what foul wind this way comes?

The impossibly strong odor that engulfed the house is reminiscent of a decaying musk ox.

Who in the world gave that child pistachios??

The only way to remove that funk was to start a fire(to get a breeze going out the chimney) and discover that my (soon to be late) dearly beloved closed the flu. Normally the flu is wide open, and by wide open I mean never before in our entire history have we closed the flu-so it was not something I would have thought to check.
Smoke went billowing everywhere as I fought viciously with a truculent, surly flipping piece of crap flu handle. Lots of hollering and then kicking out the flaming logs, throwing windows open and beating my head upon the security/smoke alarm trying to remember the blasted code.
Fortunately the flames relieved my need to shave the ole pits, so that was a bonus.
Got flu open, restart fire because now the draft is needed to help clear the fumes.
Que naked baby that has escaped her bathwater and the phone. Answer phone, chase golden haired imp down the hall. Listen to Hubbo explain in minute detail the information he needs me to email him while my mother attempts to ring through on the other line. Not getting me on the land line she starts blowing up my cell phone....all just to ask if the kids are going with her tonight.
Naked baby is now dancing on recently folded laundry singing something at the top of her lungs...stopping only to fart and recharge the air with the revolting aroma that started this whole catastrophe.

Another heady morning in the glamorous lifestyle of motherhood.

*sigh*

On the knitting front : Zero stitches

Crop Circles

Well the truth is finally out. We know where the crop circles come from.

link
About 100 woolly sheep formed a perfect ring while grazing in a field in England on Friday, baffling the farmer and other witnesses, the Daily Mail reports.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Russell Bird, who photographed the bizarre occurrence.

He continued: "I did see a dog worrying sheep nearby beforehand and the dog ran off round the hedge in a different field, so I don't know if they were discussing that."

As the farmer’s tractor approached, however, the sheep scattered, but another circle was formed three fields away. Both formations lasted about 10 minutes, the Daily Mail reports.

Where is Moulder when ya need him?

check out Jeepgirl

SweetyHeart Yarns

Go check her out. This is a really good friend of mine. She combines two of our families hobbies, knitting and Jeeps, into one great package LOL.

Bless her heart, she even tried to show me how to spin yarn.

One of the few I dearly miss in Michigan.

Forest Canopy Shawl

One of my more favorite wenches went and challenged/invited me to knit along on the Forest Canopy Shawl with her. She actually tried softening me up with fancy compliments reflecting on my passion for the convertible I started last spring. I got to giggle wildly as I confessed I am still not done with that bugger.
It was too late to retract her invite though, so she is stuck with me as a buddy on this.
Does it count that I have already cast on one yarn, got 3 repeat sections into it before deciding that I wasn't gonna love the variegation? I ripped it back.

Now I'm going to go with a lovely cherry tree hill sock yarn instead.

At least I think I am. I just realized that both my lace shawls will be in practically the same color. Maybe I should go with the hussy red after all?
Nuts.

Awe somebunny loves me

My girlfriend of a bazillion years went to Italy for Christmas!. Amongst all of that adventure of coolness she still thought of me. Awe.
Look what she brought to me tonight:



Now thats love. Thats a friend you keep forever. She doesn't even knit y'all. Hand carried those balls. *happy sigh*

I want to encourage this behaviour, so am looking for a pattern for them. I want to make something for her....about 50 grams...no yardage and I don't have a yarn meter..any suggestions?

I heart you Val!

Crazy Cable'in Lady

All sing the praises of Supercrafty! My yarn I ordered just 4 days ago is here! Whoot whoot! See how pitiful this project is? How little yarn there was to finish it? It was so sad to get into the groove only to find out you are outta yarn.


Oh happy day is today, Supercrafy rocked the mail system. I'm so incredibly thrilled. I'm used to a minimum of two weeks, not 4 days. SuhWheet.


I had no idea it would be that fast so I had searched Ravelry and found this Fly Capitan hat that the soapy knitter created. Not wanting to lose my new found love of cabling, I cast on some vintage tweed I had in the stash from a swap last year. I was banging. Finished that sucker and immediately cast on some Debbie Bliss tangerine merino to make another. I was in the middle of that when my yarn arrived in the mail. Today is a good day to knit.




Pardon the mess in the background heh heh.

knitterly black hole

So I get this great pep talk from Jessie right? She points out great new resources for patterns on Ravelry to help alieve my lack of knittymojo. I go find the yarn sorter, I go retrieve the yarn that had been winking at me from the closet stash. I find a pattern. Print it and cast on. Great pattern, easy to read, takes one ball of yarn and is a quick knit. Perfect. The first gloves goes like a dream. This was my first real go at cables and I was soooo pleased with that left handed glove. Then the anti-mojo kicked in. I cast on for right hand glove, and literally had to frog my CAST ON because I had flubbed it. How does one screw up a cast on they do in their sleep they know it so well? I get the bugger cast on appropriately, get a round or two in, careful not to create a mobius strip. Set it down to go make dinner, come back, start knittin' and realize I had it turned around, no big deal, tink back and go forward......get to new cable, pay attention to be sure I have it going the correct way, continue. Got to the 3rd cable and obviously had a brain fart as the next 3 cable twists were a freak of knature. They were twisting, I was shouting, it was a regular boogie woogie knightmare.
I take another deep breath, go eat dinner and take a walk around the neighborhood. Sit down with some tension tamer tea and correct the blasted things. All is well. I'm relaxing, enjoying the play, still pretty giddy about the first glove and how lovely it looks. Get round and round, do next cable set and get comfortable. It sounds like things are going well yeah? I thought so too.
I've run out of yarn. I'm about 3 inches and a thumb short.
I bought this yarn well over a year ago at the local knit shop in Michigan.....which is now over 900 miles away....
*whinge*cry*wail*stomp*pout*

If you spot any Mission Falls 1824 wool in a amethyst 23 (either dye lot 4104 or 4685 I have 2 mission falls ball bands and have no idea which belongs to my gloves) take pity on me and let me know? I'd appreciate it.

LeSigh

**UPDATE**
Supercrafty had EXACTLY what I needed and I'm soooo freaking happy.
I ordered 2 balls just to be sure. Hehe

FINALLY

Well here we are in the jolly new year of 2008 and I am FINALLY back on line.
I can hardly fathom how my last post was about the evil love bugs from Hades....soooooo much has happened. The short version: We found the house of our dreams in our neighborhood of choice in the very section of said neighborhood we wanted to live in. Due to never having/using credit cards in the last 5 years our credit scores were actually LOW!!! So with winter coming the mortgage broker offered to rent us her old home while we rebuilt our credit. We get moved into her place only to find out a week later that the people who own the house we really really wanted have "asked about" our family and decided they really want us in here so will rent it to us until we can get that mortgage. YAY. Wait.... crap...that means moving twice in one month. Le sigh.
So we moved again and are very happy about everything (especially the green house and the fireplace). Lots of moving, lots of stress, but ultimately, lots of the good stuff to.
We were asked to hold a Bible study at our house and that has been more successful than I ever expected. It has the added bonus of serving as church for us as the closest Calvary Chapel is a long long drive and the other local churches have not really felt right to us. Homeschooling is going like gangbusters and the kids are getting to include neighbor kids in projects (like foliage collection/identification). El Hubbo is really suited to his new self employment...if perhaps abit slow on the organization of his paperwork. Very satisfied with everything really, God IS good.

About the knitting. Well. *sigh* I've been dreadful. I'll start it at that. Just know that there are NO quality yarn places down here in the deep south. I may have to get a sheep. So I spent the last several months making log cabin blankets (out of acrylic...I know I know). I started some some socks only to get to the heels and lose all interest. I swear, I has gotta be stress and lack of communication with my knitting compadres. I miss Messie and her inspiration. I miss Marquita making patterns harder than they need to be hehehe I miss Ravelry and Harlot and Purl. I did have a fantastic email though! I found out my good buddy Jess has picked up the knitting lifestyle and I am thrilled *swoon*
After moving into the new homestead and settling in (and becoming excessively bored with endless garter stitch log cabin blankets) I decided it was time to work on my PW cardigan. Only I have discovered I am a moron and really should be under supervision when knitting. I tried to be smart and avoid cutting in for the sleeves and just knitted them on at the right spot. It developed shoulders that would make the blasted thing appropriate outerwear for a hockey player in full pads. I was in such denial I carried on for a couple of days wanting to get it done before hubbo came home (and with it being on a circ that denial was pretty easy to pull off). Finally I realized I had to put it on a line and have a look. It was bloody awful....so bad that it got stuffed into my knitting basked and buried under several balls of acrylic in punishment. THAT was the very moment I lost my knitting mojo. I have had ZERO desire to knit ever since. Once my beloved pointed that out to me, I promptly picked up the basket and frogged that sucker all the way back to where my 'genius' kicked in and made something stupid. It took nearly two hours to frog (Fair Isle ya know) and the thing is STILL stealing my creative juice away. I attempted pulling out the sewing machine to intimidate it, but instead the malicious thing had a few words with the Brother and now my sewing mojo is gone as well. Even new fabric and new shears have not re-revved those desires. I did make squirt a new dress, but honesly it looks like the gear you would wear in a mental ward. Uhg. Maybe I should make one for myself? Spread a few ashes on my head in repentance for offending the knitting goodness that is my PW? You think that would work?
Me neither..but it makes me giggle to think about it.

It's good to be back yall.