Lunch with Loopy

I must be making up for lost blogging time with multiple posts per day. Or maybe I'm just bored and need to get out. This morning I worked on finishing the body of the DiC shrug and now I'm ready to seam up the sleeves and then pick up for the border. So I decided it was a good time to break for lunch. (At 3:00 in the afternoon lunch is a little late, I know. But that's what you get when you didn't get up for breakfast until 10:30.) So I'm sitting here eating a bowl of blueberries and Cool Whip when the mailman arrives. Which is good because he didn't come at all yesterday and I was beginning to worry that maybe our house had become invisible to outsiders or something. I mean, why else wouldn't the mailman stop here?! He or she normally slides the mail through the slot in the door and leaves. But today I heard a thump just outside the door. I know what that means!!!! That means a PACKAGE!!!!! Immediately I put down my bowl of blueberries and Cool Whip and ran to open the door and dive into the package. And you gotta love what was inside! It was from TLE so you know it was good!I'm now set for going back to work and taking my tea or coffee with me. Well, maybe I'm not ready for the going back to work part, but who said I can't have the tea or coffee on the side porch in the morning? Then feast your eyes on these beauties!!!

Those of you who know me know that I'm such a fall baby and how much I love fall colors. How could I possibly resist Jitterbug's new colorway "October Afternoon"??? It's like it was screaming out to me! It's a blend of pumpkins, dark greens, and brick reds. You know I'm in love!

And I've been wanting to try some Chewy Spaghetti and colorway Simpatico seemed to fit the bill for me. It will make lovely fall socks with it's peach, brown, tan, cream, light blue, and dark pumpkin.

I'm already dreaming of those cooler nights of autumn. mmmmmmm..... pumpkin......

I've also been interested in the possibility of attempting a colorwork project and the ShiBui Transition Gloves were very appealing. So I picked up the pattern and some lovely yarns for it as well.

And TLE must have known that I was having lunch because now I have some yummy Loopy kisses to crunch on to finish off the lunch. What a great day! Now maybe I should get back to finishing some of those WIP so I can cast on one of these lovelies!

Groupie Castoupie

I am an official Loopy Groupie!There you have some squishy Smooshie, Alpaca Peds, Classic, and Chewy Spaghetti yumminess. Along with the other wonderful treats that go along with being a groupie. If you're not a Groupie I would suggest you join the band wagon.

I also appear to be casting on a lot without finishing much of anything. My Ravelry projects are starting to get to be a bit ridiculous with so many cast on projects.
My newest two...Baby Surprise Jacket in Ty-Dy.... LOVE this yarn.... must get more!!!! I only get a few rows done and then I have to stop and squish the yarn and love it all up before knitting on. Sarah thinks I'm crazy while I'm working on this. I think she's beyond rolling her eyes at me and ready for the stern, "just knit it already!" look.

The BYOB from the new Knitty done up in a lovely Sugar N Cream Confectionery. This is going to be another great bag for summer shopping.

I've also got several socks started but not much done one them... still deciding if I'm really digging the patterns or not.

Now I'm off to finish packing. We're heading east for the weekend for a wedding and a few days at the beach. A little R&R would be good about right now.

Knitstrology

LIBRA
I have one word to say to you, Libra - detox, detox, detox. Not just your body; your knitting bag could do with a good cleansing as well. Please tell me there is nothing in there but pure organic yarn shorn by your own lanolin-soaked hands and nary a hint of man-made fiber. Triage the contents into "will knit," "maybe knit," and "never in a million years" and dispose of accordingly. Green tip: Clealiness is next to knittiness.

from Knit.1, Spring/Summer 2008

What a great idea! That's totally what I need right now! Some major DETOX!!! The other night I found myself up until 5 am beginning the detox rituals. (Mind you detoxing can take quite some time and this is only the beginning.) I started the whole process by going through my knitting books and bringing up an old bookshelf from the basement and redecorated a corner of the living room left barren when Honey left. And now look at it's warm charm. Can you believe that this corner was totally put together by things found around the house in other areas?

(Sorry about the direction of the photo. I swear I rotated it but it's not coming out that way and I don't know how to fix it. I tried uploading it to Flickr but it's not loading onto blogger either. Bummer.)

I also purchased this to reorganize my interchangeable needles. I love it!!! It's so much less bulky and lighter than the notebook thingy that came with them.

You can get your very own at Blue Kitty Designs on Etsy.

And look what I made for Sarah and I and for all the yummy socks that we have plans for knitting up. Dontcha just love them?!

And just for Chan, here's a shot of the bag Mom brought with her on this last visit. I think she was trying to make up for how bad she feels that she's not closer to help me through all these doctor visits and health crap.

There's still work to do, but at least I'm on the move with reorganizing my life. It's now on to the yarn mess I have in the dining room!

Lifetime Award and Payment for Dinner

It's been a few days since you all have heard from me around here... and for good reason. Maybe I'll go into all that in another post in a little while. Right now I'm just interested in posting a few FOs and then going to lay down for a little while. First up is an over due knit for a dear friend from WW who earned her Lifetime Goal a while ago. I promised I would knit her something but never quite figured out what it would be. I finally decided on a great pair of felted clogs but then took like forever to get the yarn and cast on. But I'm pleased to report that they are now ready to be awarded to a very deserving lady. Here's Chris's Lifetime Award Slippers... These are of course Fiber Trends Felted Clogs done up in some Patons wool in a bright blue (although not as bright as this photo is showing) and a chocolate brown. She's got small feet so I'm going to have her try them on to see if they need to be felted down a little more before adding some skid-free stuff to the bottoms.

Another lovely lady from WW made a sweet deal with me last week and 'traded' me a few home cooked dinners for a knit scarf. Sarah just happened to have some, brace yourself, acrylic yarn in a colorway my friend loved and Sarah was looking to off load. And so I present what I'm calling Ora's 'Salt 'n' Peppa'... I'm linking both of these FOs to their Ravelry reports for further details if you're interested.

In other news Sarah is celebrating her quarter of a century... Happy Birthday Sarah!!! Here's a quick pic of her and a friend who flew in for the special event. Love that smile!!! And as a final note (cause I'm starting to get stiff and the pain is coming back again and I must. lay. down.) a little something I had sent to myself this past week from The Loopy Ewe. Gotta love your dpns something special right???

Spring break round up

This year's spring break was all about resting and relaxing as much as possible. I spent most of the week catching up on some much needed sleep. I'm still not sleeping continually throughout the night but the naps throughout the day are helping with that and I'm feeling much better. My hair is shiny, thicker and healthier from not using any product and only washing it every other day this week. Sarah and I spent a little time on Monday pampering our little tootsies and I've been prancing around in flip flops ever since.

I decided to round out the week with a road trip home to spend a little time with the kin folk and the little man. Sarah tagged along for the fun which made the 4 hour drive a hoot and a half. Together we are tag knitting some hats for chemo patients for a fellow blogger and Sarah finished off two of the hats while on the road (with the help of a camping lantern when the sun went down :) ). Before family came over on Saturday we 'kidnapped' the little man for a little tour of the local's finest - chocolate and yarn! Our first stop was Sarris' Candies where we splurged on chocolate covered pretzels, a peanut butter melt away egg, and some fun BeanBoozled jelly beans to have a little fun with the relatives later that day. The little man was dazed and fascinated by all the bright lights and sights to see there.

Then it was off to check out the local yarn ware. A quick stop in The Knit Shoppe landed Sarah with a great bargain on some Cascade 220. I restrained myself and entertained the little man as he began to get a little cranky with these two strange women.

When we ventured to my new local favorite, Bloomin' Yarns, I could restrain myself no longer. Look what called out to me to find it a new home...

By this point the little man's crankiness was in full bloom so we cut the yarn fondling short and headed home for some home cooked goodness and family fun. Sarah had a blast getting each member to try the BeanBoozles. Dad got Skunk Spray and Booger and Brother Mark got Booger and Vomit!!! What fun!!! The only 'bad' one I got was Black Pepper which wasn't so bad by comparison.

The day also brought with it a visit from my favorite neighbor, Mrs. J. She took pictures of us each year on our first day of school in our new school outfits. Being a knitter and crocheter herself, she always has some little project going on which she shares with everyone she sees. Look what she brought with her on this visit...

They're sink scrubbies made from netting. Mom says they are great for scrubbing pots. Apparently they're also good for exfoliating in the shower.

Before I left I wound some of my favorite Jitterbug in two lovely colorways and finally cast on for the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

It's amazing how the colors are knitting up! I'm so in love that it's taking me forever to knit because I stop every few rows to admire the colors. I can't stop admiring and smiling.

Today is my last day of laying around watching TNT Prime Time in the Day Time. It's back to the grind tomorrow.

Dwelling on 2007 and Plans for 2008

There's been good reason for my absence here, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to share my thoughts just yet. I'm still thinking through it and I don't want to risk putting my thoughts into written words just yet. But I will say that this... dilemma let's call it... has gotten me all twisted up about wanting to blog and what to report on when I do. So I've been avoiding it. This morning I layed in fear that I'm loosing my blogging energy because I'm having trouble getting my thoughts together to get through this. But then I thought about all the wonderful people out there in blog land that I've met and who have commented on how blogging has gotten them through some tough times. So here I am, busting through the walls I'm building around myself to return to the life of a blogger. Rather than spend my time here dwelling on my twisted thoughts, I think I'll just focus on the positive.

First some holiday knifty gifties! Feast your eyes on these beauties! (Chan, don't be too jealous over the polka dots.)

It's a Knitpickers Carry All Traveler from Michael's. While I was home for the holidays I started on the Chevron Fantastic Afghan with the yarn Mom sent me for my birthday. I'm adapting the pattern a little bit by only using three colors and only using the first two chevron patterns instead of all six. So far, I'm enjoying the mindless energy going into a project like this. And best of all it fits perfectly in my new bag! (at least for now it does!) The bag is great! Is has to external large pockets and two internal ones plus lots of room for projects and yarn. To go along with this bag, Mom also got me this:

It's a matching sock bag! And lookie what's inside! Two skeins each of two fabulous colorways of ShiBui sock yarn - Autumn and Stone. Mom's are the best! In another beautifully wrapped package were these to add to the bookshelf:
A trip to the largest JoAnn's that I've ever seen had me walking away with a slight additional build of the yarn stash, including :
for a felted bag project,

for a nice scarf maybe hat project, and some great organic cotton that I'm planning on using to knit up some great spa gifts for friends for next Christmas. (Hoping to get a little jump on things.) To top it all off, my annual tree ornament: Perfect! Don't you think?!

And so now we're on to 2008. Can you believe it already? Crazy, I tell you, just crazy how the time flies!

So I think this year rather than make New Year's Resolutions that I'll never keep, I think I'm going to try to make monthly goals. Take smaller, more manageable steps.

My goals for January include:

1. develop an exercise plan for two to three days a week - and stick to it!

2. reinvest myself in the WW program - actually start following the Flex Plan to a T again.

3. take my vitamins every day.

4. finish (or at least work on) all unfinished knit projects from 2007. Maybe I'll even add a little something to the side bar to help keep track of this one.

Here's to a new year filled with new experiences, new challenges, and hopefully new joys!

Holiday shopping... for me???

Things have been busy and yet lazy around here. Work has been crazy with changes happening every minute. So much so that I'd better take up doing yoga a few times a week again just to help keep me flexible. ha ha. Actually I need to be doing the yoga to get rid of the bulge that is beginning to show itself again in my belly region...again. On the home front the laziness has kicked in this week. Very little has gotten done with anything while I'm home. The house has gone to shambles, very little knitting progress to speak of (I'm ashamed), and the final items on the Christmas list have been left untouched (was hoping to be done already).

But today in the mail was the Crate and Barrel Gift Guide 2007 and has sparked some interest... at least in the shopping area. The bad thing is it hasn't given me any ideas of what to get for others, just ideas for what to get for me!!! I'm feeling very selfish right now.... but look at these little goodies!

(If you click on any of the pics it will take you to the site for descriptions and purchasing.)

And of course there's all the other great stuff that Crate and Barrel has, these are just there specially for the holidays. It's got me in the mood to browse and shop... maybe I'll browse some on-line yarn this evening and stock up for a winter storm. I mean there's all those great new Knitty patterns to tackle (after I finish the ones from the fall issue!) If you haven't headed over to Knitty.com lately - do so now!