The Perfect Crime

Wayne is out of town on an interview (fingers crossed he gets the job). Thankfully, I have knitting (and a babysitter - thanks Erin!) tonight so I won't spend the whole time watching crime dramas off my DVR.

Let me tell you, I didn't realize how much my late night TV watching was going to be infringed on when Wayne got laid off. He used to go to bed by 9PM and I could watch whatever I wanted or had on the DVR. But now he's up at night and home all day - and it turns out he hates CSI, Law & Order, LOST, Six Feet Under, basically everything I like. We do get to watch Heroes and the Amazing Race together, but that's just 2 short hours out of the whole week.

In knitting, my friend Michelle had a baby girl on Thursday and although I'd already crocheted a blankie for her and stitched up all those Care Bears, I couldn't resist knitting her a little hat. I was going to knit the bunny hat, but my eczema's been acting up and went with the plain-old rolled brim instead. Modeled by Emily.

And I started my first laceknitting project. The Janet Lace shawl from Knit Picks. So far it's just lots of counting and YOs, but soon I start some tricky rounds. A gorgeous blue/green/teal/yellow colorway, KnitPicks Gossamer in Caribbean. I won't finish it before March, but it definitely makes my Project Spectrum tally for Jan/Feb.

O, and have you checked out Yarnival yet?? I'm editing the April 15th edition and will begin collecting submissions soon. In the meantime, check it out.

Winners!

Woo hoo!

We rode the Tour de Cure yesterday in some gorgeous weather and in an excellent time. We had some of our fellow teammates cancel over the course of the week, so Wayne ended up riding with me on the 22-mile route.

This was my longest ride to date, and I rode the furthest I ever have without stopping, 14 miles! It was a lot of fun for a great cause.

Thanks again to everyone who supported us. We didn't win any 'most money raised' awards or anything, but every little bit counts and we were able to meet our goals.

Getting to those prizes . . . I used a random number generator and came up with some winners -

Karin aka kucki68 has won herself a beautiful ball of Trekking XXL:

And Ann-Marie, the chickwithsticks won a copy of the Stitch n' Bitch Knitters Handbook, signed by Debbie Stoller:

And in a suprise contest, I also listed everyone who purchased a pattern and let the generator pick one more winner. It's Hattie, the limedragon. To you I'm sending you two hanks of ArtYarns Ultramerino 4, the recommended yarn for the pattern. Enjoy!

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On Saturday I took the girls to Explorations V Children's Museum in Lakeland with my friend Lisa and her kids. They had a fun time, but the best part was the Orange Juice Factory - we are in Florida. They had wooden "trees" where you could pick the "oranges" (aka orange ball crawl balls) and then they got sorted from the tree house to the house, distribution center or orange juice factory. Each place had different things you could do with the oranges. Very fun and educational.

My favorite part was watching Alison shake the imaginary orange juice before she'd pour it. She's been taught well. :)

Only 3 More Days!!!

Sunday is the Tour de Cure!

I can't believe it's almost here. Woo hoo!

Rumor has it the weather is going to be beautiful and that the route is very flat. Two very good things for this cycling mama.

I went out Tuesday and ended up stranded at the end of the trail. My chain kept falling out of the gears and I got very frustrated. Wayne came to rescue me and a quick trip to the bike shop made everything better. According to the bike tech, there are lots of things that just need 'adjusting' every once and a while (or 200 miles! What, I've ridden over 200 miles since October, even with the cold weather!! I was shocked.)

Wayne still needs a little more money, so if you've been waiting until the last minute to give, now is the time! Just click the ADA pic over there on the left. Fabulous prizes, great karma. :) And the sock pattern is still for sale and very cute!

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I can't bring myself to frog the One Skein Wonder. It just lays in my knitting basket. Limp and unwearable.

I did get out the ball winder and swift yesterday and made some beautiful cakes of Knitpicks Gossamer for my first lace project. I picked up the needles too. As soon as I finish another little bunny baby hat I think I'll cast on for it. Aileen's socks and the Sushi wallet may never get finished. :)

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I leave you with Alison and the GREAT outdoors. :)

Listed

We listed the house on Thursday, and if you or maybe someone you know is the market for a house, feel free to check it out. :)

http://mfr.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=1880439105&s=MFR&t=MFR

Not So WONDERful

I returned from NYGK group on Tuesday night, highly caffinated, and decided to cast on a One Skein Wonder with some delicious Noro Kureyon I'd got for cheap on Destash. My plan was to knit it up quickly and wear it to our annual Husband's Love Their Wives dinner on Saturday.

My Dad came up with the idea for the dinner years ago, before Wayne and I were married, and it's a great night. They invite 6-7 married couples and the men prepare all the food and do all the dishes and get drinks for the wives all night long. My Dad makes the meat and makes sure that everything will go well together. We've had some swanky stuff - this year was tuna steaks or london broil, asparagus, garlic green beans, caesar salad (from scratch!), and tiramisu for dessert. It was a lovely evening - I did not wear the One Skein Wonder I'd killed myself knitting.

Ack!

I knit every spare second I could find over the course of the week. And it kept getting bigger with the increases so every row took longer than the last. The colors were beautiful. Like a sunset in the sky. I did have to cut out some 'muddy' parts, but that was my preference. In all it took 2.5 skeins of Noro.

Saturday morning I finished the ribbing and cast off. I ran into the bathroom to try it on and . . .

Ick!

I love the back. I love the length of the sleeves. I hate the front. It cut way too far up on the shoulder for me and my hefty bossoms. I tried it on with several shirts, hoping against hope that a different neckline would make it look better. No such luck.

The pattern was really great and I've seen this look great on other people, just not me. If I had more yarn (I don't), I'd make some panels or something for the front, but alas.

So now I have to unravel the whole shebang.

Drat!

Project Spectrum-A-Go-Go

I know that half of the month of February has come and gone, but I'm finally ready for a little Project Spectrum action.

Firstly, I knit some wristwarmers for my kid's babysitter a year or so ago out of gorgeous Noro Kureyon, which I love - if I had to knit with just one yarn for the rest of my life it would be Noro Kureyon, and had three different sections of 2 skeins left over. I've cherished it's place in my stash, but earlier this week it spoke to me. It said, "Make me a hat. Make me a hat for Nick who is wonderful to your family. A beautiful hat." I loved this idea so I put all those things over there in the progress section in the knitting basket and cast on a hat.

At this point, let me tell you a little about my history with hats. I suck at hat kniting. Not the knitting so much, but the sizing. Hats never fit their intended recipient. I end up giving hats for Alison to Wayne and hats for Wayne to Alison. I know why this happens, I never knit gauge swatches on hats. Hell, I don't even look at the ball band for a jumping off point. I just knit and it never goes well. (I know you're thinking about the R2D2 hat and the bunny hat now - they did turn out as planned and apparently made me proud and as Greek tragedies and Shakespeare have taught us pride comes before the fall.)

Two days of knitting happily away, watching the colors change and amaze and Ta da! A hat! A hat for Nick???



Nope. A hat for Emily. Dang! In my pitiful defense, this hat also fits Alison, but she's got quite a few already.



This hat, lovingly named the Too Small Hat, does however qualify for color group 1 for Project Spectrum - just ignore the green. :)

Back to things I know, I worked on Aileen's make-up sock a little last night while watching 'A Scanner Darkly'. The animation was pretty captivating and the plot was hard to follow so not much knitting got accomplished. And it's blue!



I won a contest held by Susan and her brother Steve, about the binary hat she knit for him. It's a great idea - you can find info on how to make your own here. I won a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock - a super-great favorite sock yarn of mine! And it's blue too!! Thanks Susan!

Show Me Some Love

:)



Get your own valentinr

ETA: You can click on the widget over on the left to send me a valentinr. :)

5 NEW Things About Me!

As if the first 100 weren't enough for you. :)


Nicole tagged me for 5 Things Previously Unrevealed!

Here's the rules:
Get tagged.
List five things that have not been revealed on your blog.
Tag five other people.


Here goes:

1. I love flip flops! My friend Greg got me 10 pairs for my 21st birthday.

2. It took me 4 years and one summer session to complete my Bachelor's Degree. My counselor informed me I was shy one class after the spring semester had already begun so I got to walk in May, but had to complete the class for my degree.

3. While I found it to be fabulously sexy that Wayne played guitar while we were dating, it is now one of his most annoying habits. A word of caution to all you ladies out there who think a musician is the one for you - they practice ALL THE TIME!

4. The Ewok movie scared the heck out of me when I was a kid.

5. I took swimming in High School to fulfill my PE requirements - I almost failed because I refused to put my face in the water when I swam.

I tag: Ann Marie, Harriet, Adrienne, Chris, and Nicole

Katja

Pattern: Katja

Started: Feb. 1, 2007

Completed: Feb. 6, 2007

Yarn: substituted elann.com Sonata Print in Rose Garden

A few variations were made because I lost track of the stockinette and garter rows in the pattern, but in the end it's cute. I also knit it in the round which turned out great. As you can see in the last photo, it's a bit too wide, but maybe a little washing will shrink it.

The Bad, The Good and The 'Heroic'

THE BAD

Wayne got laid off on Thursday. It sucks. It's a little scary - I mean, we've got two little people to feed and we've become a little comfortable with our bourgeois, middle-class lifestyle.

THE GOOD

We are okay with the aforementioned bad. Better than okay. We believe that God will take care of our needs, He is our Provider. Also, this was the swift kick in the pants that we needed to move to Hot-lanta.

That's right, there will be no job seeking in Orlando. We're selling the house and getting the heck out of here. Wayne's got some resumes circulating in the A-T-L and we're hoping to move in the next month or two.

MORE GOOD

I've managed to do a little knitting. Here's the beginning of Katja for Emily. I'm using elann.com's Sonata Print and it's looking like a great substitute for the suggested yarn. This pattern is super cute and intuitive, so modifications are really easy.


EVEN MORE GOOD

My final package from my amazing Secret Pal arrived on Saturday - 5 skeins of KnitPicks Bare Fingering Weight yarn!!! I'm so excited to get out my dyes from Christmas and make some beautiful yarn - but the house is in 'sell me' mode and I don't want to have any accidents. :)

And my sweet Emily can sit up almost completely unsupported! She's enjoying her toys and her new perspective on the world.

THE "HEROIC"

Our great friend, Nick, the one from Sea World, went to a Sci-Fi Convention a week ago and guess who he met???????

Sylar and the Cheerleader!!!

He brought us copies and made it on our fridge. :)

Hot!

A more substantial post soon, but I saw this and had to share:

http://perezhilton.com/topics/ryan_gosling/quote_of_the_day_20070204.php

Blogger's (Silent) Poetry Reading

This is one of my favorite poems - I memorized it and would recite it loudly with a friend when I was in college. :)


Bantams In Pine-Woods
by Wallace Stevens

Chieftain Iffucan of Azcan in caftan
Of tan with henna hackles, halt!

Damned universal cock, as if the sun
Was blackamoor to bear your blazing tail.

Fat! Fat! Fat! Fat! I am the personal.
Your world is you. I am my world.

You ten-foot poet among inchlings. Fat!
Begone! An inchling bristles in these pines,

Bristles, and points their Appalachian tangs,
And fears not portly Azcan nor his hoos.