Monday, October 31, 2005

While cleaning in my closet on Saturday, I ran across a shopping bag. It had odds and ends of some yarns and a partially made moebius along with a sweater from Sally Melville's very first book. I threw it all away. Now, before you all faint, for the most part their wasn't much in the bag, they were leftovers and the sweater was from a time when I was a little heavier and it was no where near complete! But, there was one more thing in the bag, this---

I think I bought this kit at the very first TKGA event I attended years ago up in Lansing Michigan with my friend Julie. At the same time I bought the kit for the yellow and black bee sweater from Monkey Suits. The bee sweater is in another box somewhere in the basement. As I recall it is in pieces, it just needs to be finished. I will get to it eventually, but isn't this kit cute? And the best part is that it is still in the plastic, so I don't think the cigarette smell that once was a part of everything in the basement made it into the yarn. But what really counts is the memories it brings back. What fun shopping and knitting and being with friends is!

Sunday, October 30, 2005

I'm Done.

I have decided you can only knit have tos for so long. So this morning after I finished a scarf, started knitting another one, that I did not like the way it was turning out, I decided I am now knitting only what I want to. The scarves that have recently made their way to the Bazaar bag are below. I have a couple of others and that will have to be it. IF-I knit any more scarves this week, it will be because I want to, not because I think I should.


The Poncho- This is why stash yarn is not good!

This is Lionbrand Woolease. The flecked Woolease has been discontinued. Aunt Mary's in Rochelle says they have it. I will check into it this week and if they do, I will have them send me 2. Then I can knit it big enough that the intended recepient can wear it next Spring.

Now, it is time for me to knit what I want. I have had enough for today!

Saturday, October 29, 2005

I am going to whine, only one more time!

Really, I will only whine one last time. You know its bad when you wake up with a headache. This has been one busy week. I still have so much to do and it does not involve knitting. I have shows out the whazoo to close (still have to meet with two tomorrow and later this week) and enter.

Today, I am going to get a handle on it, so I can enjoy some of my next week. I am going to start by cleaning this desk off, getting the piles in order, orders keyed in, I will at least vacuum around me and then I am going to head to the basement to take my warm clothes out and put the hot ones away. I have not broke out the coats yet, but I think I am even going to break down and do that.

Tonight, I have to go to the birthday party for the poncho girl. It is not done so I broke down and bought a Barbie thing from the pink aisle last night. I will finish the ponch later this weekend and give it to her when it is done.

After all of the above is accomplished, I am going to reward myself with a week of knitting. Yes, I will be mostly knitting on scarves until the Bazaar on Thursday, but once that is done, I am knitting just what I want!

Thanks for listening to me whine, I am done now and I promise to be better, really I will.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

I'm On Deadlines

Really, I am. The next time I turn around it is going to be November and I am going to be glad of it. This week will seriously be over, before I even have a chance to see it. In some respects it is good, cause I have alot of lia sophia business to take care of, but in others (knitting) it stinks.

At the moment, I am knitting on deadline stuff, not stuff I want to be knitting on. I am knitting a poncho out of a woolease I bought some years ago. I sent the back half with a coworker to her church on Sunday to measure it up against a four year old there. She came back and said it was too short, but then the more we talked, if I add fringe it might be okay but my intended recepient (has to be done by Saturday at 5:00 p.m.) for her to wear this year, but not in the Spring probably. And I don't have much yarn left. So I went to Michael's last night, hoping to find one more skein of it, of course there isn't any, I didn't expect there to be! So I am going to keep knitting on the second piece and soon will cut fringe for both and then see what I have left. I will take the yarn and knit on both til it is gone and that will be it. I'm thinkin a nice book from Barnes and Noble is in order, don't you?

My next deadline for knitting is next Thursday. I am knitting scarves for our Bazaar at work. The proceeds (after I take my yarn $) out are going towards a Christmas party we have for just the girls. I thought I would have more (back from the benefit last Friday) but it seems that what they didn't sell, they gave away as door prizes. So I need to knit some of those.

After that I promise, I really do, that it is back to some long awaited socks. Cause it is getting sock weather! By the time the socks are done it will be Thanksgiving, and I can be one again knitting just for me! Talk about wishing your life away.

Tonight is Knitting at Lakeview Library. I am looking forward to seeing everybody and just sitting and knitting. It will be the poncho, but perhaps it will be nearer to being finished and then onto scarves!

Saturday, October 22, 2005

You know what gripes my butt?

When I go shopping at Walmart and there sits on the magazine rack, the Holiday Issue of Vogue Knitting and I don't have the one I subscribe to yet! So as soon as I get home, I run to the mailbox, expecting to see my Vogue Knitting there, so I can sit a leisurely Saturday afternoon and evening admiring it. And was it there? No. So then I think to myself, maybe the last issue was my last issue. No, I don't think it is, I think the holiday issue should be.

And I think again, here is yet another reason to not subscribe, just check it out at my neighborhood Walmart when it is on the stand and see if it is worth actually buying rather than having a magazine subscription that comes, I flip through it and there is absolutely nothing I would knit out of it. Until of course, I read on a blog somewhere that they are knitting a really cool "whatever" from the issue that I did not have cause there was never anything to knit out of Vogue Knitting.

I just can't win. Kind of like the Cardinals, huh...back to knitting....

Tuesday, October 18, 2005


I got my books on Saturday from Knit Picks. Love that place, order at least $30 and shipping is free, so of course you know I did. I am reading Yarn Harlot slowly. a little bit at a time and enjoying it. It is different than her first book which was full of Knit Wit and I saw myself in many of the pages. This one is more short stories but are entertaining. I very much can identify with the wedding sweaters. It reminds me of a sweater that I crocheted for Bob many many years ago.

Bob is a tall man and I wanted it to fit so I crocheted the heck out of it. It was way too big everywhere so I put it in the washer and dryer. When you want something to shrink it doesn't. And it didn't. It was a hoot, he posed for a picture for it and never wore it again. I don't think I ever "finished" another one for him.

I am still making my way through Sally's book. This morning I noticed a wrap I might like to do, I think mainly because of the colors, browns and such. At first notice it looked like something other than a wrap on Sally and I think that is what drew me to it.

As funny as it seems, I am actually seriously looking at both of these.


The skirt just looks interesting but okay so I won't actually wear it, but I could see it on someone, really I could. And the sweater, well does that not just reach out and say it is Penny?! You know it does! It has 2 of the prereq colors, Caribe Blue and Lime.

Monday, October 17, 2005


On Friday, I picked up a two knitting magazines. I really need to start sitting down and looking at magazines before I just pick them up. Simply Knitting was a whole lot of ads featuring companies from England. I didn't realize until after I opened and starting looking at it that I paid for $8.99 for it. It's doubtful that there is anything in it that I will ever make.

The Knit It! from Better Homes and Gardens was an interesting look at, but it too was a waste. It features a lot of items made out of Lion Brand yarn and I somehow forgot that in between printings. There was a couple of interesting bags, one felted. And a color combination in a scarf for a male gave me an idea for a future project. The one thing this magazine does do is some little helpful hints through out the pattern section along with color pictures of the project so you don't have to keep flipping back to find the original page.

Both magazines gave a little knitting something to look at while I waited for my Knit Picks order to come. It finally did on Saturday and I have just done a quick look through on Sally Melville and read a couple of chapters of Yarn Harlot, that blog post will be another day.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

I got a new Palm!


I could not stand it. I ran over to Office Max on my lunch on Friday and got it. No Palm was like not having your knitting when you are in a traffic jam that is not moving for hours. No Palm is like sitting at the doctor, hospital, dentist, really long football game, you name it not having a Palm is like it!

It is almost identical to the one that died. Except all my Weight Watchers stuff did not transfer over. I am hoping that when I get back to work tomorrow that the files are sitting there on my computer so I can add the rest of them. If not, I can download them restaurant by restaurant and I will survive. Now that I have my Palm back, I can function!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Today is my Father-in-Law's 80th Birthday.

Here he is with my sons Roger and Willie.


What a nice evening it was. We sat out at my niece's with a roaring fire, had toasted marshmallows (and I do mean toasted, I like my burnt with a charcoal covering) I ate too much but tomorrow is the beginning of my new week and I must be good. We also celebrated my niece's from Naperville birthday along with Bob's sister's birthday. Everybody is pictured here except for Chantel whose house we were at.


It was such a pleasent evening and my mother-in-law surprised me by putting on her Wallaby sweater that I knitted her many years ago. I was so surprised that she thought to wear it. I love it when you knit something and they like it enough to wear it. Kind of makes it worth knitting for others.

Friday, October 14, 2005

My Palm is Dead!

Do you know what this means? My life is there. Where I am suppose to be, when I am suppose to be there and everything in between including knitting and such. Valuable names and passwords I cannot live without. So tomorrow's mission is to go out and see if I can replace it. I think I want the same model because I have become so used to it, I just can't believe it died on me. How could it, I really do take care of it!

I think I have to stay home from work today, I just don't think I can function without it. I wonder if Wayne will go for that one...okay probably not, I am getting dressed now.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Okay so tonight I am out at Barnes and Noble for a just a quick fly through and what do you think they have? Sally Melville 3, but I did not even open it. I barely glanced at the front and walked away quick. I will wait for mine to come. See I can wait!

But realize that the first thing I did was to look on the table when I got home to see if there was a box. There was! But it was a lia sophia box. That has been the first time in over a year that I have been sad that it was a lia sophia box sitting there.

There is always tomorrow. I will wait. Aren't I good?

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Yippee Skippy!

My new Sally Melville book is on the way along with my new Yarn Harlot Book and some brown yarn I ordered from Knit Picks. The confirmation says 5-10 days, but I am hoping it is shipping UPS and will be here before the weekend! A good Friday night read would be oh so helpful!

I can hardly wait, I will be like a child waiting for Christmas. I am going to do my best to not devour (had to look up how to spell that one) it. I want to savor it, reading everything and looking at it all and then making the decision as to what I can just not live with out. All the while, staying within my yarn diet.

Now, I know someone will say, but you blogged that you bought brown yarn above too. Well, of course I have an explanation for that*I did not have any brown yarn that was able to be felted. And I had a leftover skein from a scarf I made that is just crying to be used in a felted bag. Okay, okay, I know someone will say, why didn't you just knit that other skein up into a scarf for the Bazaar you are doing in November. Well, because I don't want there to be two Pennéy originals of course.

See, I can justify anything!

Sunday, October 09, 2005

I am working like a fool today and no knitting done yet. So far, and still doing, I am doing laundry. Yesterday was filled with a lia sophia party up by Peru so basically the whole day was shot. When I got home last night, I ate, napped and woke up in time to watch the Cardinals game starting at 10 and going til 1ish. Then I read a really cute book, falling asleep on the couch at around 4 waking, only when yesterday's lia hostess called with a question around 10.

Since then, I have been doing laundry, clearing the deck of the desk of bills and lia sophia stuff. I made Pumpkin soup, ate one bowl of it and tossed the rest. I thought it would be a way to get something warm in the belly, low in WW points and give me a vegetable. Wrong, not worth eating or making again.

I have my stuff ready for work tomorrow all sitting on the table. Shortly, I will put it in the car so I will be ready for tomorrow. But before that, I am going on line to Knit Picks to order my new Sally Melville book, the new Yarn Harlot book and some brown yarn for a felted bag I am gonna try. I have never used Knit Picks yarn so I thought I would give it a try. The best part is my order will qualify for free shipping and Knit Picks discount their books by 30%. I am hoping to have it by next Friday, so maybe I can sit around on Friday night and look at it. Cause next weekend and on into the week is another fast and furious--Saturday, celebrate bdays at the inlaws, Sunday lia sophia party, Monday lia sophia party and on Wednesday, the man will have his cath, Thursday, hopefully the Radical Knitters can get together?

Starting at 7 tonight, I will sit in my chair and knit and watch tv, not answering the phone after they start. We start with West Wing, then Desparate Housewives and then cap it off with Grey's Anatomy. I love Sunday t.v., I just wish Monday wasn't a work day!

Friday, October 07, 2005

I have been very lax in my blogging recently. Mainly because I just did not have much to report on that was really worth reading. A few weeks ago I blogged about a couple of things that I want to touch on for just an update on.

I was knitting scarves for a benefit that is coming up on October 21 in Bartonville. I have turned over those scarves to my friend Kristy so they are now complete. They totaled 11 and I hope they make some money on them, since this is a worthwhile benefit for a young single mother who has cancer. The last scarf was a red fun fur scarf and we are teaming it up with the Lady in Red lia sophia earrings and calling the Lady in Red. What fun...

So now that I finished that round of scarves I am onto another round that need to be done by November for a Bazaar at work. I am going to sell them and the proceeds are going to our Girls' Holiday Party Fund.

The other thing I touched on in the blog is my great list of WIPS with all the needles out there in them. I finished a scarf today that has mittens to match and was able to cross off, and put away in their appropriate plastic sleeve one set of needles. What a sense of accomplishment that was. At least for me. Only 19 on my list to go. And that list is just the ones I am owning up to for now!

So you see, it may not be a great blog read, but boy do I feel good about it!

Monday, October 03, 2005

I'm Spinnin!

And I don't mean spinnin yarn. More like spinnin in circles. Blogs are fun to read and catch up on what everyone is doing. But, then you see things you just want to explore and do and buy. Yarn, Books, on and on and on. A trip to Barnes and Noble is on the list for tomorrow before I go to Knit Night at Lakeview.

Yesterday, I was going to go through a box to see if there was appropriate yarn in it for a vest or two and a shrug. Didn't get it done. Did finally get all the laundry done ( I swear it was multiplying as I put it in the washing machine). I managed to get some lia sophia stuff done, but I still can't get one gal to call me back with the info I need. There is a learning lesson there. And I still have another flyer to get out for a party later next week.

I started yet another scarf tonight for the benefit at the end of the month. It is red eyelash and we are going to team it with the Lady In Red Earrings from lia sophia as part of the auction. I still have to finish a scarf in the round I am knitting to go with mittens that match it. And I said I would do a pair of flipflops for a vacation in February basket that is being put together. So, after those three things, I will have everything done I am donating for the auction. They are meeting with the auctioneer on Friday and they want to have everything by then. Then that time line will be done. Before then, I need to hit the Target in Peoria to find a couple of small boxes for some jewelry from lia sophia I am donating too. Guess, I will add that to the list for tomorrow night before knitting at Lakeview.

At the college we are doing a Fall Bazaar the first Thursday in November and I am going to work on some scarves and flipflops for it to sell for myself along with the lia sophia table I am sharing with a fellow advisor. Before you know it, it will be time to knit on Spring/Summer 06. Maybe, I should just cut to the chase and keep working on Spring and Summer. Then I will be ready! And I can't stop spinnin, around not Yarn!

Sunday, October 02, 2005

I Have Scads To Do Today!

I have laundry to do (and I have been working on it since last night). I have lia sophia orders to put in and close before the website clogs up there and I don't get them finished. I have BILLS to pay. I have cleaning to do. I have a couple of scarves that need to be ready to go to the auctioneer list for a benenfit at the end of the month.

But what am I doing? Pondering vests and shrugs to start! I am suppose to be working on the tunic and the scarves! Not deciding what vest to do out of some light caribe blue yarn that a friend gifted me with a year ago. And then the shrug. This bout of warm weather we are suppose to have between today and Wednesday gives me added time to get a plan as to which way to go. Char and Linda - remember the Koigu I bought at SMW? I have 5 skeins of it. Wouldn't that make the Falling Water Shrug really knifty? And then I could still do that easy/quick one out of another yarn I have stored away in the box. OR I could use the light caribe blue above for the ez shrug. OOY!

The last Cardinal home game from their current stadium is on this afternoon. I think I will swatch the shrugs and vest during the game. In between, I will finish the laundry. lia sophia orders are gonna get put in before the game! Hey, I gotta plan....off I go!!!!

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Blogging is the topic for today!

Earlier in the week and for a few days in a row, I tried to add some pics of the tunic I am working on along with a pic of an old one that I knitted years ago. The pics never would actually make it to the preview page, so I just gave up. And now the tunic has progressed even further so it just wasn't worth showing the pics anymore. Not to mention, they really weren't that good of pictures anyway! You couldn't really get the effect of either yarn. There is something said for natural light.

Time then got away and there just has not been a spare moment to blog at all. I have not even had time to write about anything or even read by long list of blogs that I like to read every couple of days. So, this weekend I will catch up, reading the blogs.

There are two things I want to say about blogging. The first is I enjoy reading other people's knit blogs. You get some really good ideas from them. You get to see if you really want to knit something that is hot and there is a lot of good information out there. When t.v. is boring and I just don't want to do anything, I will occasionally read a blog and then see who they read. Sometimes, it takes me somewhere I never would have found on my own. Like Sweet Georgia who has the neatest pictures ever of her knit stuff. That's what I want my pics to look like. Ooo ahhh!
Blogs like Sweet Georgia even gives me hints on how to improve my photos if I would just take the time.

The other thing I want to say about blogging, is I can't wait to see my name on someone's list of blogs that they read. But of course, to make a blog worth reading to others, it has to look good and it has to be worth reading. Hmmm, now that is a novel thought isn't it! Guess I'd better do something about it, huh!

Those are my thoughts for the day.