Help! Help! Help!

Let me start by saying a big thank you for everyone who has already supported me in my Tour de Cure ride!

Thanks!

I've met the minimum fundraising goal for the ride, so now when you click the 'Support Me' link it will take you to Wayne's page. He needs you help! You can donate money through his site and remember, for every $10 you donate you'll be entered in a drawing for fabulous prizes!

I've sold quite a few copies of Maggie's magKNITficent 'No Sugar Added' Sock Pattern and Karen's even knitted up a pair. You can check them out here: Karen's Socks.

Do you love knitting socks and supporting great charities?? Then head over to Etsy and get a copy of the pattern. All the proceeds go to the American Diabetes Association.

And if it encourages you to donate more - Wayne will be riding 100 miles! His first century ride! Help me support him in this amazing undertaking for a great cause.

Laundry List: Or A Bunch of Things All Smooshed Together Randomly, Sorry.

I am feeling better. Not 100% yet, but definitely functioning again.

Long-awaited thanks need to go to Lu for this gorgeous sock yarn. It's Southwest Trading Company's new Tofutsies Yarn in the 'Put Your Foot Down' colorway. This crazy yarn is made out of wool, soysilk, cotton and chitin. What's chitin you ask?? It's shrimp and crab shells, sort of. Anyway, kind-hearted Lu emailed me shortly after the SHRIMP! episode and was concerned that I may have a reaction. Nothing so far and I hope never 'cause this is some crazy soft yarn and I would hate to part with it.


Alison had her end of season soccer party on Saturday and got her very first trophy. She LOVES it. They're pretty cool - the soccer ball spins. :)


I'm going to be editing the April issue of Yarnival! If you haven't checked it out yet, you can view Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4 and Issue 5 by clicking on them. I'll make another annoucement when I'm accepting submissions.

I'm thinking about scrapping the Tasha bag I had planned to finish and instead use the yarn to knit Katja for Emily. That's if I ever knit again which won't happen until I finish a little more cross-stitch (baby shower gifts are done, now I'm just trying to finish Emily's baby sampler.)

And this weekend my Secret Pal revealed herself - it's KIM! You should all visit her blog! You should leave her kind comments! She should be crowned Queen of the Secret Pals!!! I think she's great!! Thank you for everything Kim - I'm excited for the last package. :)

Thunder Stolen!

This was going to be my big week to clean up the 'clutter' before we list the house. It worked for all of Monday morning and then, nothing.

Wayne gets together with some friends to watch 'Heroes' on Mondays as a standing man-date. It's never been a problem, but this week I had plans so man-date got moved here. I wanted to make it good, so I spent Monday afternoon baking cookies.

I spent my evening at a pre-screening of Catch and Release with some knitting pals. The movie was funny and not too chick-flicky.

I'd had a bit of a cough all day, but didn't think much of it. Then yesterday I woke up with the worst cold ever.

No decluttering.

No cleaning.

No cross stitch that still isn't finished.

Just sneezing.

And nose blowing.

And lots of coughing.

I did manage to knit up these little jobbies for Alison, but come on, she's got tiny hands. These were no Sistene Chapel. :)

I'm going to go take a nap.

Mas Por Ninas

I got out the biggest crochet hook I own and hooked up this baby blanket in two evenings. It's essentially a BIG granny square. Three strands of Lion Brand Microspun made it a quick hook. One more baby gift completed.

I'm also cross-stitching some small gifts for a shower this weekend. It's not going as quickly as I'd like - I find that while I can force myself to knit or even crochet faster, I can only cross-stitch at one speed and it's not very fast.

Slow and steady right.

Thanks to everyone for the copious comments. You all are great - I certainly didn't make the de-lurking any easier by not posting all weekend. :)

In other news, my previously bright red bathroom is now plain-boring-white. Four coats of paint and primer later! It took all weekend and for such a small room, it was a pain to paint. It makes me sad and I miss the red, but the realtor said it'll make the house more sell-able.

De-Lurking Week

Hello friends!

This week is De-Lurking Week and I have a confession to make.

I'm not so great about commenting. I am a slave to bloglines and have lots of subscriptions but very rarely click over to the blog to leave a comment.

I know that I have subscribers who may fall prey to the same problem. (And if you don't know about bloglines, go and visit, it's amazing.)

Anyway, my challenge to myself is to comment on at least one entry from each blog on my bloglines this week.

I pass the challenge on to you. Leave a comment - I'm going to do my best to post some interesting content. :)

Baby Bash

I have quite a few baby showers coming up this month and next month so I've been devoting a lot of crafting time to gifts. Here's a sneak peek:

SHRIMP!

Or hello food that I've eaten forever, but will now never, ever eat again.

I got to go to the emergency room last night courtesy of these delectable little shellfish.

I made some wonderful shrimp in garlic butter sauce for dinner last night. It was delicious and everyone was happy. Right after I put the girls to bed around 8pm, I noticed the palms of my hands were itchy. And come to think of it, my feet were itchy too.

Soon the itchiness got worse and I was standing in cold water in the bathtub asking Wayne what he thought was going. He has had a run-in with shrimp in the past and said I was probably just having a reaction and that I shouldn't worry about it.

That's when I noticed the hives. Hives spreading up my arms and legs, arms and legs that were also starting to itch. And I was UNCOMFORTABLE.

I took some Benadryl.

O wait, then that's when my feet and hands started swelling and I started to lose feeling in my fingers and toes. Now I was uncomfortable and nearing crazed.

Wayne was finally convinced that I need to go to the hospital so we took off and my Mom watched the girls for us. On the way out to the truck I swallowed and realized that my tongue was swelling and threatening to block my breathing! Yikes! This caused Wayne to take the situation a bit more seriously and drive a lot faster.

I signed myself in and we went to sit down. Now I was dizzy and weak and itchy and a little sick to my stomach. The triage nurse called me in quickly (they thought I was an emergency too) and started asking me questions.

I had my eyes closed and when I opened them everything was violet! Like an Andy Warhol picture where everything was purple with a slight bit of black contrast. I told the nurse and that got me 'fast tracked' to a room.

There was a lot of laying down and drifting off to sleep in the room. But they gave me an IV and a bunch of drugs to stop the reaction. We watched Mythbusters even though everyone else was watching the Ohio State/Florida game. Go Gators! We're not big football people but when it came time to discharge me it was also the end of the game and the process took a while do to the celebrating.

We walked into the door, I mumbled thanks to my Mom and fell fast asleep. I feel a lot better today, but they have me taking the 'cocktail' of medication for a few more days just to be cautious.

My great friend Lisa took Ali for a day of fun with her kids (a lifesaver since I had to tell Ali first thing this morning I had to tell her we couldn't go to Sea World 'cause I wasn't up to it). Emily's a sleepy-potomas 'cause she got her 6 month shots this morning.

I'm going to go take a nap. I'm hoping to make it to knitting tonight. :)

Christmas Presents?!

I'm so behind the times, everyone else has posted thier presents and pictures of their tree and probably packed the whole shebang up already. Not me. Although I have packed it all away, which may be why I've been remiss in posting about my wonderful gifts.

This year we got the whole family to make a wist list. What a lifesaver! I knew exactly what everyone wanted (and where I could buy it) and everyone knew exactly what Wayne wanted (a good thing).

After Christmas I was able to delete 16 items from my wist that we received! 16!

My family rocks at following directions, I got lots of cycling clothes - including my greatly desired knickers, cute magnets, yarn, needles, needle holders, books, acid jacquard dyes, a swift and ball winder and a breadmaker.

After entertaining, visiting, wrapping, cleaning, opening and all sorts of other merriment, today I was able to take the swift and ball winder for a spin - and Alison helped too!

I now have a little cake of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Jeans colorway - another Christmas gift, from my Secret Pal. I'm going to knit up a pair of ribbed anklets for Aileen, which I hope will be finished by the end of January (or February if I go for the modified sock knitting goal).

And finally, my first FO of 2007, cast on and completed this year - Twiggy Tweed. Quick to knit, cute to wear and I dig the Plymouth Tweed. It's affordable and comes in some great colors.

Half!

Today is Emily's 1/2 birthday! Hooray! She's an amazing blessing to our family and I'm thankful for her. :)

2006: The Year in Review

It's only the 3rd, it's not yet too late for this. :) Finished projects, small and large.

January

Aileen's sweater

March

Seija Hat

Boy Beanie

Star Blanket

April

SocKs

Felted Bowl

May

Color-Bar Blanket

Pink & Purple Socks

Barbie Poncho

June

Star Blanket

Short Snort Tank

Girlfriend Shrug

July

Emily :)

Crochet Flip Flops

1 Jaywalker (for swap)

August

Emily's Pinwheel Sweater

French Market Bag

2 Mason-Dixon Hexagonal Washclothes

Birthday Socks

September

Jocelyn's Pinwheel Sweater

3 Mason-Dixon Hexagonal Washclothes

October

1 Diamente Sock (for swap)

3 Mason-Dixon Hexagonal Washclothes

November

NaBloPoMo :)
Men's Zippered Raglan

Baby Hat & Blanket

R2D2 Hat

5 Mason-Dixon Hexagonal Washclothes

December

Alison's Hat

Anklets

Armrests

3 Mason-Dixon Hexagonal Washclothes

Time to Set Some Goals

Today I spent the morning un-decorating the house of Christmas things. Then I tidied up all my yarn and knitting and got down to some listing.

Here's what I've got:

Fav. Knit of 2006:
Emily's Pinwheel Sweater, it was fast and cute and in the end I could even knit another without getting bored.

Unfinished Items* that WILL BE Knit:
Tasha Bag
Coney Island Fireworks Scarf: from SnB
Bad Penny (although I may change the colors)
Sushi Wallet

*A note on these items, with the exception of Bad Penny, none of these things are life or death necessities which may be why I'm not super-motivated to finish them.

Unfinished Items that have been RIPed and are being repurposed:
No Sugar Added Sock - I'm not in love with the yarn I picked, will try again with new yarn.
Potluck Sock Anklet - I dropped a stitch in 2x2 ribbing and can't get it back together, o well.

Projects Coming Soon:
Twiggy Tweed
Pinwheel Sweater for Alison
One pair of socks each month! Or maybe every other month, let's not get too crazy. :)

Happy New Year!

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We spent the first day of the new year having family fun time at Sea World Orlando. And it was even better than we could have imagined - our friend Nick (in the blue wetsuit) works there in the Blue Horizon show and he's a top-level dolphin trainer. We got special seats at his show (which we went to twice!) and after his first show he took us behind the scenes!

We fed the false killer whales - Alison picked up the raw fish like it was candy. Fed a parrot - he was very polite. And learned a few trainer signals. :)

It was a great day, full of love and wonder - I'm hoping it's a little piece of how 2007 will be for us.