Rockin' Girl Blogger

Way, way, way back in July Marit nominated me for the Rocking Girl Blogger. I was really thrilled but did not know how to put the button on my blog. I have finally found out how to do it so a little late but I am going to name 3 more.

Tracy of Heritage Crafts, Kelly of Pretty Purls, and Jane of the Yarn Grove. You are all lovely ladies to chat with on here (Jane I have spoke on the phone with). So have a good day and remember that you are all lovely and cared about ladies. Since this has been going on for awhile, nominate or not as you wish.

It's me again....

Just wanted to post pic of my latest pair of finished socks.

This was my first time doing Intarsia and also my first time doing magic loop. Both were fun to do. I think I now prefer magic loop for socks. DPN are still fun to use out in public for the WOW factor, but for ease of putting them down magic loop is best. I also tried two circ but when you use a 16" circ the actual needle part is so short that it sometimes is hard to work with. I guess I could use two longer circs but then I am afraid I would have too much cable and that would be a bother. At least I have options.

The Truck

I didn't get pictures of the FO's yesterday so I will have to try to get them this evening before I take the things to Knitting and give them to N.

But here are pictures of the smashed truck.

Believe it or not, that pile of wreckage at the almost end of the boom was our truck. When I first downloaded the pictures I did not even realize that the pile of mangled metal was the truck. One of our employees was sitting on the tailgate. Now tell me just how lucky he was!

This picture shows that it really was our truck.

So much has happened

It has been nearly a month since I last posted. I did try to post but I could not get the video to load that I wanted to share. It was really cute. It was 3 and 4 year olds playing soccer. They are a hoot to watch. My daughter in law and her sister in law were coaching.

I have a few FO's to show but I have to wait until tomorrow when it is daylight again to take pictures of them. Our knitting group at the Markay is doing a Christmas sell to make money for the Art Theater here in town and we have almost sold everything so we are all knitting our fingers to the bone to make more stuff. I have a baby shrug and cap, a baby sweater and 1 or 2 pair of fingerless gloves and a helix cap that I need to do I cord on and finish off. That will be the end of my contributions as I have already give a baby bunting and 4 scarves. I need to get busy on my own knitting for Christmas now.

Last Thursday (Oct 4) we had a truck get smashed. It was one of our work vehicles and it is a total loss or as our son said, "It is destroyed, Dad" when D asked if we could drive it home that evening. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow. It is just impossible to describe it. I could not believe that it was as bad as J said until I saw the pictures. We had an employee sitting on the tailgate of the truck and luckily God was watching out for him as he only sustained some bruising and a few little puncture wounds. If he had been sitting only 4 or 5 inches to his right he would have been killed. God is good.

A couple of weeks ago D, J, M, MIL and I all went down to a family winery in Gallipolis. We did a wine tasting and when we had finished I had a buzz on (I seldom drink) and I did not even try all of the wines. I did have D get me a bottle of Pink Catawba. I finally opened the bottle just a bit ago and I am having a glass of wine and eating pizza rolls with it. Quite a combination!

Well back to the knitting, I want to finish the cap.

I'll try to post more often.

Good Sunday morning.

We are back from Cincy and glad to be home. I always like taking a trip, whether long or short, but I am always glad to get home. I miss my babies. All were fine and were glad to see Mommy back home so they would get their treats and loving.
I got a Comfort Zone with Feliway for my kitty babies while we were away. One of them has scratching and marking issues. I had read a lot of good comments about this so I decided to try it. Hope it works. I'll try to remember to post progress.
I should have mentioned on the last post that that is not our Harley. It belongs to one of our employees. I am not a motorcycle person. I rode on one with hubby once and it scared the crap out of me When we would go around a corner I could not lean. I just knew that if I did we were going to fall over. Needless to say it made it very hard for hubby. Thank goodness he is not into street cycles either. He did go through an enduro phase shortly after we were married but it did not last that long. He rode when most of the riders did not have the big fancy boots, pads, and such. Old clothes and a helmet was pretty much the norm. Of course I am talking about 30+ years ago.
I found a store to go in and get a size 12 steel crotchet hook on Friday evening so I did start my MS3 but I only got about 10 rows done. I need to find or make some system of keeping track of the rows other than just using a row counter. I'll work on that this week. What little I did was fun but no pictures so far.
Have almost finished the first Sept Sockamania sock. I seem to have almost lost my knitting mojo. A short time ago every chance I got to sit down I would grab my knitting and go to it. Now I just sit and think that I should be knitting. Maybe I have made it a MUST so I don't want to do it. Hope it comes back again.
That is all for now.

Motorcycle Mama---Cat that is

Some of my favorite pet pictures.

This is the baby that started the current round of pets at our house. She is MY baby. When we went to look at the puppies she came over and sat down at my feet. When I picked her up she wrapped her paws around my arm and would not let go. She hasn't let go of me yet. Katie is 8 years old now and has mild hip displasyia. She is a beauty and well behaved. I take her to town with me quite often. She walks at heel beautifully. In December when I have to purchase her new dog tags she goes to the court house with me to get them. I didn't take her one year because there was a lot of snow which meant a lot of salt on the walks and salt is very hard on their pads. I really got into trouble for not bringing her in. LOL.

This was the next baby. Our cat of nearly 20 years gave up the good life and was replaced (that is not the correct term since a pet cannot be replaced) by Erica. We went down to our mail man's house on Memorial Day several years ago to get a "kitten" from him. The cats were over a year old. Oh, well. The first two cats would not come close as I had Katie with me. They had to get along or no cat. Erica looked at Katie and then just settled down in my lap. This was the one. Erica was with kitten when we got her but we did not know that. I have a few pictures of her kitten but it did not live long. Sooo, we let Erica have another litter. These are the twins. The one on top of the box is Munch and I still have him. The other is Podie and he lost a fight with a car on the highway.
They have another litter mate that I still have but Belly is not as outgoing as his brothers. I will have to look on my other computer to see if I can find a picture of him. He is another beauty. He is black with stripes.

Then along came this little holy terror. He was a drop off stray that actually came to my son's house but followed me home one evening when we went down there for dinner. When we got back to the house and I let Katie out, Coley stood up on his back paws and began to swat at Katie's nose. Katie just looked at him. It was so funny. Coley weighed about 2 or 3 pounds at the time and Katie weighs 165 or so. Coley is long haired cat but fortunately he loves to be combed. I keep "his" comb on my bedside stand and as soon as I pick it up he is there to be combed.


At Christmas time in 2005 Coley discovered the Nativity set and decided to lay in the creche. He did this when the figurines were still in it. As soon as I took them out after Christmas to put away he immediately crawled into the creche and lay down. It was so cute. After seeing him do it the other cats all had to have their chance at it. Never a dull moment around here. This is Munch in his usual position catching a few zzzz's.

All of my pets have been spayed or neutered. I am a responsible pet owner. Since we do not have a farm and barn I don't want to eternally be trying to give away kittens and puppies. These babies are enough.
I will have to get pictures of Belly and Susie from one of the other computers and put them on here. That will be all of the babies then.

A FO! Hooray!

I finished the baby sweater up this morning, went to town and got buttons, have blocked it and put the buttons on so now it is DONE and ready to be shipped off to VA.

Sissy will take it to a baby shower that they are having on the 8th for my nephew and his wife.. I really didn't think that I would have it done, but I have.

The pattern is called Rainbow Set as it is in a variegated yarn although I chose a solid pink. It is a variation on the feather and fan stitch. The designer is Margaret Jones of Port Alerni, British Columbia, Canada. I got the pattern from a knitting calendar that my son and his wife got me for Christmas last year. It is a really quick knit. I started it this past Thursday morning and finsihed it today, about 4 days to finish, not bad.

The yarn is Bernat Baby Softee, I used US size 4 Hiya Hiya circular needles I did change the pattern in that the front edge was to be all in garter stitch and on the first repeat I forgot and did stockinette. So I did every other repeat in stockinette. Oh, well, it looks fine. Also, when I finished I did not like the unfinished look so I did a 5DC scallop all around the front two sides and the neck edge, the hem edge has a scallop from the feather and fan.

Now to start on my Sept Sockamania socks as soon as I print out the pattern.

Baby sweater and stitch markers.

Here is the promised picture of the baby sweater that is in progress. I know I said I would post it last Wed but I didn't make it, so here it is. The yarn is baby benat and I am using size 4 Hiya Hiya needles.

The sleeves are complete and on the stitch holder unless I decide to make the a bit longer, which I may.

Notice the cute little stitch markers? I made them from some of the beads left over from a purse/tote that I made. They are pretty cute to look at but I didn't get them put together quite good enough and occassionally they will catch the yarn so I am going to have to redo them, or at least part of them.

Good morning

Good morning everyone. It is a beautiful day here. The sun is shining brightly and all is well with my world.

Just came on to post a few words before going off to work. I thought if I tried to make it a daily habit to post on here maybe I would do so more than twice a month. LOL

It is 8:12 and I really should have been out to the office 12 minutes ago but I am nursing a throbbing headache and am waiting for the meds to take effect and make me all better. HMMMM, I think I will need more than Excedrin to make me all better, I am told by my family that I am a little bit loony. Can you believe that my loving family would say such a thing about me?

I started a sweater for my nephew's soon to be baby. The pattern has you start by knitting the sleeves first, so I did. They are done and are on stitch holders and I have cast on for the body of the sweater. Maybe I will get some pics at noon and add them to this post. The pattern is a feather and fan and really goes fast. It is a 12 stitch and 10 row repeat. I made some pretty stitch markers so that if I mess up a repeat I will know which one it is.

Well, guess I had better get off of here and get on to work.

You all have a great day!!

Sissy, have you come and had a look see yet? Leave a comment if you have. (Sissy is my older sister that I am not allowed to call anything else but Sis or Sissy. If I call her by her given name she just ignores me until I say the magic name. LOL)

A few pictures and a few more words.

Geez, it has been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. I have read others blogs but have not had the time to attend to mine.
So much has happened since I last was here. Most importantly I had a birthday!!Yay!
It has been really hot here. So hot that I called our boys out in the field to make sure that they were drinking enough water and being careful. It really surprised them that I did that. They are all around my son's age so I guess I just mother them.

The bags that I showed awhile back have inspired me to do more. I have a "sister" in PA that has a birthday next month and she loves hand made things from me. I went the other day and got some floral upholstery material and a satin stripe upholstery material and I am going to make her a bag for her birthday and a pair of socks if I can get them done.

On the sock front I am finished with the first sock of the August sockamania and have turned the heel on the second and am ready to pick up the gusset stitches. Five days have passed since I tried to post this and the socks are done. As you can see I have quite a bit of the yarn left over. Maybe enough to make a pair of socklets. I have to do some weighing and see. This yarn is a silk and alpaca blend and is really sock feeling. I love it. It was made in Springfield, Ohio which is not that far from me. Maybe I can get some more.
Hmmm, same socks just different time of day and look at the difference in the color. The one on the bottom is most like the socks really are.



I have started a baby sweater for my nephew and his wife's expected baby. The baby girl is due in September so I had better get cracking on it. It seems to be a pretty easy pattern. It is a fan and feather pattern and those go pretty fast.


It is 4:01 in the morning and I can't sleep because of an upset tummy. Must have been what hubby and I had for dinner as he just joined me downstairs and said that he is sick also. At least I did not cook dinner, LOL. We went out to eat.

Tracy, I had a snake visitor also. Back in July I took pictures of this little garter snake. Of course I live out in the country so snakes are expected. He was just crawling down our deck. I had not seen a garter snake around here in quite a long time. When our son was little we had them a lot, or maybe since he liked snakes he would just find them. And yes we taught him early on how to tell a poisonous snake because he was not a bit afraid of them and if he saw a snake he HAD to pick it up and bring it to show to his Daddy and I. Gotta love the little booger. He is now 30 and still likes snakes and loves to aggravate anyone who is afraid of them. Such a lovely child, LOL.

I think I have mentioned in the past that I have a commercial embroidery machine and had a business for about 10 years. I was trying to do some much needed embroidery work about 2 or 3 weeks ago and I broke a belt on the machine. I ordered the piece, got it in in about 3 days and then had to wait on my hubby to install it. He did after about a week, only thing is, he put the machine back together backwards. So I had to wait until he had time to fix it again. We finally did it tonight so I am back up and running. Now I need to get a bunch of shirts for our workers done. I plan to start on them tomorrow afternoon.

Did anyone miss me? LOL

You would not believe the past two weeks that we have had here with internet and computers. On July 31 our internet went totally out. We use it in our business so we really needed it. We were told by our provider that it would be 3 to 7 days before anyone even called us to set up a time to come and fix it and then 5 days after that before they came out to do it. To say the least, that was not acceptable. So we called another provider to get it from them and they could not come until the following Monday (we did not call them until Friday, DH spent 3 days arguing with our provider before he just said to heck with them.)
They came on Monday and started the install but the installer had an appointment at the VA hospital and had to leave before he finished. So he was back Tuesday morning to finish the install. Okay, now we have internet but our email is not set up to come through the new provider so we have to keep the old until it is.
Then, low and behold, Tuesday afternoon our network started acting up. DH could not print to any of the printers in the office and some of the other offices could not print either. So we had our computer person come out to check things out. He was here until about 10 that evening and did not know what to do to fix things. So he called another man who is said to be a real whiz at networking and they came out around 1 on Wednesday. They were here until 7 that night and still did not have everything up and running, so they were back out here Thursday morning at 8:30 and stayed until sometime after 5 and so far things are still not fixed. It has been a real madhouse around here. They even took DH's computer back to the shop to try to fix things up. He was in a real bind today without his computer. So he and I more or less shared mine.
I hope they get everything fixed up soon. We can't get all of our work done. Of the 5 computers in this office, mine seems to be the only one that is really working ok. Let's just hope that it doesn't go blooey too. If I dissapear again, you will know where I am, in computer limbo!
Things have been so hectic around here that I have not had a whole lot of time to knit. I did manage to finish the baby afghan for DD's friend and I finished the July sockamania sock with a very short top. I am almost to the heel of the first August sock. I like this pattern a whole lot better.
We have been in a bit of a heat wave also. So we have been spending evening out in the pool. Yesterday evening the kids, MIL, DH, and me all went swimming. The pool was 90 degrees!! It was almost like bath water. It has been so hot that the water level is down and we need to put some water in so it will cool it down. Since it is supposed to be hot until sometime late next week we may have to add water again. Oh, well.
Hope to have some pics to add before the weekend is over and I hope to not be gone so long again.
Everyone have a great weekend!

My sewing pictures at last

I did a bit of editing this morning (Fri) and it looks better but I am still not happy with the breaks. I'll just keep trying.

Can anyone tell me how to avoid all these spaces left in my post? I can't seem to get rid of the dang things. I tried "help" but could not find what I want. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

I know I said that I would have pictures to post over a week ago and I have not come through with them yet. Well, the projects are done and I have taken the pics and now if I can get them to upload they are here.

I told you about the skirt and bag that I made for "adopted" son's wedding. Well, when I made the bag it was such fun and so easy that I decided to make bags for my girls as well. My DD has a thing for turtles so when I found this print with turtles I knew I just had to make something for her and a bag it is.

It is really cute. I don't know if you can see the beads around it or not, but they are there. I guess if you enlarge the picture you can see them. I showed it to DD this afternoon and she went, "Ahhhhhhhhh." So I guess she likes it.

My DDIL is very into camoflage, so when I found the dessert cammo I decided that would be her bag. I got it all cut out last week and was ready to sew but life got in the way and I did not get around to sewing it until Saturday. (I was out here in my shop doing some embroidery work so I sewed the bag between shirts.) I haven't shown it to her yet so I don't know if she will like it or not. If not, oh well. LOL. Her bead are black. I bought some brownish ones but they really clashed with the cammo colors so I had to go shopping again and find something else. I know that beads and cammo don't really go together but I wanted to add a little bit of a feminine touch to it. DDIL can just live with it, hehe.

And last but certainly not least is my first bag, the one I made for myself. I really love it. I am thinking of taking the flap off and just putting a snap on it. The flap just does not lay correctly. It wants to roll up and I don't like that. I do love the beads that I found for this one. I think they would make great stitch markers. What do you think?

Now that I have started sewing again I want to do some more. I don't have anything cut out but I do have fabric for 3 more skirts. I guess I just need to cut them out.

Yesterday we took my dear MIL and her sister and BIL to cut walking sticks. Uncle D makes them and sells them and dear MIL just makes them. We had a wonderful afternoon. It was not too hot and the walk up the mountainette was not too steep. They both got some nice sticks and were happy with them.

I am going to post this before I lose it again.

Everyone have a great evening.

A little bit of knitting and a little bit of sewing.

I started this post a week or so ago and was having connection problems so I saved it and never did get back to it. So now I will try to finish and publish the post.

Thanks to Pink Purl I have gotten into the notion to do some sewing again. I haven't really made anything in a long time. My second son (my son's best friend who calls me Mom) is getting married today so I decided to make a skirt and matching bag for today. They are finished but so far I have not taken a picture of them. Maybe I will have DH take a picture later this afternoon, and maybe I will just take a picture on them on the hanger. (still no picture, maybe later this week)

Here is some fabric that I saw and just had to have. The floral on top is the one I made the skirt and bag out of.

I have almost finished my first Tofutsie Sock club sock. Haven't started on the July sockamania yet. Maybe tomorrow. I really don't like to have two pair of socks on the needles at the same time, too much chance of mixing them up, lol.

Thanks to Tracy of HeritageCrafts I have joined the MS3 knitalong. Just joined today so I don't have the pattern, yarn, or beads. Well, I have the yarn in my stash just not sure what beads to get to go with it. Well, I may have joined but the site keeps telling me that I am not a member of the group and cannot look. Hmmmm, what should I do?

Hubby and I took a weekend trip to Cincinnati this past weekend. We left home around 8:30 Friday morning and came home last evening. We had a nice weekend. We had not taken a pleasure trip since last November when we went to Richmond VA to see my nephew get married. We were past due.

Sorry I don't have more pictures, I have been so busy that I have not had time to take any. Besides, hubby just bought me this laptop yesterday and I have not had a chance to put my camera software on here so that I would have pictures. I will try to post again in a day or so and have everything set up.

You all have a good night and week until we chat again.

Feeding the babies

I have an 8 year old Saint Bernard, a 6 year old cranky momma cat, 2 of her boys who are 4 now, a beautiful long haired black stray cat that is 3 and a stray mutt that showed up last summer and belongs to DH ( yes, she is the one of the mulch fame, and the sweater fame which I have not told in here yet).

Used to they all got canned food for breakfast and then dry food in the evening. When they had all that scare about the pet food I took them off of the canned food and put them on home cooked food for breakfast andFlintRiverRanch food for dinner.

Their morning food is a mixture of boiled chicken, rice, and mixed vegetables. I start out by buying a whold chicken and boil it for about an hour and a half. Then I add the rice to the broth while I am letting the chicken cool enough to pull from the bone. When the rice is almost done I add the vegetables and let them cook then add the chicken and voila' we are ready for the week.

They all love it. The dogs just wolf it down and Belly one of cranky momma's boys would rather eat the chicken and rice as to eat his dry food.

How can you even suggest that my babies are spoiled! LOL, they are just very well loved.

Socks, what else?

Finally finished my June Sockamania socks. They are neat. They are huge, but that is ok. Now I am working on the July/August Tofutsie socks. I need to do a bit of work on the chart to make it easier for me to follow, but other than that the pattern is fun.

I think I need to start working on the baby afghan again. If I don't work on it occassionally I will forget all about it and I really want to get it done.

I bought some material yesterday to make a couple of skirts out of. I also bought two skirt patterns and two bag patterns. I haven't had time to do much sewing in quite a while but decided that I was just going to have to find the time. I'll keep you updated.

It is Sunday morning and I am going to go wake hubby from his nap and see if he will go out and help me get the vacuum for the pool set up.

Maybe more this evening, if not everyone have a beautiful day.

What hubby's dog did to my mulch...

Hubby has a cute little mutt dog that just showed up here one Saturday about a year ago and has been tearing things up ever since. Good thing we both love the little mutt.

About 2 weekends ago we bought 20 bags of mulch for me to put on my flower beds. Before I got it all spread, Susie had chewed on nearly all of the bags and spread a little of the mulch out. Not to worry, I had had hubby put the bags into one of the flower beds so it was no problem to just move the mulch around a bit and things were fine.

Well, I didn't have enough mulch so last weekend we went and bought another 20 bags. This time we put 16 of them in the garage in my pull wagon and hubby put 4 bags out in the lawn in front of one of the flower beds, this was around 8:30 or 9:00 in the evening. Most of the evening Susie was in the house but around 10 I let her out to potty. When I went to call her in she did not come immediately so I went to the front door to call her. I saw this awful mess in the yard where the bags had been, I thought it had to be just a shadow, but I walked out in the yard to see. And here is what I saw:

I had a few more pictures but my camera would not let me download them to my computer. I think maybe it was because my batteries were weak. I just tried to go take a few more pictures and the camera died, so I put it on charge and maybe I will get a few pictures tomorrow. I know, it is terrible but I just have not had time to do the weeding and mulching. I was going to do it this evening, but it is hot and muggy and I am doing this and knitting instead.

Here is a picture of one of my flower beds in front of the house. I am not much of one for annual flowers. I go more for the shrubby perenials. They do bloom and have some color. Each year I say I am going to plant some "flowers" instead of just plants, but so far....

I am about 2/3 of the way done with my June socks. I still hope to finish them by the end of the month. I had better get busy.

Have a good evening.

Time to show some knitting

Yesterday was a really bad day. I had an excruiating migraine, so bad that Dale had to give me a shot and was ready to take me to the emergency room. Luckily the shot worked. It knocked me out for about 4 hours and when I woke the pain was mostly gone. I just felt all tired and worn out.

Since I haven't been on here much lately and haven't really posted any knitting I thought that it

just might be time to do so.

Here is the baby afghan that I am knitting to go along with the sweater that I showed quite a while ago. I am going to knit on it tonight and tomorrow night then go back to socks on Saturday while I am embroidering.

Since it is an afghan and it is very warm now she will not need it until this fall so I won't be working on it steadily, just enough so that I don't forget that I need to get it done. I just hope that it is wide enough when I have blocked it. The sweater had no pattern for an afghan so I just winged it. I know, if I had done a swatch with the larger needles that I am using for this I would have known just how many stitches I need to cast on so that it would be ok. I thought I had enough. Let's just hope so.

Here is a pet project of mine. I am making preemie hats to take to our hospital. I want to have 12 to take. As you can see I have 10. They really don't take very long to make and are quite fun. I started this last fall and things just seem to keep getting in the way. I need to finish up two more caps and then take them up. As you can see they are in all sizes. Some of the smaller ones only take a couple of hours or less. Shame on me for not finishing them. I will make it a weekend project to at least get one more done and hopefuly two. I will give an update on Monday. Maybe this will be the incentive I need to get them done.

Here is my first June Sockamania sock. No that is not an optical illusion, the sock really is that long. It is for Auntie and she wears a size 10 1/2 shoe. My sock book said to make the foot 10 inches long, so I did. I thought I was never going to get the foot of the sock done!! and this is only the first sock! OH, my!This was the first time I had done a sock toe up and also a short row heel. I like doing it toe up and the short row heel is ok, but I am not sure I did the wrap correctly.

I used my new Sox Stix from Lantern Moon, they are nice , but I don't really think that they are worth the price.

I just ordered several Knit Picks circulars to do socks with, I even ordered a long one to try doing the magic loop. Wish me luck.

I like to talk about my cats. Munchkin is my biggest cat. When I took him to the vet the other day he weighed 13.25 pounds. Not a small cat. LOL. He is also my box cat. All of the cats love boxes but Munch REALLY loves them. When a new box comes into the house he has to try it out. I received a skein of yarn in a very small box a while ago and I put the empty box in the floor knowing that sooner or later Munch would have to try to get in it. Here are a couple of photos of him trying to be in the box.

This is Erica, as you can see she fits in the box much better than Munch. She is Munch's mama and she doesn't let him and Velcro forget it either. She can be a real crank when she wants to be and a real sweetie if she wants to be.

Maybe tomorrow I will post photos of my other two cats.

That is it for tonight.

Stormy skies and flat tires.

It is now 8:30 pm and finally all is well with my world.
Around 6 this evening our son called to tell us that the truck had a flat tire (our son is 30 and works for us surveying). Dale had a meeting this evening at 6:30 so he loaded up the floor jack in his pickup and was going to take it to our son. I reminded him that it was after 6 and that he had a meeting so I would take the jack and a rain coat to our son. Oh, did I forget to mention that it was raining and storming? Well it was. Anyway, when I got to Josh he was already soaked since he had been out in the rain trying to get the spare off of the truck. We had just gotten that truck last week so we ( and by we I mean Dale and Josh) were not familiar with the way the spare was released from under the truck. When I got there I got out the book and began to try to figure it out for him. I was trying to read the book and not get it all wet from the rain. Both of our trucks are Chevy's so he tried to get the spare out from under Dale's truck, but could not figure out the way. I called Dale on his cell phone and it began to ring --- beside me in the truck. Oh, well. So I called Dale's brother and asked him as he also has a Chevy. I got the trusty book out again and started reading it out loud to Josh. Finally he got the tire thingy on Dale's truck to work so we got his spare out (again, by we I mean Josh). pretty soon Dale's brother showed up behind my truck. He and his family were on their way in town to eat and he stopped to see if he could help. By that time Josh had gotten the spare from the one that I was driving to drop down so he could use it. The tires were not the same size but since we were only going about 3 miles it was ok. He finally got the truck all put back together and we both headed down the road. We had only gone about a half mile when it began to rain so hard that you could barely see. Now that is timing and I said Thank you to God for letting the rain hold off.
We are both at our respective homes and both are dry and comfy now. It was an exciting evening. In the morning Dale and Josh have to figure out how to get the spare off so they can put the spare back on Dale's truck so Josh can drive it to work. And we have to get the tire fixed.

I need to take some more pictures and put on my blog. Just lots of words can be boring.

Everyone have a good evening and a peaceful sleep.

I am famous! LOL

I knit some socks out of SWTC Bamboo that I bought from The Yarn Grove and Jane posted a pic of my socks on their FOG(Finished Object Gallery).
I would add a link to their site but I don't know how. Anyone willing to give me a lesson on this I would appreciate it.
More later tonight, I hope.
www.theyarngrove.com (This is not the correct way, but it will work.)

Knitters Connection

Oh, my goodness!! It was fabulous!! I loved it!! lol Can't you tell?

When we walked into the room I just stopped and looked and around then turned to my hubby and said, "This is just too much!" He just laughed at me.

Anyway, first things first. I went to pre-registration to sign in and they gave me my members goodie bag. It was MUCH more than I had thought it would be. Here it is all in the bag.

And here is all the loot out of the bag:

I would say that the bag was worth the $10 it cost me to take membership in The Knitters Connection.

There are two magazines, one knit and one crotchet, a nice cardstock pattern of a purse, another pattern to make up a scarf out of left over yarn bits, and a notecard.

Quite a haul, Lol.

This is the yarn that I bought there.

The turquoise on the far left is a cotton that I bought to make a summer top. It was originally $8.75 a skein but at the show it as TWO skeins for $7.00. That made my top a lot cheaper than I had thought it was going to be.

The next yarn by it is 100% alpaca. It was so lush that I had to get enough to make a scarf or two. (My hubby talked to the lady who had the booth and I really do believe that he is going to buy an alpaca from her. I will keep you updated on that front.)

The next two skeins are a silk/nylon mix for socks. and the final one is a silk/alpaca mix that hubby bought for me for some socks for me.

And of course in the back of the pile is another skein of Tofutsies that I went over to the Yarn Market beforehand and bought to go along with the one that I already have since I can get 3 socks from a skein of it.

I splurged once more and got the book Favorite Socks. It is a really lovely book with loads of nice sock patterns in it. Now to get More Favorite Socks.

Believe it or not, I didn't even spend all of the money that I had saved up to spend. I came home with $40. So I will put that away for the next yarn excursion.

I also joined a sock yarn club with Yarn Grove for limited edition Tofutsies yarn (Jane is such a nice person. I am sure the others are also, but she is the only one I've dealt with. We spoke on the phone yesterday for quite a bit. Thanks, Jane, for being so helpful.)I did this online, not at the Connection.

This is a pair of sock made from SWTC Bamboo yarn. Since they are made out of sportweight they are a bit heavy but that is ok. The pattern is called Curvy Lace and I found it in a Creative Knitting magazine. I used size 3 bamboo DPN. This was the first sock pattern that I ever knitted. No starting off with an easy ribbed sock for me, LOL. Really, it is an easy pattern to knit. They are supposed to be for my older sister but they feel so luxurious that I am not sure, LOL. Time will tell. Now I need to make some socks for my younger sister.

Knitters Connection

I am off to the Knitters Connection in Columbus tomorrow. I am so excited. I hope to have lots of yarn to post pictures of and then later on lots of projects to post pictures of .

Everyone have a good day.

I got tagged.

Was doing some editing when I found this "draft" that I never did finish. I was tagged by Marit quite a while ago. Since it has been so long I won't tag anyone now but if you read this and want to consider yourself "tagged" go ahead and list 8 unusual things about yourself.

1. I have been sewing since I was about 4 or 5, my GreatGrandma taught me how. Knitting since I was 9, my best friend's Mom taught me how. Crocheting since I was 17, my GreatGrandma tried to teach me as a child but never could do more than finger chain until around 17 when it just clicked.

2. I have 2 children. My son is 30 and my daughter is 25 (people say she looks like me. LOL)

3. I live just 3 miles down the road from where I was raised.

4. My road name is the same as my last name.

5. I am a chocoholic. LOL

6. My current "babies" are an 8 year old Saint Bernard and a 2 year old little black kitten (he will never be a "cat" since he is a "baby")

7. I am fairly short, only 5' 1" tall.

8. I have a warped sense of humor that I seem to have inherited from my husband's family!

There you have it.

Such a beautiful weekend

This weekend has been beautiful so far. The weather is so lovely that my DH decided to open the pool. Usually it is mid June and he still has not done it. Now if it only stays warm so that it will warm up and we can use it.

I haven't done a whole lot of knitting so far this weekend. Yesterday I suffered with a migraine so I knitted at knitting but did not really accomplish much.I did finish off the first curvy lace sock that I thought I was knitting for my sister. As I knit along I realized that the sock was quite a bit smaller than the first pair I had knit. When I got to looking at the specs it said to use sport weight yarn and # 3 needles. I was using fingering weight and #2's. So I guess my niece who is only 10 will get this pair. Since I want to have a pair done for Sissy when we go down to visit I put that sock away for now and started the curvy lace in the bamboo because it is sport weight. I only have the ribbing and about 8 rows of pattern done. While DH was washing the vehicles today I took the camera out and took some pictures. If I can locate the cable to the camera I will up load them and post some. The trees around the house are really looking lovely and the lawn was just mowed yesterday by DH so it all looks so nice.

This lovely brutess is my "puppy". She will be 8 in about a week and a half. She still thinks that she is a tiny little thing and I love her to pieces!

This is DH's dog.She just showed up one Saturday morning last year and has been with us ever since.

Here are a couple of picturs from my front yard. We are pretty much surrounded by trees.

Guess I will quit here for now.

Eveyone have a lovely week.

FYI

For anyone interested, the pictue is of my older sister and I. Weren't we just the cutest little things? LOL
Also, the Saint Bernard in the picture on the other side of the table is my dog. She will be 8 on June 6. She is a joy and the best house dog I have ever had. She has never chewed up anything or broken anything by being rowdy in the house.
The doily is one that I crocheted. I would love to knit one but am not brave enough.Maybe now that I have mastered socks I will give it a try someday.
Is anyone out there going to the Knitter's Connection in Columbus in a couple of weeks? I am going up Saturday to buy some more yarn. (I have been saving my money up so that I can go on a spending spree that will more than likely have to last me at least a year! LOL)

A yarn binge!

Last weekend I went on a yarn buying binge. On Friday I ordered yarn to make 3 pair of socks from The Yarn Grove. (It came today.) Then on Saturday Dale took me to 2 yarn shops where I also bought enough yarn to make 3 pair of socks. So I now have a sock yarn stash!! LOL I took a couple of pictures and am trying to upload them now, but they are going slowly. I may have to finish this tomorrow morning. I'll give it a few more minutes.

Same yarn, just one picture is closer than the other. I have a mixture of Trekking XXL, Opal, Kroy Patons,SWTC bamboo, SWTC soy silk, and one called Silky Wool from Italy. It is all so luscious.

The bamboo is the blue/green right in front and was to be for my sister since she is allergic to wool, but after I felt it I am not sure that she will get it, LOL.

Time to get off of here and get ready to go to work.

Everyone have a good day.

Sunday afternoon

It is about 4:15 Sunday afternoon and it is finally warm again. It is in the 70's so it is very pleasant.

I have been working on a charity sweater that I am designing myself. This is my first attempt at designing anything in knitting. Wish me luck. I have the body done and am working on the sleeves and yoke. I intend for it to have no seams. Maybe there is already loads of patterns out there such as this, I don't know, but mine will be mine. If it is like someone elses it is purely accident.

It won't have any great patterning in it or anything fancy. basically just stockinette and garter stitch. When it is finished I will post a picture.

Speaking of pictures, I have some of other items I have knit here recently. The first is a baby bunting that I made for my sister-in-laws new little niece, but I did not finish it in time so I still have it.

I have 3 more babies coming my way, a great-niece, my daughter's friend's baby, and one of our employees wife is pregnant. I should be able to give it to one of them. It would be a shame to let it just lie here and never be used.I'll have to ponder on who gets it.

The next picture is a shrug that I also did for my SIL's niece and again did not get it to her in time. I intended it for Easter but again, no luck. This one though will still fit her this fall so I still plan to give it to her. I just need to put a button at the neck. It looks so disproportionate since it is a shrug. The sleeves look like they are made for a giant, LOL.

Next is a draw string bag that I knit for my niece. It was for her birthday in February but we did not get down to NC to take it. So just as soon as we get down there I will take it to her. I still need to get some beads to put on the ends of the purse strings. I am not sure what kind I want to use. I guess I will just have to start looking for them.

There seems to be a theme going on here, doesn't there? I am slow to get things finished up, or maybe it is just that I hate to work so hard on them and have them leave me, LOL. No, it is just that I am slow.

Guess I will stop here for the day on posting pictures.

Maybe I can post a little more often now. I have a laptop over here at the house and it has wireless so I can connect to the internet if I go out on my deck. I hated to try to post while at work, it just didn't seem fair to my hubby. Now I can do it in the evening as long as the weather is dry.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday afternoon.

Road Trip

It has been quite a few days since I have had the time to update my blog. I have been so busy at work and at home that it has just slipped under the rug.
Anyway, I am on a trip with my loving hubby and while he is in classes I am in the hotel room with time to "play" on here and knit.
I plan to get my second sockamania sock done since I am on the toe and down to 15 stitches on each needle. Should have it done in just a little bit of time. I brought the camera with me so I can take pictures and post it. I got the first sock done fairly quickly but have just been too busy to work much on the second one.
I am in Morgantown, WV and have found 2 or 3 yarn shops around here that I plan to go to. I am hoping to get some number 1 ebony sox stix today or tomorrow. I made my first pair of sockamania socks on #2 bamboo needles and they are too big so my daughter-in-law gets them. Now to make two more pair so that I can have a pair (my daughter also wants a pair).Really I am glad that my girls want them.
Well, back to knitting for now. More later and hopefully a picture.

The socks are finished!! Now to work on the charity sweater that I am knitting.

New Template

Had a wild thought and decided to change my template. Not really sure why, just decided to.

Had knitting guild last evening. There were only 5 of there, but that is about normal for the warmer months. Last winter we had 13 or 14.
I worked on the ribbing of my second sock for Sockamania. I have 12 of the 18 rows done. May get it finished up before the weekend, but not sure.

Was just looking at an old post and realized that my picture of my first socks was really horrid. You can't even tell what they look like and it was a really pretty, lacy pattern. I really need to do them justice if I am going to post them on here. I will have to retake the picture and try again. So check back for an update photo.

Sockamania

First sock is done, now to do it's mate. My girls both want these socks so it looks like I am going to be making 2 more pair.

It was a beautiful day to shop!

DH and I had to go to Columbus for doctors appt. for he and his Mom, so he took me yarn shopping!! YAY!!

The two matching skeins are just acrylic for my sis a pair of socks(she is allergic to wool) and the other two are for May and June sockamania KAL and are Tofutsies. The blue and green on the far end is for this month.

The neat little zippered bag is what they put my yarn in. It is just too cute.

Now I want to go right in and start on my socks. I love the feel of the yarn. I am just so excited, LOL, I can't stand myself.