New place for yarn :)

Ok, my friend BetteM has just opened her very own on-line store! She specializes in handpainted and dyed yarn. Check it out!

I bought the yummy green one (wonder why). So much for not buying any yarn; but I have been really good lately, only knitting from the stash. Ok, so I bought yarn in Holland last weekend, and this today, but that is the first since, I don't know when. We'll blame it on BetteM for having such a great colorway!

Knitting news:
Socktober ends today, and I have not finished my monkey socks. No time to knit lately, but hopefully things will slow down and I can finish. I should be receiving my monkey sock swap socks soon....as that swaps ends tomorrow.
The Fair Isle bag is coming along nicely too; LOVE the KP needles.

Nutshell

Sat. am - flu shots, hop in car, drive 3 hours to Holland
Sat. pm - watch nerve racking game (tied) meet hubby's college roommate and family for late lunch, go to cool yarn store, buy sock yarn, go to very nice (NON SMOKING) bar, drink, back to hotel.
kids swim, parent's party, lights out for kids 9:30, parent's continue to party
Sun am (early) - up and get to the rink for semi finals, win nail biter, have 3 hours downtime until final game.
Sun pm - eat lunch, final game, lose, son #2 gets medal and t-shirt (all is well), drive 3 hours home, laundry awaits etc etc etc.

no knitting to report.
SP11 package received :)

Cruisin' along

No pictures, but the Fair Isle Bag is coming along quite nicely, it is very EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY!! The only thing is keeping all the yarn straight, so I have been cutting the yarn if it is not going to be used within 5 rows; then I have been weaving them in as I go. I finally received my KP order, the needles are very cool! I may have to buy more.

The 2nd monkey sock has been cast on, and will be traveling this weekend to Holland, MI, son #2 is in a hockey tournament, 3 hour car ride, lots of down time between games, then 3 hours back.

I'm also going to take my TOFUtsies and start another pair. OH NO, they are so addicting to knit! Is is bad to have all your hand-knitted socks in the same pattern?? :) They will all be different colors. Hey monkey pal.....how are them socks coming?? :)

Happy Anniversary

Hubby and I have been married 13 wonderful years today :)
Have a great day xo

In other news.........

Here is my monkey sock! It looks so great in this colorway from BetteM!! Off to cast on the mate later today.





Here is what I've accomplished on the fair isle tote. I hope it all works out, the pattern calls for size 9 dpn's to start the project, I only had size 8....but I've stopped for now, as it is time to start the "pattern" and I want that part to be correct (this is just the bottom of the bag); so I'll wait for my needles to arrive in the mail.

new project and it's not socks!

Yes, it's a bag (back to those). I finally had a chance to read the Interweave Knits Felted special issue and I just MUST make this bag. It gives me a chance to try something new. And if I got tired of it, I can always fall back on a pair of socks (because you know, I will have a pair on the needles.




These are the colors I am going to use (because my LYS did not have the colors used in the magazine) The ones in the picture of the bag are more muted tones, I went with the brighter tones :)
And, can you believe, NOBODY on Ravelry has anything posted about this bag. I may be the first. Wish me luck.

Thank you Jane!

How cool is this?? :)
My downstream pal(from the monkey sock swap) Jane, sent me a thank you package today!!
I received some hand dyed alpaca yarn (from Peru) in a gorgeous green/brown shade :), cute frog markers, wood dpns, a needle and a gauge checker.
Thank you so much Jane.
Now, what to make with the yarn?? :)

Home with sick child

Well, he's not sick anymore. Yesterday got a phone call at preschool (2:30, class is over at 3) come and get son #1, he is in the clinic with temperature of 100.4...I tell the teacher (her 1st day back from vacation) son #1 in clinic, have to go, they won't keep him until the end of school. Run around like mad trying to clean up, explain to working parents all that needs to be done...run out the door.
Get to school, he looks awful, tummy hurts, head hurts etc. Pull son #2 out of class (why wait 20 more minutes and let him finish the day, I don't know, wasn't thinking clearly) get home.
Son #1 DOES NOT like to take medicine GGGRRRR. Finally he asks for some (oh my) 10 minutes later, throws up; sleeps for an hour. Tries to eat toast, 10 minutes later, throws up; sleeps for an hour (get the picture?) 7:00, he says, "I feel better", drinks some gatorade (you guessed it, 10 minutes later throws up etc etc) Finally put him to bed at 8:30 and he sleeps through the night UNTIL 5:30AM when he comes in and wakes us up to announce "I feel better today" great, go back to bed!
Now, this is the child that I must drag out of bed kicking and screaming every school day. Today, he is dressed, eats breakfast and is ready to go at 7:20! Oh no, the school has a policy, must be fever free for 24 hours, so we have spent the day at home. Me: knitting up a storm on mother's socks and doing laundry and baking (ok, break and bake cookies) Him: watching Scooby Doo and playing with his plastic guys.

So, here are mother's finished socks, done 3 days early thanks to sick child :)

Now I can work on my monkey's :)

UUGGHHH computers!

What does it mean when your 5 year old computer makes an annoying buzzing sound? It is making me nuts, so much so, that I don't want to be anywhere near it!
I have opened the case and cleaned out 5 years worth of dust! (Disgusting and thankfully everything still seems to work) But still the buzzing! Could it be the fan? I don't know, but I have to go now, I have a headache.

EDIT: I FIXED IT! It was the floppy drive (3 1/2) which I've been told are ancient and no computers have them anymore. I took it out, all is quiet. One problem, my christmas card list is on a 3 1/2 floppy, how do I get it out of there??

Socks and Socks

Here is my monkey sock and mother's sock. I turned the heel on both of them. The monkey sock with short heel (so it is ready for zooming down the foot) and mother's with heel flap and heel turn; I still need to do the gusset decrease, so mother's sock will get most, if not all, of the attention today and the rest of the week. My goal is to have her sock finished by next Saturday, I think it is do-able.

Busy day today; hockey, grocery shopping, pumpkin getting and mother visit!

EDIT: Well, since the socks are not for sister, I guess the color doesn't matter much, now does it?? :)

Why my hands hurt

Has nothing to do with knitting mother's socks and monkey socks, but those darned webkinz! Yes, I started playing with the pug again (about the same time as the turbo knitting) and it is the mouse action playing the games that make them hurt!

Other sad news, my original sp11 pal had to drop out due to personal reasons :( so sorry I never got to know her. But I've been given a new pal, and so far she sounds great! Howdy to you :)

Today I did not have to teach preschool, we had a fieldtrip, so I was just the mother hen at the back of the bus making sure we didn't lose anyone! The day started out gray and raining, but by the end of the hayride, the sun was out (and my pants were soaked from the wet hay) and the temperature was 60.
Here is our tour guide, Farmer Nate.












The pigs ate his shoelace.

eye-carumba!!

What a headache I had last night! I had to teach preschool yesterday, my teacher's husband retired at the beginning of the month, and they celebrated (rightly so) by going on a vacation. Usually I do not have to teach the class until later in the year (March) and the kids are used to the routine, etc etc. All in all, it went fine (that's what everyone told me) but by 7:00 last night, I had the WORST tension headache, the entire right side of my head. But today it is fine :)

Progress is being made on mother's socks AND my monkey socks. In order to rationalize making myself socks, but not at the expense of mother, I have to knit an equal amount on both socks. I did really well on Sun and Mon, but yesterday with the headache and my fingers hurting (from all that knitting) nother (what is nother??) nothing was done. I have 3 rounds of the monkey completed and 4 1/2 (of the 5 1/2) rounds of mother's sock completed!

Mother's socks

Here is the first of mother's socks, it was completed yesterday. The mate has been cast on. Now, today it is going to be 85 (again! is this not October?) The a/c is cranking and I'm going to cast on my monkey's.
I am having so much fun checking out everything on Ravelry! Have you signed up yet? I think there is still room.


As I was coming downstairs to download pictures, who did I see?? None other than Darth Vader (son #2) playing goalie! cute.

so much fun

Here is the monkey box I sent out to Jane, she loved them and they fit! It was very nerve-racking making socks for someone else! But I did it and I learned how to make a short-row heel.

And what can I say about Ravelry! I have ignored my blog, and I apologize. There is just so much interesting stuff to do! I have upload all the stash and the 2 (yes, only 2) WIP's that I have going. Then you have to do all that surfing to find friends and projects and yarn stash to acquire :)

Well, I am just about done with sock #1 for mother. She was here today and I have the correct lenght, so I will begin the toe decrease. Then quick cast on the mate, then I can get to making me some socks!

I cannot wait to cast on the yarn sent by BetteM to make my own pair of Monkey's! My pal says she is working on mine and they should be coming soon.

I've not heard a peep from my upstream sp11 pal, I hope you are ok...please let me know, I've been very worried about you!

Well, off to the hockeyrink, thank goodness, as it is 88 degrees! Yes, it is October, what is going on with the weather. And, of course, next week, fieldtrip to the farm with preschool, 60's and rain.

Updates!

OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!!
The Ravelry invite came at 9:19am!! I had to work all day, so I did not get it until 4:13pm :)
My user name is LeslieJ (go figure). I'll be playing around on the site for a while! It looks like so much fun!

Here is some GORGEOUS yarn that my friend BetteM sent me last week. I think I will make some Monkey socks!

Ravelry - could be today? or tomorrow??

Found you!
You signed up on July 28, 2007
You are #21351 on the list.
827 people are ahead of you in line.
16402 people are behind you in line.
54% of the list has been invited so far

update 3:51pm : I have moved up to 497
update 7:00pm : now at 335

YIKES!! I cannot stand the wait any longer.