Well Butter My Butt and Call Me Biscuit

I got an unexpected surprise a little while ago. My Sunday night was starting out as nothing special. Just sitting here in my jammies watching some bad TV, doing a little laundry, nothing out of the ordinary, actually pretty bland. Then my episode of Ghost Hunters was interrupted by loud banging sounds, and here is what I found in the sky above the barn:

Sunday in the park at Concord Baptist. I totally forgot. It was a pleasant surprise, and I didn't even have to leave my porch, change out of my jammies, or put on shoes. Not too shabby.

I started (and finished) a camera sock for my dear old Kodak Easy Share. Who knew it was possible to become emotionally attached to a camera. Photos as soon as I borrow a camera to take a picture of my camera.

Dragon Ass. It Must Be Contagious.

A case of dragon ass has hit the south, in a big way, because my ass has definitely been draggin' lately, and I'm not the only one. Evidence here. My pal Pinkie still managed to give blood and make housewarming gifts, and me? I managed to have a yard sale on Saturday and sleep my Sunday away before making spaghetti for dinner. Things are slow. I haven't even managed to finish the poochie sweater I promised to make for Pinkie, and that thing only takes a few hours to make.

My master plan was to take my knitting with me to the yard sale, but I didn't quite get that far. It's probably best I didn't. With the evidence I am sporting of a nice, deep sunburn on my shoulders and face, a certain someone (my MOTHER) kept skipping her turn helping customers, and kept herself parked under the shade tree. Clever gal my mom. I did not inherit that gene as I jumped up with each new visitor, never once thinking about retrieving my sunscreen from home. I did pretty well though, selling most all of the crap I wasn't able to pawn off on my friend Chad for his new house. Our friend Debbie probably made more money than I did (although she was left with a lot of stuff also) and my mom actually ended up in the hole. I'm not sure if it was all of those trips to the gas station she kept making, or if she was actually paying people to take her stuff off. I was left with $80 more than I had the day before, a house in disarray, but a lot less stuff to put back. I'm happy. My new motto is "if I don't use it, lose it". I think that is a side effect of living with a man that kept every little thing he ever got. First went the man, now goes the stuff. I hear his new house has a big basement, all I can say is he's going to need it!!!

Before I head off to slather myself yet again in Aloe and Lidocaine lotion, I will leave you with my first attempt at knitting with colors using a grid pattern.

The PTBNL....Revealed

Finally, I get to talk about the PTBNL. Yes I know. What is all the hype about a silly little knitted sweater for my dog? Let me tell a little back story:

Back when I first started knitting, I thumbed through every pattern book I could find, trying to decide what kind of patterns I'd like to take on. I'm a pretty practical gal, and at the time we were having to buy new dog sweaters every month or so. We had two growing puppies and it was wicked cold outside. A dog sweater! I kept finding myself checking out dog sweaters. Unfortunately, in my pre-Ravelry days, the only patterns I could find were crochet, or detailed knitted ones. Something I could not take on being a newbie knitter.

I learned to knit about a year ago, and knitted a bad scarf and the checkered baby blanket. Then came the great tomato tragedy of 2007. I sliced off the end of one of my fingers with a tomato slicer. Ok so there was nothing great or tragic about it, and after 8 months it has healed up nicely, but "tomato slicer incident" just didn't have the same ring to it. I still have limited feeling in the tip of my finger, but it no longer hurts or hinders my knitting. I guess technically you could say I have only been knitting for a few months, if you add my actual time with the needles together. But I digress, let's get back to the pink poochie sweater:

I sucked terribly in the beginning, and could never imagine myself actually being able to make a dog sweater. (or anything practical for that matter!) I guess you could say it has been my goal from the start to complete a dog sweater. It has been the one thing that has stuck in my head thinking that if I complete it, I can call myself a knitter.

I know it is silly, but I feel like today I tackled a big hurdle, and made it!

Now on to the pattern:
I found this insanely easy Talking Tails Easy Dog Sweater. Had I found this pattern last year I probably would have made it from the start. Thank you Ravelry! I used Caron Simply Soft in Watermelon, about half a skein. It was an extra I had purchased by accident for the Wild Stripes Blanket. I want to tackle it again at some point with a heavier weight yarn in a different color. One downfall of loving baby blankets, you end up with a lot of bright colors. I am really glad I found this pattern. It fits Gidget perfectly with no modifications, and it will be a good way to attempt cable knitting, knitting with colors, and following a pattern chart. Gidget is going to have a larger wardrobe than her owner by the time I'm done.

Back to the task at hand...

Has Friday ever snuck up on you? I mean, you are well into Friday afternoon when it finally hits you: IT'S FRIDAY! I don't mean that you don't realize what day it is (although not working it is possible that very thing could happen to me), but I mean when it's Friday and you know it's Friday, but then you realize what that means. You know what I'm talking about! That very thing happened to me. I was updating all FOUR of my blogs, planning a bridal shower I am co-hosting, working on invitations, getting a little website work done and BAM! The phone rings....it's Friday, and I am spending the weekend away from home. I packed myself some dirty (yes dirty, but to be washed upon arriving at my destination) clothes, some jammies, the necessary toiletries, my laptop, and of course my knitting bag, and I was off. And now here I am.


The bud, the brother, and the sister-in-law are off to TN, the puppies are all tucked in. The wind is blowing insanely hard outside, fall is in the air, and I am inside with my knitting bag, my laptop, some sorbet, and the Girls Next Door. Yes that is right, Holly, Bridget, Kendra, and Hef. What can I say? It is my one guilty pleasure. But poor TV aside I am hoping to have the PTBNL completed tomorrow. I am so excited to complete the PTBNL. It will be a big milestone for this newbie knitter. It's actually something useful and wearable! I can't wait! I also think Holly, Bridget, and Kendra would approve of my current project.

Well I am off to enjoy the solitude: Me, my faithful superhero sidekick Gidget, my sorbet, and my knitting. I hope to have good news to report soon!

Are digital cameras making us all seem crazy?

That is the question I asked myself a while back, as I was taking this picture after finding a solution to my twisted yarn problem:

It is something my mother has been accusing me of for months now. I am accused of being weird/crazy/off my rocker, etc. solely based on the photos I take with my digital camera. Oh but I'm not alone, she teases me about what other bloggers photograph and then publish.

Personally I like to look at it as taking full advantage of a situation. I mean, I remember just a short time ago when all I had was my Canon EOS Rebel and a camera bag, stuffed full of rolls of film. Oh the good old days. You were limited to 24 or 36 photos before you had to stop, wind, and reload. Then there were the developing fees. If you were lucky, as I was, you occasionally caught a break from a pal that worked at a pharmacy photo lab and you could get them free to cheap. But those places weren't great for those who dabbled in photography as an art form. Sure the pharmacy lab was great for the photos from dear old Grandma and Grandpa's 60 Wedding anniversary, but those artistic photos you took of that new Hemlock blanket, those needed to go someplace nicer...the photo lab. The place where you could not set foot in the door without spending at least $15.00. I mean sure you could wait two days and get them cheaper, but who wanted to do that when you could get them in 1 hour and not lose quality?! I certainly didn't!

Now you have your new pictures, some of them good, some of them embarrassing, but you have them...FINALLY. So what now? Some go in a photo album maybe, a few in the photo box, if you are real good maybe one or two in a frame, but what about the ones you want to share with friends across the globe. That was where the ol' scanner came in handy. I can hear the cranking and the grinding now as the scanner scanned my pictures. Oh the old days. You know, five or six years ago. LOL.

What is the point of this long and drawn out blog post you might ask? It is to say that I don't care if I seem crazy, I am going to enjoy every single minute of my digital camera, the free space on my hard drive, and the fact that my camera fits in my purse or pocket. You see, several of my near and dear friends live in other states, heck one even in another country, but why should that stop us from sharing our day-to-day lives with one another? AT&T unlimited mobile-to-mobile is a huge helper with that, but why not take it a step further? My friends and I certainly do. It helps strengthen relationships, build bonds, and lets us be a part of even the tiny, seemingly unimportant aspects of each others lives. I won't even bore you with the benefits it provides on Ravelry and flickr to let you see how a knitted keepsake looks as the pattern progresses. Folks, we are living in the information age, like it or not. The way I see it you can either join us by taking pictures of your feet, favorite cupcakes, the handmade invitations you are so proud of and want to show your crafty pals, or you can make fun of us and miss out on the entire experience. Who's with me?

PUT THE NEEDLES DOWN SLOWLY. PICK UP THE KEYS TO THE TRACTOR.

Because the pasture needs mowing!

I don't talk about it much on either of my blogs really, but I am a horse person. Nay (or should I say neigh), a horse freak. I talk about them, spend most of my free time with them, not to mention every extra penny on them. That's right, I am horse person, a horseaholic. If any of you know a horse person you know that it's not quite like owning a dog, oh no, horses are a lifestyle, a passion, a full blown addiction. They are my therapy, much like knitting. And as I really need to put the needles down, turn off the computer, and head out to the barn, I thought I'd post a few pictures of my ponies, past and present:

I Might Be on to Something People!

So how freakin' excited was I to see the new fall online catalog for DKNY?! Just look at what this starved, sun deprived model is wearing on her arms! They are handwarmers! Mitts! Whatever you prefer to call them, but they are there! Between this and the Victoria's Secret link Ol' Pinkie sent me, knitted attire and accessories are going to be big for fall. Well aren't my non-knitting friends going to be shocked when they see this! And to think all this time they have been teasing me. What do they know?! Even my mother teases me. And we are talking about a woman who has a two piece knit ensemble from the 80's, that if I'm not mistaken is still in her closet. I am hoping these things might make it into fall fashion and aren't just something you see in the fashion mags that don't quite make it into mainstream America. OK and while I am taking shots at people: what is up with elephant arms in the lower picture? Is she hiding some Popeye forearms under those things or what? Well I am off now, off to pick myself out a nice pattern for handwarmers, and who knows, I might even attempt a hat.

Project Status Update

My buddy has a status update on the right hand side of her blog, I am just too lazy, but I did think that it might be nice to give an update on my current projects, and my progress. Here goes:

Diagonal Pattern Baby Blanket: 100% WHOOHOO
Wild Stripes Blanket: 30%
Elsie Blanket: 30%
Potholders: 50% (knitting completed, now I need fabric!)
Fish Blanket 1% (I have successfully knit one fish! LOL)

Not too shabby in my opinion considering all of these projects besides the Elsie blanket were started in the past week or two. I haven't blogged about the potholders yet, and there is also another project I left out. It will be getting it's own blog entry shortly, but to keep with the updating, I am at 75% with the PTBNL.

Here is a little preview of the Project to be Named Later:

I'm Done!!

Well it's official! I completed my Ravelympics project. My Diagonal Pattern Baby Blanket is complete! Now I am wishing I had chosen a more challenging project, but all in all I am happy with the pattern and the end result. This blanket is sooooo soft, and hopefully will not end up going to the dogs.

So Much Yarn, So Little Time

As you may recall from my previous post, I have talked myself into attempting to make this Wild Stripes Baby Blanket from Knitty.com. Well I have finally purchased all of my yarn and I am pretty happy with my color choices. As you can see in the photo below, there are 14 skeins of yarn, and only 13 skeins in 12 colors are needed. It was late, I was hungry, there were creepy old women breathing down my neck because I was hogging the aisle, and I could not decide between two colors of pink. I bought them both and got the heck out of there. You will probably also notice that I did not tidy up my lose yarn pieces in the photo. So shoot me. My mother was expected to pop in at any moment. She is relentless at teasing me about the photos I take for my blog and for my ravelry profile.

I decided to go with Caron Simply Soft yarn. Under perfect circumstances I would have chosen something different, but I am in the middle of nowhere and my only yarn purchasing options are Wal Mart or Hancock Fabrics. Wal Mart in Corneila has a surprisingly well stocked yarn inventory, even if their needle selection is lacking. Now my final task is to locate a size 5 or 6 circular needle. I have searched three separate local shops to no avail. After a few more attempts I am going to settle on a size 8 and reduce my number of stitches. I am pretty excited about this project so I am ready to get started. Not to mention I need to catch up with Mrs. Pinkie, who is much further ahead than I had originally thought.

Ravelympics: 2 days and counting! Happy knitting!

How Many Baby Blankets Does One Single Girl Need?

I am not quite sure where my fascination with knitting baby blankets is coming from, but it is becoming a problem. As I mentioned months ago in a previous post, nobody I know is expecting, trying, or really even thinking about it for that matter. OK well that last part isn't entirely true, but none of them are seriously contemplating it, so I guess you could say it is only half true. I will say this though: whichever one of my friends or relatives does decide to bring a little bundle of joy into this world first will be completely stocked with knit baby blankets!

I just love baby blanket patterns. They are either too cute to pass up, or challenging, or both. I mean, I would really love to knit a blanket for myself or my mom, but every time I search "blanket" I am inundated with tons of adorable baby blanket patterns I just can't pass up...which brings us to my latest project:

The Wild Stripes Blanket compliments of Knitty.com. How freakin' cute is this blanket?

This project calls for 12 different colors, and 13 skeins of yarn. I am in need of 5 more colors (skeins) and a size 6, 32" circular needle and I will be set. Who knows if I will actually finish this project, but for now I am pretty excited about it.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that my old pal Knit Pinkie STOLE it from me? Well I guess it is my fault, I have been talking about it a good bit recently, and making her help me choose colors. It's all good though, I am hoping she finishes hers first and practices sewing on the fabric backing so she can then do, oh I mean help, with mine.