigger decided Sadie was an idiot and didn't try it himself.
And you people wonder why I'm nuts? Remind me to delight you with stories of school shopping next. Because I'm sure you want to hear all about how a teenage girl, who shall remain nameless ::cough:: Stephanie ::cough::, can go to 2 malls, 5 non-mall stores and come out with just 2 skirts and 2 shirts.
Knitting? Crocheting? hahahahaha...yea, right. I'm way behind on email and blogs again, too. Sorry!! I'm trying to catch up.
Posted by Heather at 9:13 AM
Growing up
Today was the first day of school here in Casa de la Teenagers. Baseball Star is now a Sophmore and the Princess is a Freshman. Didn't they just start kindergarten a few years ago?
They are growing up way too fast...
Posted by Heather at 7:00 AM
1 week, 3 days
That is exactly how long it took me to lose my mind since the kids came home. Ok, which one of you won the pool? Last night we took the kids to go clothes shopping for school. Now, the Princess' idea of shopping is to look through racks and racks and racks of clothes at 15 different stores while I stand there watching and come home with 1 outfit. Yes, one. And dare I want to go look at something in the store to relieve my sanity. Because that is when the little Princess pulls out the damn cell phone I bought her to CALL ME FROM ACROSS THE STORE and tell me to come be with her. So I can watch her shop. Because we all know I can't suggest anything to her as my taste obviously sucks. And she won't let me make fun of the ugly stuff either. Meanwhile Baseball Star has 2 outfits and is bored. Hubby is bored. I'm insane.
One would think that after such
ordeal a lovely evening shopping with the kids, that I would be able to go home and go to bed and relax. No my dear friends, this was not to be. You see, those sweet little kitties that I rescued from certain death in a storm drain last year have forgotten that I saved their lives. Because now they have learned to jump up to the plant shelves in my bedroom. Did I mention I have vaulted ceilings and they are really high shelves? Oh, and they just don't go up there for a little nap and play nice. We have to fight up there. And knock the pottery I bought in Mexico on my honeymoon over. And since one shelf isn't enough, they have their sights set on the one in the dining room. In doing this, they broke picture frames as their jumping landed them back on the buffet. You see what is happening, right? The kids drive us nuts during the day, the cats take over at night. It is a freaking conspiracy I tell you.
Posted by Heather at 11:44 AM
