Whew!

So much stuff going on lately. We've found out the grandchild to be is a granddaughter to be. It looks like I'm going to be covered in pink or purple for a while. Now it's time to get some girly buttons on the stuff that was already ready for her.

My other mother had to have some surgery and so far, so good. We'll know for sure when the word comes back from the lab.

Holidays are getting close and we are anything BUT ready! eeeeeek

Not a lot going on that I can share, but it's looking like we're doing what we're supposed to be doing for everything to work out the way it should in the long term.

Cat update

Well, the baby cat (she's 8, but still she's the youngest cat) is much better now. Actually fully recovered. She's been placed on the "Catkins" diet. That means wet food that is all meat with no gravy or veggies. The first couple of days were really rough for her because she is the one who would ONLY eat dry food. No interest in tuna, any other type of fish, or any meat. The picture at the top isn't her at her top weight of 28-1/2 lbs,, but still. She's down to about 21 lbs and still is a total lap full.

The other cat will do about anything for a piece of roast beef, and heaven help you if you got Cheetos. She'll just about jump down in the bag to defend her share. She, of course, tops out at a scrawny 7 pounds.

I've mostly been working on the Queen Anne's Lace circular shawl. This morning I wanted to see what it looked like other than a ginormous hat bunched up on the needles. I threaded waste yarn and spread it out. It still has a way to go, but Oh My Goodness. It's freakin' awesome. This is one of the few times ever that I've looked at my own knitting and been impressed.

It's actually an easy pattern and not an extremely intricate design, but is just perfect for it's intended use. The link takes you to Men Who Knit which will take you to the pattern.

The camera went to work with the husband, so no pics today, but soon.

A Kitty Post

Chubbalicious (Friday the cat at the top of the page) has really slimmed down. She's practically a wraith at a mere 23 pounts.

Ummm... the picture at the top IS a current picture and not at her top weight. Poor kitty has been sick and had to make a trip to the emergency vet the other night. We'll know by tonight how she's going to be. Keep your fingers crossed 'cause we just adore this chubby cat.

Knitting - AAAaarggghhh. I started a Queen Anne's Lace shawl to go with all the other WIPs. Maybe soon there will be some actual finished things to put on here.

How can I be so busy?

I don't get it. I really don't.


I thought when you quit working, you'd sort of lounge around, eat bonbons and do lunch. OK, OK when you pick yourself up off the floor from laughing at me, just let me know.

• First thing every morning as soon as I get up, there's the obligatory pot of coffee and some knitting.


• Then comes down the scrawny cat who must chew my toes - morning pedicure whether I like it or not.


• I have to get a dish of HOT water (the hottest the tap will produce) for scrawny cat or get my leg shredded while listening to pitiful yowling. It seems to be her morning fix like the coffee is mine.


• Then comes the black dog who needs loves and pets.


• Then comes the husband (He's a loan officer for a mortgage company.) who deserves and gets some coffee, conversation and all around attention. His picture is on the right, yeah, the cute guy over there.


• Then comes the beagle who must be greeted - yes, greeted. He sits and looks at you and whimpers until you say "Good Morning" in this weird cheerful tone of voice.


• Then there's ironing whatever the husband wants to wear today. I know, it would be easier to do it all at once, but this works for me so there.


• Maybe find something to send to work with him for his lunch, or at least a couple of pop tarts.


• OK by now it's getting to be daylight, so I wrap a blanket around my big ole butt and stand on the back porch (in full view, mind you) make these strange chirpy noise until the chickens come running and throw cat chow all over the yard for them. (Yeah, they're cannibals - who knew?)

This all happens pretty much before "normal" people get out of bed. Not a lot of stuff, nothing hard, but it's time consuming.

This week, I've also set up and filled a database with some possible client information for someone, prepared three mailings for someone, done a good size order of stitch markers for a customer and got sucked down into the great black hole of Ravelry which I'm loving. There are so many ideas, patterns and lots of people to ask if there's a project you may want some help with. If you aren't on there yet, I'd sign up.

Anywho, gotta go do some housewifey stuff and Christmas stuff and walk the dogs and water the chickens and plan dinner and make a grocery list and work on that database stuff and...

Startitis in full bloom

Every year I knit for Christmas. Every year I KNOW there will be Christmas knitting. Right now I'm in the throes of startitis and UFOs.

So far there are:
1 triangular shawl
1 rectangular shawl
2 (count em-2) afghans
1 pair of socks
1 toy turtle (Sheldon from Knitty)
on my needles.

Then there' s my best friend who's reminded me a couple of times how much she loves her socks...

AND I need to proof and re-knit the teddy bear pattern I half-way wrote up when I made the bear that was in an earlier post. At some point I'll have to get a couple/few test knitters before I share it, but that's probably at least a couple of months in the future.

Whattya think - work on the big stuff first so that the closer to the holiday, the less stress per UFO??

No more new projects. (I can't even type that with a straight face)

see ya soon

Finally a sweater

Not that the sweater took that long, it's just that it is the ONLY thing I've finished in a while exept for the Clapotis. There will be no pictures of the Clapotis on here. It's a very easy knit and everyone has shown pictures of it to death. I made the mistake of using a thin fingering weight (if there is such a thing) and size 2 US needles. It made it necessary to do LOTS of increases and LOTS of repeats and to be honest, it really is pretty, but I'm sick of looking at it right now.

It started out as a pattern I'd found, but I modified it to death since I didn't like the sleeves and the bottom. I can say, however, it is a raglan sweater.



This was made out of CARON SIMPLY SOFT SHADOWS in the 'Autumn' colorway. Hopefully it will be big enough to fit mystery baby when the weather cools down next fall. PLUS next week, the kids will find out if it's a boy or girl (if he/she isn't too modest) and everything should be color/pattern suitable after that.

The reason I picked this color was 1) I liked the long changes in it and 2) SOMEBODY ought to be having a redhead at some point in time.

• I'm a redhead (sort of old penny, but still)
• My mom was a redhead (true auburn)
• TWO my son's great grandmas were redheads

That li'l gene is gonna pop out somewhere, so just in case ....

I've also been moving a lot of my knitting stuff into one room. It has taken over the whole house and HAS to be gotten back under control.

Not much, but a start and this room as the added benefit of having access to a full attic if the stash starts to explode again.

Ta Da

Ok Here's the sweater for grandchild on the way. When we find out the gender, then it'll get buttons. Right now I'm leaning toward the square ones, but we'll see.

When I was looking for a teddy bear pattern, the ones I was finding had NO TUMMY to speak of. Well, what good is a paunchless bear? That's not cuddly. Plus there was a lot of sewing/seaming. So out came the needles and here's what happened. The only seam is about 2 inches across the top of the head between the ears. I was very very good and wrote down everything I did as I went along, but don't think I can read it now because my abbreviations at the time make absolutely no sense to me now. What can you expect when you're keeping track on a big sketch pad with a hot pink highlighter.

I'll probably run it through another cycle in the washer/dryer to get that last bit of felting in, maybe embroider some features and then make some clothes. Probably should ask if the kid will need a boy or girl bear.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Blogger won't let me put in pics, so I'll try again later....

It's Official

The kids got married today.....

Oh Crap, I'm a Mother In Law

(Doesn't this mean I've got to get my witch face on? - OK for Hallowe'en, but maybe not so much for the rest of the year. I make a pretty good boyfriend's mom, so maybe I won't be so awful to be related to by marriage. Maybe someone should send the poor girl some sympathy cards.)

Rollercoaster ride

Whew! I'll be so glad when this summer is really done, not just calendar done. Everyone has periods in their lives that are just bursting at the seams with turmoil. This summer has surely been one of those for us.

1. Husband changed jobs to a commission position where you have to build a client base. The outlook on this is extremely good, but until you build up your base, it's a struggle.
2. You get a gift package in an exchange from a total stranger who gave you the most awesome perfect gifts.
3. DIL & Son get pregnant. This is the second time in the past 5 years that I have actually burst into big blubbery snotty tears because I was so happy.
4. We thought the baby was lost. Heartbroken and mourning someone we truly loved but had never met.
5. Washing machine dies.
6. Landromat has city water and the white clothes are MUCH whiter.
7. Refrigerator dies.
8. Find out the baby is fine. (We are crediting a miracle for this one) DIL is fine. There goes the ole chubby woman happy dancing around the house and doing lots of baby knitting.
9. Realize how big your stash is and you've got plent of yarn for all the knitting
10. Water pump dies. This is even MORE fun than the refrigerator dying. Neighbors are generous with letting us haul buckets of water. You realize that you CAN take a shower with a few pitchers of water if you're careful and you really don't need to keep the water running that much when you're doing dishes.
11. Your best friend's son makes it back from Iraq safely.
12. New water pump! Husband is downstairs with neighbor putting in a new one even as this is getting typed.

You realize you are so blessed to have a husband who works so hard doing unfamiliar chores and jobs because it's for you. There ARE miracles (See #7 for this one). A good neighbor is a true gift and should be appreciated. For every crummy thing that happens, the good things that happen outweigh them immeasurably.

Oh Crap!!! (Run fast, it's a rant)

I'll try not to do this again for a looooooooong time, m'kay.

Ever open your mouth and just wished you could do a big rewind?

Bear in mind, I've been extremely sleep deprived lately (Can you say 3 hrs or so per night?) It's never a good idea to disagree when your tactful part of the brain has gone on vacation....

I'm in this Yahoo Group and one of the members was unhappy about being chosen for jury duty and the probability of not knitting for a while. There were suggestions on how to get out of it.

OK, nobody wants to pull jury duty. BUT (It's that big ole but again) in this country we have the awesome privilege of voting for our leadership, protesting when we feel our leadership is screwing up, we're innocent until proven guilty, and so on and so on... One of the obligations we have in exchange for these privileges is that when we register to vote, we do so with the understanding that we could be called for jury duty.

(Yes, we vote at our house. I took my kid to the polls with me from the time he was 4 years old and explained to him that it was important. We get to hire politicians - this goes from local council members up to the president of the country. We hire the one we think will do the best job for the most people. If we don't think they're doing a good job, we "hire" someone else to work for us the next round. )

Some days....

...are just like that, aren't they.

I like knitted stuffed animals, I really, really do, BUT I don't like sewing a bunch of little pieces together. I decided that there was going to be a teddy bear that didn't require a lot of pieces. Sat myself down with my needles and started knitting.

Knit two little feet and legs, attached a rounded booty, chubby tummy, couple of arms, skinnied everything down for a neck, chubbed it up again for a head with turned up nose, on and on for days this went. Stuffed the sucker, picked up and knit on a couple of ears. Ta-da!!! The only seam was about 2 inches across the top of the head. I wrote out what I was doing row by row. To make sure it wouldn't get lost, it was written in hot pink highlighter on a sketch pad.

"So, what's the problem?" you may ask. Well, it's so darn cute even if it is nekkid and lacking features that I wanted to share this with you. The freakin' camera batteries are dead! Aaarghh!!!! Surely we'll get around to getting some new batteries soon and THEN you can see how cute he turned out with his big ole belly.

Got the grandchild to be a sweater finished except for weaving in some ends. It's blue and white. Even though the blue is a bright turqoise, it's lacy enough that it could be acceptable for a girl with the right buttons. This non-gender specific knitting is going to have me sewing on dozens of buttons when we find out if this kid is a boy or girl. Have I mentioned enough times that I'm not a seamstress??

Pictures of that to come, too.

Anyway, I've got the endless Clapotis still going on - just a hint - don't knit this on US2 needles with lots of extra repeats. It's good reading knitting or TV knitting, but if that's all you're doing, it gets a little mind-numbing.

Also got one of the lacy toe up socks for one of the husband's processors almost done. They're going to be short house socks and I'm on the last couple of rows of ribbing at the top. (Ditto on the pics)

The 'Secret of the Stole' starts Friday, so I should probably finish up a couple of things.

Awwww

Got the sweetest phone call last night.

A little voice calling to ask me how to spell GrammyT. Then I'm informed that she likes her headband and that it fits and it will keep her ears warm and she doesn't have to write 'Thank You' because the card already says that part and she's getting so big she can almost wear mommy's shirts. Then she took a breath. Then she was in a 'Heart Walk' at school which is fun and the walk was in the gym and her partner in the walk was a little girl she didn't really know but she seemed really nice and they might be friends now and at different stations you could stop and jump rope if you wanted to and it was lots of fun. Second breath.

Whew, after you spend time talking to adults, it's a little hard to keep up with all that delivered in about 1 minute - but I'll do my darnedest as long as she wants to tell me what's going on in her world.

Just wondering...

I've been watching on the news about that picture some lady took on vacation and thought it might be the little missing girl in Europe. Within a couple of days with minimal information and a blurry picture, there were bunches of journalists converging on some family who happened to have a blonde daughter.

The part I wonder about is this. All these bloggers put up myriad pictures of their kids because they are proud that little 'Lucy'*and 'Skippy'* look so cute in their new outfit or whatever. Then, after they give out their kids' names, they proceed to tell you the name of the town they live in, where they shop on Tuesday afternoons, which park they take the children to for playtime, etc. Is it me, or is this just dangerous? There are strange people out there in the world, people. There are people that are harmful in their intent. It seems like it's being made too easy for these people to find these children if they stumble across the site where they are featured.....

Yeah, Yeah, I'm a worrywart. It's what I do. I do it often and well. I know I posted a picture of my grandchild to be a couple of weeks ago, but I'm relatively sure that nobody is going to recognize him/her from a picture taken when they were an 8 week fetus.

* Lucy and Skippy are our dogs names. Good luck dognapping them. One of them bites and the other is just a plain old pain in the ass.

An ending and beginning

Well, I finished the little headband thingy. I put a button on it 'cause we don't want to mess up the li'l girl's hair just pulling it on her head, plus really old buttons are cool looking. It looks curvy because I did that on purpose with some short rows on the front. I believe it will make it fit better (if it's big enough at all). She's growing and we live so far apart current measurements are a dream. Anyway, here it is. If anyone wants, I'll write the pattern out and you can have it.

For the beginning, I finally started a Clapotis. The photo doesn't show true colors, which are more of a slightly faded daffodil. The needle on this is a US#2 which means lots of extra repeats/rows which is going to make this a much more long term project than I had in mind. Thank goodness it's good reading/watching tv knitting.

Here's how it goes when you're making stuff up...

For whatever reason, it seems that 99% of the time I have a compulsion to figure out how to make things on my own rather than getting and/or using an existing pattern. Here's what it looks like when I'm figuring something out:

I like those little headband thingies that cover the ears. They're good for people who actually have hair. You know how dorky it looks with long hair hanging out of a hat, or even more special is long hair in a big bump inside the back of a hat. Our existing granddaughter has long hair. She's young enough that she's ok with the hat thing, but I wanted to try out a headband thingie for her. I'm doing it with Opal sock yarn in a cable pattern. The notebook's for writing down what I did (do) and when. Hopefully when I'm done, it will be small enough to fit her little head and be really cute with opposing cables. I'll probably put some short rows in to fit the curve of her head. If it works out as cute as it has the potential to, I'll post the pattern somewhere with a better picture. (I know my model needs a bath - she got into some mystery brown crap that doesn't seem to want to wipe off.)

And, yeah, I read while I knit. I decide what's going to happen on the row, write it down then read while my fingers do what I just wrote down. It doesn't work for lace or 'hairy' yarn or something that requires a lot of counting, but for your basics it's good.

Other people's cooking

What is it about someone else's cooking? Is it really better or just different?

When I first started to cook it was most certainly MUCH better than mine. Now I think it's just a nice, yummy change. Yesterday, for instance, my neighbors knew my husband was out of town and I'd be batchin' it for dinner, so she came over to get me when it was time for dinner. It was a very simple dinner of chili with rice and iced green tea. Mmmm mmmmm. Her chili is so good. It's similar to mine, but there are definite differences. We use different amounts of cumin, chili powder, onions, garlic, well shucks, just everything. They're both good, but for some reason hers was super good. The food was good, as was the tea.

I think it just boils down to someone taking the time to care if you were eating alone and including you as part of their family for dinner that makes everything so much better.

I Got Nothin' (much)

I knew playing on Ravelry was gonna be my downfall and I was right. It's way too much fun, but there was a little something accomplished:

It's not knitting, but still, they're pretty don't you think. It was a special order for one of my customers off the marker blog. Pretty setting, huh? The ole paper towels background..

There will be knitting content very soon. Unfortunately, the son is a Colts fan (we're Steelers fans here) so the baby to be will be getting a blue/white sweater, sigh. What's a grammy to do. That amuses me so much! The whole grammy thing is still new, but it will surely wear off eventually.

Ravelry!

I knew it! I just knew it! I'd gotten my invitation a long time ago, but didn't go look around. Everyone talks about spending a lot (too much) time there updating their stash, their projects, their planned projects. It sounded like one more thing to lose time on. Boy, was everyone right. I haven't put anything on there yet. Just looking around at different projects, groups, stashes. Before I knew it, it was time for bed....

I'll be back there for way too much time I'm sure, it's like being a kid in a candy store. Who could resist? If anyone wants to say hey, I'm TerriLynn in there, too. (The person who's looking at everything to the exclusion of putting her own stuff up.)

OK, one other thing. Grammy needs to get some yarn and such for baby things. Go check out my stitch markers and see if anything appeals to you!

Almost me

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of people.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Well, except for the pacifist part. I grew up in the 'holler' school of "You mess with me or mine, I'll deck your ass" and some of that still lingers in here somewhere...

Enough of that already...

I know we're all excited about baby news, but 99.99% of everyone else in the world could care less, so I'll give it a break... ((dancin' again')) ((stop that!!))

The weather has taken a turn for the better. It was 53F here last night. Perfect sleeping weather to snug in. Apparently the dogs thought it was, too. Little monsters woke me up at 12:30 last night pinning me to the bed with the blanket so tight it actually hurt. Aaahhh, the joys of being loved. After I wiggled out of bed, it was easier to just go downstairs and curl up on the couch for a couple of hours.

Why was it easier??? Because Skippy, the chubby butt beagle, will pretend to be asleep when you try to get him off the bed. It's really funny in a twisted sort of way. He's laying there, you know he's awake (not snoring - he ALWAYS snores when he's really asleep), he knows you know he's awake. You act all stern, say "Skip Down!" and do the hand motion. He lays there with his eyes closed. You do it again, "Skip GET DOWN!" and do the hand motion along with finger snap. (Around here, the finger snap means business, y'all.) Little beagle eyes closed tight...

You try to pick him up off the bed. He's curled up in a tight, hard, ball that cannot be unwound. If you really get desperate, you can drag the whole dead weight (40+lbs) off the bed and try to catch it before it hits the floor....

Now you know why it's just easier to go to the couch... I'm too freakin lazy to lug a lump in the middle of the night while trying not to wake up the husband. I'll kill them all later. Right now I just need a nap

Can't Wait to Meet You

This is our grandchild that we'll be meeting in about seven months.

We are so excited and relieved and thankful for this baby. We were terribly worried that he/she wasn't going to make it this far.

This little one has a beautiful older sister who is, no doubt, going to conspire to make the parents life 'interesting' with her younger sibling. We've kind of hinted around at what we want her to call us, but the hints didn't really kick in, so, without further ado if our kids are reading this :

NOW, CAN WE GET CALLED GRAMMY & GRAMPY AROUND HERE????

(ummm does anyone else think those drawings of aliens look like 8 week fetuses?)

A Little Football A Little Knitting...

Yesterday was FOOTBALL!! Yeah, yeah, I know, but I gotta say I love Troy, Willie, Santonio, Alan, Casey and even like Big Ben. (I could name more, but surely you're bored or confused enough by now.)

I'll try to be back later with pictures of the 'Baby Pea Pod'. I've still got the final sleeve and some assembly to do. If you want to see some pictures, you can go look at my newest sets of markers on the other blog. See you later....

PEAPOD

The picture is fairly accurate for color, but the photographer is LOUSY! This was a really quick little knit.

My details on this one are:

Peapod Sweater from Knitting Daily.

I used US5 circular for the body & dpns for the sleeves. (I knit the sleeves in the round instead of flat to reduce seaming)

A little more than 1/2 skein of Opal sock yarn. (This is not what is called for in the pattern. I'd bought it to make a pair of socks and just held on to it and petted it for months because of the color. It's sort of a blue/lavender color. There are a million button possibilities to be determined by whether we get a grandson or granddaughter.)

Just a quick hit

My yarn got here!


I'd ordered some yarn for the Clapotis knit along that starts later this month. It arrived and looks just like the picture (which is really a bonus when you think about it!) The oddest thing was, the package included a set of double pointed needles. Oddest things ever. They are about a US size 2 and they're at least 12 inches long. They'll be great for hats!


(Umm... don't tell me that 12" dpns are as common as dirt. They're new to me and I want to enjoy the oddness of them for a bit.)

Just Doin' Stuff and Nothin'

Before I show off the knitting pictures, I gotta show you the husband's new work blog. He's moved operations and is now a loan officer at a different institution. They're providing him with a web space, but he was anxious to get a jump start. (Cute ain't he?)



My MS3 stole with lots of beads has been finished for a while. I sort of blocked it so I could take a picture. I'm sure if a decent photographer was around here, you could see all the little multi color sparkles throughout it. (Yeah, yeah, if frogs had wings on their rears, they wouldn't bump their butts when they jumped.) Anyway, here it is.



We were disappointed that the kids didn't get to come visit this weekend due to some health issues, BUT it probably worked out for the best since the refrigerator decided to punk out either late Friday night or early Saturday morning. (Where the heck can you find an appliance repair man on a holiday weekend?)

To keep busy, I started this;



It's the beginnings of a Peapod Baby Set from Knitting Daily. It actually won't be a set, because I won't make the hat, we all know this, so there's no point in lying.



I also made these:



I actually made something that matched! You've got to understand, I never knit matching items. I'll get tired of a pattern or a color or something and just move on to the next thing that catches my eye. When I was a kid they said, "She's got the attention span of a gnat!" It still applies.



I also did some stitch markers for the other place. You can go look at them here. Plus, there was some stuff being made sort of 'by request', that I needed to get a good start on. No pictures of that.



All in all, it was a nice holiday, where you quickly lose track of time.

Sock Swap Pictures FINALLY

Finally, finally,the camera came home and after a couple of days, the cord came home, too! Here are the long promised pictures of the awesomeness my sockapalooza upstream angel sent.

WARNING: You may experience fits of extreme jealousy!

Mmmmm... Yummy stuff to bake: A coconut brownie mix, scone mix and a white chocolate raspberry pie mix. Do you have any idea how hard it was to not scarf all this down pre-photo?

Twisted Sisters Sock WorkbBoo. This covers every aspect of making socks from plying the yarn to finishing techniques. An emergency skein of STR and a skein of Socks That Rock in woodsy fall colors:

Two - count em - two bags. One is a nifty little project bag in a gorgeou bright puzzle print and the other is a larger quilted bag with angels on the fabric. It's big enough to carry "road trip" knitting. (You know, when you're going somewhere and it's a long drive and you have to take 3-4-5 or 6 projects along to work on in the car.)

The best for last: Look at these socks! Perfect color (with little beads incorporated in the pattern), perfect fit and the best feeling softest yarn.. mmm... She even sent all the remaining yarn in case I needed to lengthen the socks. (Not gonna - I love them as they are.)

The other thing I've been working on are these: Awww, grandbaby socks. There's not really a pattern, but I blatantly copied the toe style from Colin and incorporated nupps which I just tried out on a practice piece recently.

Meat Loaf Ain't for Sissies

Cooking was something learned after I'd set up housekeeping when I was very young. Mostly the way things were figured out was simply by eating things somewhere and trying to remember what they tasted like they had in them. (That was almost in English, wasn't it?)

I had some burger I needed to use and thought I'd share the 'recipe'. It's not really a true recipe, because there is so much leeway in the ingredient list. Some things are 'must haves' and some things are 'good to haves'. Anyway, here ya go:

This makes 2 good size meat loaves. One for dinner and one for either freezing or sandwiches for lunches the rest of the week.

First off, set the oven to preheat to 350 F.

In a 'big ole ginormous' bowl, put all the following ingredients

• 2# or a little more of the leanest ground meat you can get (we use a lot of turkey).
• 1 medium onion diced
• 1 large or 2 regular ribs celery diced up
• Either 3 slices of stale bread torn to bits or 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats or 1/2 cup of your favorite bread crumbs.
• 1 small bell pepper diced up (red is really pretty, but all colors taste good)
• Either 1 clove garlic crushed up or a liberal sprinkle of garlic powder (We use lots more cause we like garlic)
• 2 eggs
• A big ole generous squirt of ketchup (probably 1/2 cup) Squeeze the bottle til it makes that gross noise one time!

Spices - If you don't get a little happy with spices, you have a big bland chunk of baked meat ((shudder)). I use the following, but experiment away - use a little more than you think you'll need (trust me on this)

• 1 Tablespoon (or more) Old Bay seasoning and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper sprinkle of dry mustard

or

• 1 Tablespoon (or more) of salt free Everglades seasoning a little tiny bit of chili powder and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper

or

• 1-1/2 Tablespoons (at least - we think more is better) of Italian seasoning, a pinch of cumin, a pinch of extra rosemary and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper

The idea here is to use a fairly strong combination of spices that you and yours like the taste of. Obviously at my house we likes da cayenne pepper....

Take off ALL your rings and put them in your pocket. Now start squishing this up with your hands. Keep squishing until everything is all mixed up and the texture of the meat has changed from little ground up squiggles to a uniform consistency. Pretend it's kids play clay! If you're PO'd or irritated with anything, now is the time to let it out a little.

NOW

Divide this into 2 fairly equal parts. Put it into 2 baking dishes. (8 or 9 inches across) Smoosh it down and use your fingertips to dimple the top until it looks like a really bad case of cellulite (you know, chubby thigh)

Mix up 1C ketchup and 1 C water and pour equally over the two meat loafs. Put in the oven for an hour. Mmmm good.

Other stuff that has made appearance in meatloaf depending on what's in my produce drawer that needs to be used.

Chopped up spinach leaves

Shredded carrot

Shredded zuchini

Green onions chopped up

Handful of chopped parsley

Cup of drained canned diced tomatoes (this is very good)

Things NOT to use EVER (trust me on this)

Cabbage in any form

Turnips in any form

More than a leaf of cilantro unless you really like meat that tastes 'green' (too vegetabley if that's a word)

Corn, peas, green beans

Anyway, enjoy. It's actually really good and easy and sort of fun with all the squishing.

Oh, put your rings back on

One li'l picture

I haven't forgotten this blog. I've just been waiting around for the camera to come home. Maybe tonight it will come back.

I do have one li'l picture. It's this:

That's the yarn I ordered for the Clapotis knit along. If you want to join, or just see what's going on, you can go here.

For other stuff, it's a rainy dreary day and I am feeling wonderful! Seems like a contradiction, doesn't it? The thing is, I slept about 7 hours last night. For most people that's no big deal, but around here it practically qualifies as a miracle. Evil cat (Princess) usually decides around 2:00 am that she really, truly needs a bowl of hot water (yep, hot water). When she tries to wake me up, Lucy (the dog on my header) tries to protect me and usually ends up jumping on me trying to get to the cat. Gooooooood morning! Last night, everyone was good and let me sleep in 'til 4:30.

For some reason, I was thinking about life lessons this morning. One that is hard to learn (or was for me): The world does not revolve around you. No matter how much we want it to, it just doesn't work that way.

It was such a shock when this dawned on me when I was younger. After you get used to the idea, it's really sort of comforting. It frees you up in so many ways. You don't have to be cool. You don't have to worry about how to be the center of attention. No wasted energy wondering why everyone doesn't like you. You can go on through your life making sure that the ones you love know they're loved. Make your little area as good as you can. Hopefully try to make someone else's area a little nicer.

PLUS you can stop wasting time judging everything. Here's an example of the trying not to judge.... (trying)

At a small local store, we were waiting in the checkout line. The counters are set up in a confusing way and a young man went to the wrong side of the counter and was told to get in the back of the line. The clerk was an older (late 60's) lady and got really upset with him, telling us he was stupid and should pay attention, etc... We're usually the people that say hi to clerks, try to be pleasant and thank them for taking care of our transaction. She was busy being upset to the point of being rude. As we were leaving, the first thought you have is "What a B***h!" Then, it occurs to you, she's at least in her late 60s. You KNOW she doesn't want to be working on her feet as a cashier at this stage of her life. She must have a great need in her life if this is what she has to do. (If you've never done it, let me tell you, it's work! Hours and hours on your feet on concrete.)

Oh well, enough brain farts for one day... hopefully some nice pictures soon..

Can't wait to tell this one....

OK OK gotta tell you this...

Remember how I was whining about how life in general sucks and we've had some problems and I needed to remember that things work out?? Of course you don't. But, that's fine. I'll reiterate a bit here. Through my life, it's always happened that things work out. Often not the way I wanted, but the way they needed and usually in a much better way than I wanted.

Well, hubby changed jobs in early June to a commission only line of work. Can we say broke??? Thank goodness for Aldi stores and thank goodness we aren't big shoppers and thank goodness I can juggle like a circus star to keep creditors at bay. BUT, you kind of start to worry about all the responsibilities you have to take care of. You know, you sleep about 3 hours a night, no extras, no yarn even...

We got the Pittsburgh house sold!! Yes, it was a deficit closing (meaning we had to come up with more than we sold it for to get out from under the payments), but we won't be paying utilities through the winter again on a house we don't live in. Lemme tell ya - heating a 100+ yr old house in the northern part of the country ain't cheap. Not only will we no longer have that house payment, utility bills and dare-I-say-it the ridiculously high Allegheny County taxes, there was a small mistake made by the closing company in estimating the amount of money we needed to send to complete the deal. I take full responsibility for the mistake. For some reason, a southern accent does not translate well when you tell people in the northern part of the country that you've already paid expenses involved in the transaction. Soooo, when we got our packet of paperwork back, there are two, count 'em, two checks in there. The total is not hugely impressive, but it will surely help out around here.

AND, the husband had a deal 'come back from the dead'. One that was not going to work no matter what is now going full force and looks like it's going to come to fruition over the next couple of weeks.

It may not seem like much to you, but to us these represent the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and the first steps towards black out of a sea of red.

THAT's why I b*tch at myself about having a little faith and being patient. I just turned 50 (eewwww) and you would think I had that figured out by now.

The camera isn't back from it's little hiatus yet, but when it is you will be treated by the wonderfulness that is my Sockapalooza package. I've taken everything out of the box, fondled it, petted it, made the husband pet it, and put it all back in the box so you can see a re-enactment of the unveiling.

Wow!

I've got to have the most generous swap pal ever! The socks are perfect. PLUS, there were so many gorgeous yummy excellent extras in the box. When the camera comes home, you'll get to see pictures, but I warn you, you'll be soooooo jealous.

Seriously, Michelle sent a wonderful thoughtful package that was better than I could ever have hoped for. It's one of those weird emotional days I get every so often, so I'll go finish crying now (in a good way).

Happy Birthday...

Yep, it's today.

It's so funny, my hubby wants to make a big deal out of birthdays. For him, there is the obligatory day off work, dinner out, singing the birthday song and reminders for days before and after "It's my birthday!"

My birthday has never been a big deal. I don't remember any birthday celebrations growing up. I only remember two as an adult. One was the day my dad married my stepmother. She's been a great gift to our family for 24 years today. The other was one where my first husband planned a party and then took off for hours leaving me to make excuses for why he wasn't there - bleah... The cake was good, though.

Today has potential for a very good day. I'll get a brand spanky new PA driver's license. HOORAY! I'll be legal. I haven't driven for a while because I'm such a chicken about getting caught with an out of state license when we've lived here for a while. PLUS, we get to send off the paperwork that will conclude the sale of the house in Pittsburgh.

That will be the end of two mortgages, two sets of local taxes and two sets of utility bills. Whew!! What a relief. I may have to jump up and demonstrate my disco diva dance moves! With husband's change of job, struggle does not even begin to describe the effort to pay for both houses.

One thing that will prolong my birthday is that my son will get the date wrong. He has NEVER gotten my birthday right. He will call on the 11th to wish me happy birthday. He always thinks it's the 11th. One thing, he IS consistent about wishing me happy birthday every year. Hmmmm... I wonder if I can extend the spoiling from my husband to include all five days??

AANNDDD They're Off!!

The sockapalooza socks are gone. So far from home. All the way across the country. <> They've been such a part of the family, we miss them already. In addition to the orangey socks, I sent a pair of lacy socks in a bright pink/yellow Sockotta cotton. It just seemed too hot to not send some cooler socks in a summery colorway.

She's also getting the lotion, some cable patterns for socks charted onto fridgie magnets, stitchmarkers and a weirdass little bag to keep the markers in. The bag got worse and worse the more I tried to fix it.

I embroidered it, sewed it together (sewed is a relative term here) and then washed it. EEEeeek. I'd never used that type of embroidery thread and the colors bled. Mmmm... well then I thought I'd tea dye it since the color was relatively light. Poor baby. She's getting a dirty looking little bag with color bleeding onto the fabric, but by George she's getting something that I'm sure down to my toes that no other participant is getting!!

I forgot about taking the picture until my husband got back from the post office. Ahhh well. Maybe she'll post a picture of it on her blog as the fugliest present she ever got. I would agree.

Non-sock related. I'm still plugging away on the MS3. With the current clue, we seem to be going off at an angle. Almost a lazy L shape. The fabric is beginning to look like feathers down this section, which is appropriate since the theme is 'Swan Lake'. If the rest is as pretty as what there is so far, I can see making this one again, which is a major commitment for a project polygamist like me.

For some reason, I thought I'd gotten the number of projects down, but looking around, I see that they are still multiplying.

• The Dad afghan (I hardly ever work on this one.) It was started while staying with my dad right before he passed away last year. It's one of those projects that makes you cry a little bit even as you are remembering the good things.
• Mittens for donation - I still need to make 3 more pair
• Cream color shawl
• Grey shawl
• Multi-color mitred rug from leftovers that will get felted when finished
• Crochet curtains for downstairs bathroom
• Lilly of the Valley Scarf
• Socks for other-mother.

Plus I finally found a cute sweater pattern for the great-nephew that is eluding me at the moment. I haven't cast on for that yet, thank goodness. I probably should since he is due to arrive in this world next week sometime. (Oh Geeze - Great Nephew?!?!! - It seems like his mom, my niece was just in diapers herself a few months ago)

On the animal front, our chicken now has a round fuzzy butt. Yep she pretty much finished her little molting spree by plucking out her tail feathers the other night.

It looks like the not so fun issues we've been dealing with around here are starting to get resolved. It hasn't been fun. Kind of like that stupid joke about praying for patience - RIGHT NOW! I'm still learning to trust that if we do our best, it eventually will work out the way it's supposed to - even if it's not necessarily the way I want it to. Any kind thoughts you sent this way are greatly appreciated.

Wool in August

OK, is it my imagination, or am I crazy. It's waaaayyy over 90 degrees outside and I'm knitting on a shetland wool shawl. Draped over my lap, no less. Have I whined yet we don't have air conditioning? I think you've all heard enough about that so....

The MS3 stole is so pretty. It's not my knitting skills it's Melanie's pattern. The woman has skills plus she's got a very sneaky little evil twist. The instructions were extremely specific about putting a lifeline in a particular row. The only explanation given was you may need it. OK, I understand about lifelines, but why in that row? Why not the row below or 10 rows later? Hmmm... she's keeping mum about the whole thing until tomorrow. It ain't fair I tell ya! Torturing all those innocent knitters out there... Geeze Louise. I wish I could hold that many people in suspense over days and months. Skill, pure skill.

Animals are passed out in little baby heat comas all over the house. The only thing moving is sometimes a mouse. Yes, another one. We got rid of the one mouse and now there's another one. Unless it's the first one wanting another cat spit bath with a beer shower chaser. Someone or something will catch it soon, and we'll be mouseless again.

If only you could see...

I hope my recipient sockpal reads this at some point. I really, really do. Other than the fact that making her socks was a lot of fun, the stitch markers were fun and the charts were fun, she should know one little detail about me personally. I CAN'T SEW...

This morning this brilliant idea popped in my head. She needs a little monogrammed bag to put those stitch markers in. It shouldn't be too hard, it's just a little bag. Well, the monogram was no problem. There are yards and acres and miles of cross stitch fabric and thread here. I used to do counted cross stitch exclusively. Found a nice little chart for an old English style lettering. Stitched her initials on the fabric and went to the sewing machine. Ahhhh, the sewing machine. It was Christmas gift about 20 years ago. Don't know why a sewing machine, never did know, never will know unless it's that thing where people think if you do anything with any kind of thread or string, you must sew. Picked it up out of the corner, knocked all the accumulated dust off it. Figured out how to thread the bobbin and away we went.

Well, the best intentions and all, it's heinous. She's getting it anyway. It's got her initials on it. It can't go live with anyone else. It's like those little pug faced mixed breed dogs that need dental work. You know, so ugly someone has to love it.

I'm sure the kind hearted who read this will be saying "It's OK, she'll appreciate it anyway." If only you saw her blog. The girl can sew. For real. Clothes and stuff. Gotta laugh, it's funny in a warped little way. As soon as the swap is over, you get to see pictures of it in all it's 'glory'.

Let it go

There are some things in life you have control of and some you don't. You can control whether or not to watch television, whether or not to knit, what to wear, your temper. The list of things you can control goes on and on. Then there are the things you can't control. The weather, what other people do or don't do, history and so on and so on. For someone like me, it's harder to come up with things you can't control.

My head knows that's silly. The list of things out of my control is nearly endless. BUT, there's that little thought that keeps jumping in there. You know, "What if I....?"

Right now, there's an issue going on here that I have absolutely no control over. There's not a damn thing I can do about it. All the 'what ifs' bring me to the same conclusion. Let it go. It's either going to work out the way I want it to or not. Nothing I do will change the outcome. We have to just do the best we can and have faith it's going to turn out for the best.

So many times in the course of my life, I've found that it works that way.

When I was very young, we lived in a one bedroom house. With a child that is not a good situation. We went house hunting, found a great three bedroom house in a terrific subdivision. We got an offer on our tiny house and were getting ready to move. The sale of our house fell through. There was no way we could get the larger house. Talk about disappointment! Later we found out that the community sewer treatment plant in the nice subdivision had to be re-built. Every home in the community was assessed $10,000 for their share of the cost. Thank God we didn't live there. We soon found a much nicer house in a closer neighborhood for the same price.

After I was divorced several years ago, I had to move out of the school district we had been in since my son was in kindergarten. He was a senior in high school and had known some of his friends since they were 2 years old. We scraped up the money to get him a junker to be able to finish out the year at his high school. Junkers being what they are, there was a repair bill for about $1000. For a single mom getting minute child support and having just an OK job, this was catastrophic. The day after we get the repair estimate, I get the mail and there's a check for $900+. The attorney who had taken care of the sale of my previous house had miscalculated some costs and it was the amount I'd been underpaid. Repair bill taken care of.

Later, high school being what it was, my son needed quite a bit of money for something school related. The next day in the mail was a check from the phone company. The phone company! I called them and asked why. I was told I'd been over-billed for several months and they owed me this amount. It was almost exactly what my son needed for school.

These are just three examples of things working out that come to mind quickly. You'd think by now I'd understand that if you do the best you can, it will eventually work out. Maybe not the way you think is best. Maybe in ways you don't understand at the time, but as far as long term, they do work out. Wouldn't you think that by now, I'd be able to continue doing the best I can, and as for the rest, just let it go....

EEEEeeeek!

It's a mouse! Yep, it's a little after 3:30 in the morning. I'm usually up by now anyway, but not with so much drama. Princess (skinny, scrawny 7 lb cat) practically tore the bed apart trying to wake me up earlier. I stumble down the stairs, put on the coffee, dump warm water over the cat (that's another story) and sit to watch the rest of last night's episode of The Closer.

Then there's the yowls and the sound of carpet being shredded behind me. Princess is trying to rip the carpet off the floor to dig her way under one of the radiators. My first thought is a moth must have gotten under there - she's a great moth killer.

I find a flashlight, shine under the radiator and find nothing. Look some more and see a lot more nothing, well, except for some dust. Turn off the flashlight, reach for the cat and whoosh. (Probably should be a tiny whoosh - it was a very small mouse) There goes the mouse across the floor. Right now it's under the chair I usually sit in to knit with Friday (massive, beautiful 28+ lb cat ) standing - actually laying guard beside it.

Now it's waiting for daylight to go find a mousetrap out in the garage. Yes, I'm going to use a regular old mouse trap if I can find a place to put it where the cats can't reach it. I figure a quick death will be a lot easier the mouse than letting the cats do what comes natural and torture it to death.

Mouse Update
It's a little after 7:30 now and the mouse is gone. After FOUR HOURS of all the animals digging, sniffing, whining, yowling and generally being pains in the butt, Princess caught it. Blechhh... I hate the way cats play with prey. I carried Princess (who had the mouse's head in her mouth) to the back porch and shut out the other animals. Then the real fun began. I shook her, no good. I begged, nothing. I cursed, nothing. Picked up a can of beer the hubby left out there last night after he did the yard work and dumped it on her head - AHA!! She dropped the mouse and caught it before I caught her. We did this a couple of times. Finally, I caught her first and threw her skinny wet butt back in the house. Caught the little spit covered mouse in a rug and tossed it out on the back stoop. Now I've got a cat that reeks like a brewery. I only hope she grooms herself, gets a little beer buzz and sleeps for a couple of hours so we can all get a little rest around here.

Hmmmm... I guess that now all the furniture is pulled away from the walls and the dog has knocked all the books from the shelves during the hunt, I can get the last part of the sweeping and dusting done.

Takin a Break

I'm taking a break from the MS3 stole. I made a mistake, oh so many rows back. Right now I need to decide if this is a mistake I can live with or not. If it's not, the ripping will commence. To keep myself from tearing it apart, I started a little project to distract myself for a bit.

It's cute and all, but can you see it ever looking like this? Talk about some severe blocking. We'll see. While you're over where the original picture is, you should look around. The lady does some gorgeous work.

On the animal front, Hawk (the little black chicken) decided she was going to sit on some eggs and become a mommy. When chickens are broody, they stay pretty much on the nest, don't eat well, don't visit their friends, don't go outside, all very boring for them. It's my fault, really. Her eggs are so small, I'll let them accumulate for several days before getting rid of them. There was no way those poor li'l eggs were going to be anything but a stinky mess. Hawk's boyfriend, Speckles, passed away some time back. I'm thinking there is no such thing as immaculate conception for hens. After several days, we finally caught her off the nest. Poor hubby had to stand guard while I did the egg-napping. She's out today visiting the neighbors, so all is forgiven.

I've got some more markers over at the other place if you'd like to see.

Souper Sekrit - Not anymore..

OK, OK, I can't stand it any more. As of Today (and hopefully tomorrow), here is what my Sockapalooza pal is going to get. She doesn't have any idea who I am. Yep, I'm sure, so being the NON-able to keep a secret woman, here are the things for her package:

There are the fridgie magnets. They've got cable charts suitable for socks on them. My buddy isn't a lace fan, so cables it's cables for her.

I wash my hands so much when I'm knitting because of all the breaks to pet the dogs, feed the chicken, pick up the cats off my yarn... Anyway, my hands get really dry & rough. I got this to try out, and loved it, so I thought the buddy might like one, too.

And stitchmarkers.

If anyone has any suggestions for changes or additions to this, please, please, please let me know. (Just a thought - Wouldn't it be funny if my receiving buddy left a suggestion?)

Finally a couple of pictures

I've been working along on the MS3 clues. It's cool enough to actually knit bit without feeling like you've got woolly spider webs stuck all over you! YEAY! Here are the long delayed pictures of Clue 2 completed.


This one is done exactly as written. I'm liking this a lot.







BUT



I'm one of those people who can never leave well enough alone, so I got 'bead happy' on this one.


For my not-knitting project, I made these. They are the result of a special request from a knitter on one of the lists I belong to. They're on little lobster style clasps so they can be attached directly to the knitting as well as slipped over a needle. The letters spell out knitting abbreviations. Hopefully, she'll like them. I think you can tell I'm a tad knitting obsessed here. I have some others for sale on my other blog here

Can't think of anything cool for a title.

After my hissy fit the other day about the heat, of course it cooled down and the humidity plummeted. It's magic! And y'all wondered why I crab so much.

I've finished the current clue on the first of my two MS3 stoles and am pretty darn close to finishing on the second, which is a good thing because the 3rd clue will be out this morning some time. I believe the camera will be back from it's vacation some time this evening, so pictures will happen.

While sweating, swelling and bitching through the last heat wave, I picked up the Dean Koontz book 'Odd Thomas' . There's a line in the book that goes "Recognizing the structure of your psychology doesn't mean that you can easily rebuild it". For some reason, it sticks with me. I think the key word in the sentence is 'easily'. Sometimes recognizing the issues in your life is simple. Getting past them is simple, but not necessarily easy. It's a work in progress, just like anything else that's worth doing. Anyway, I'm a sucker for the story and cry near the end every time I read this book. I know, I know, but it's true.

The kids are supposed to come visit us next month. I guess that means I'll have to get some painting done, redo another floor and actually break down and put beds in the other two bedrooms. (One of the rooms is currently nothing more that a pass through to get to the larger closet, and the other is being used as a workroom for my knitting and other projects.) This is actually a great motivator for me, because without some sort of deadline, big projects tend to languish in a corner while I do stuff I want to do instead of what needs done.

Heh Heh... Can't wait to see the little one's reaction to being followed around the yard by a chicken. I believe I'm looking forward to that more than her mom is looking forward to the outlet shopping in Lancaster.

Too @#$%^ Hot to Knit

I've been trying to knit on the MS3 stole. I really, truly have. But (it's a big ole BUT), the temps have been in the mid to upper 90s with very high humidity. We live in an old farm house - read that to mean no AC, just some window fans. Anything that requires much movement or effort needs to be done early early in the morning or late at night when the sun isn't blazing/burning. Yes, I'm a wimp. It's the high humidity that makes it suck so bad. You sweat and it doesn't evaporate, you are just hot and wet. Yarn just sticks to your sweaty hands and arms. It's all I can do to keep my clothes on. Well, actually, a couple of times I've gotten down to a night shirt during the afternoons. Thank me profusely now for NOT sharing pictures

Whew, I feel much better now that I've got alll that whining out of my system. It feels like a bad case of knitting withdrawal b*tchiness. The weather is supposed to be cooling off over the next couple of days, so the knitting should recommence.

On one of the knitting groups everyone was asked what they had in progress. My first thought was "hardly anything", then I wrote it out:

Closing toes on a pair of socks - Least favorite part

The huge afghan I started when my father was ill last spring

Stole in white

Stole in grey shetland

Mitred square rug half knitted & then felted

2x2 ribbed socks

Blackwork (type of cross stitch) picture

Special order stitch markers

For thinking I just had a couple of things, it sort of snowballed when I looked at what I was actually doing. No doubt, it's the same way for you. You think you (or your life) doesn't have a lot going on, but realize how much there really is to it. Some good, some sad, but all needed in one way or another.

Another reason to appreciate my husband: I have a small health issue that crops up in hot weather. The ex would let me know I looked like sh*t and needed to do something about it. My husband asks do I need a footstool, do I have plenty of ice, am I drinking enough water, and then he runs the sweeper. It's no wonder I love this man.

Cue the William Tell Overture and Lucky #12

Or, the theme to the old Lone Ranger television show. Tomorrow (Sunday) is our 7th anniversary. All day long the husband has been popping into various rooms and singing:

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Haaaaaaaapppyyyyy Aniversary

Ah well, it doesn't read as cute as it sounds. We are on a mission to find a good Chinese restaurant to eat in tomorrow. My theory is when we walk in the door, take a deep sniff. I've always found that good Chinese restaurants have a great spicy garlicky smell when you step inside. If the smell isn't there, I vote we leave. He's really not loving this idea. It would be embarrasing to just walk out. I'm thinking if you haven't been seated yet, they can think you just changed your mind and decided to eat later. If we don't agree on anywhere new, there's always the terrific Mexican restaurant on Route 30.

We actually met in a bar back 9 years ago. I was there with a date and he was there to meet a mutual friend. It was a get together for a sort of birthday party (don't ask) for another person. We kind of hit it off as friends and left it there. Some time later, neither of us was seeing anyone and we went to get something to eat. No big deal. After a while, the friendship bloomed into something much better. (Bloomed! I can't freakin believe I said bloomed!) We had a lot of mutual friends who had very strong ideas about who each of us should be dating, not each other, so we kept it secret from just about everyone for months just to see what we wanted to do without any outside influence. Only one person figured it out! Ten months after the first meal, we decided to get married. Nine months after that we tied the knot.

The lucky #12 thing is just a set of strange coincidences: I'm 12 years older than my husband who is 12 years older than my son who is 12 years older than his son. Maybe we should play the lottery.

Socks and Etiquette

For years, I've been trying to find a pattern for socks for my other mother. She has very thin ankles, and most patterns that will fit her on the foot are 'droopy' on her legs. I found a pattern for a pair of anklets and thought they would be perfect. I was telling her about it and explaining the only thing I could think of that would stay up on her legs would be a 2x2 rib. Turns out she LOVES a ribbed sock. She likes to turn them down in a cuff. Sigh. All those years I avoided it because it didn't seem 'girly'. Big ole smack in the head - ya gotta ask what your recipient likes! I've got a pair started, but just barely. Not enough done for any kind of a picture.

Still working on the MS3. Working on it again would probably be more accurate. Portions of the pattern are posted on Friday mornings, so it's a weekly knit.

Now for the etiquette portion of our program. There are several blogs I like to read often. If I want to put the links down the side of my blog, am I supposed to ask permission first? Is it good etiquette to inform the blog owners that the links are there? Do they just understand that some of us are curious/interested/nosy about what they are up to in their world and expect the links to happen out there?

Finding other little oddments to put in the Sockapalooza package. Nothing really pricey or unique, but things I like and hope that someone else will like too. Maybe not even necessarily sock or knitting related.

Lace of a Different Color and Chicken Woes

This is the same pattern from the MS3 knit along. This time, it's grey shetland wool. The grey was a little calmer than what I was looking for, so I added more beads than the pattern called for.

Several members in the knit along are guessing what the theme of the shawl is. The guesses are fun and several of them make me shake the cobwebs out to remember bits of Greek mythology. I believe they are going to give prizes for the correct guesses. I'll kick in a set of stitchmarkers for the winner(s).

Now for the chicken part:

I am one of those people who are easily manipulated by guilt. Look at me with soulful eyes and it's all over. Our chicken, Hawk, has been very leery of contact. If you went near her, she ran away as fast as her little drumsticks could go. Poor little thing..

I decided, like a dope, to 'make friends' with her. She spends the greater part of her days hanging out around the neighbor's chickens. They are in a pen in the corner where our yards join. Hmmm, how do you make friends with a bird. Food! Every day, out I'd go with a treat. Cornbread, bagel, cat chow (yep, they like cat chow). Pretty much anything they'll eat, which is just about anything. Now, when I step outside, the neighbor's chickens line up in a row along the side of their pen and little Hawk runs up doing her best imitation of a racing ostrich. Can't hang up laundry, go to the garage or step off the porch without having to pirouette through the poop! What was I thinking? She looks at me with those beady little chicken eyes and immediately there's this panic of "What can I feed her?" "She must be hungry". I'm spending way too much time scrounging through the kitchen for 'chicken treats'. Smack me now.