Dumb and Dumber

This takes the cake.

So I was starting a hat last night and needed size 10 needles. I go to my Denise set and look for the tens. Something isn't quite right in there. There is one size 10 needle and one size 10 1/2 needle in there. And the matching needles are nowhere to be found. I'm so confused! Who would take one of each out of there? MOI. That's who. Guess where they are?

Oh yeah. Right here. No wonder it looked sort of funky. No wonder I ran out of yarn right before it was finished. I used two different needles the entire time. What am I going to do about it? Not a darn thing... except finish it when the yarn comes. Ugh.

Progress on Alpaca Shawl

This has really been a fun knit. It's quick and easy. And I'm really loving the yarn. (even though the fibers do go up my nose!) Everyone is telling me that gray is the color for Fall so I guess I'll be right in style. I can't wait to finish and block this.

You can find the free pattern here:

http://www.kraemeryarns.com/patterns/pdfs/vintage-shawl.pdf

I thought I had an entire weekend off (which would be almost unheard of) but it ends up that I have to speak about real estate to an alumni group at the Penn State campus here. So.. I guess I better go give that some thought and decide what I'm going to say. A public speaker I'm not.

On miracles...

I am an excellent driver. I must be. I've never had an accident or a speeding ticket. I'm sure I would qualify for those safe driver discounts that the insurance companies offer. I probably have a safe driver discount and I'd know that if I paid any attention to any of our bills, which I don't. So, with such a driving record, I can't believe that I almost killed a man today with my car, but I did.

I do have to say that most days I am extremely busy, a little stressed out and in a hurry. Today was just the opposite. I was having a nice, quiet, calm day. I left the office to go put a "SOLD" sign on a listing. I was sitting at a stop sign, looked both ways, and pulled out. As I was pulling out, I saw a motorcycle coming right at me. Right at my driver side. By some kind of absolute miracle, he missed hitting me. I pulled out right in front of him. I never saw him when I looked. I remember that the two little yellow lights on either side of the headlight were lit up when he almost hit me, but his headlight was not on. I never saw him coming.

I was so in shock that I had to pull over. He never stopped. I shook for 20 minutes. It's amazing how fast something like that can happen. If I had hesitated one extra second, he'd surely have hit me broadside. He may have died and my life would never have been the same... in one brief second.

So I'm sitting here thinking... if motorcycles are that easy to miss... why would you ride one? I don't mean to be passing the blame to the motorcycle person. I'm not at all. I'm simply saying.. do they know how hard they are to see at times? It was on a tree lined street with lots of foliage so there was lots of background scenery. He just blended in. I wish he could know how sorry I am that I did it.

I come from a long line of non-motorcycle people. I think my nephew went through a motorcycle phase once but it was short lived. I've never thought much about them until today.
I'm glad that no one I love rides a motorcycle.

When Catie was little she made a few trips to the orthopedic surgeon for a problem with her hips. I remember that he had a sign up in his office that said, "Buy Your Child A Motorcycle... For His Last Birthday". I think I get it.

.... and baby makes two

Below you will find the patterns on the new Knitty for Fall that I LOVE.

This would be so perfect for my son's girlfriend. I could totally see her loving this purse.




















And this would be perfect for ME. I love it. And so simple too!

And this is by far the cutest hat I've ever seen knit. I have to knit this for Colin's little brother or sister.

Yep... I'm going to be a grandma... again! Look out Colin. Your world is about to be rocked!

Remembering 9/11

I was thinking not long ago that it was only a couple of years ago.

When I realized it was 2001, I couldn't believe that time had gone

so fast. So much has happened since then and nothing has happened.

I remember when we started the war on terror, I had it in my head

that we'd kick their butts in a year or so and show them who's boss

and they'd think twice about messing with us again. How naive of me. I

had no clue who we were dealing with. I still don't think I do. I have

trouble understanding that type of insanity. I'm not sure how you

fight insanity or if you CAN fight insanity. The one thing I know for sure...

You do have to try. You certainly have to try.

Out of Control...

I've never had so many projects going at one time. So what do I do? Start another one, of course.

I've been dying to start this and I just couldn't put it off any longer. It's done in Kraemer yarns alpaca blend (another fiber up your nose type yarn... yippee) and I'm lovin it so far. My plan is to really whip this one out and then go back to the others. This is going to be fast and furious knitting. I hope. I should get tons of mileage out of this. It's charcoal gray and it will go with almost everything I wear. Come to think of it, I should be brightening up my wardrobe, not adding to the darkness. Oh well. Maybe I'll make a red one next. Or not.

Spa Socks

I'm not sure why they call these spa socks. Most spas I've been in give you little thongy things to wear and you'd look pretty stupid walking around in these. But they are cute and they make great slipper socks for around the house. The pattern calls for Blue Sky Alpalca's Dyed Cotton yarn. We found the correct yarn for the pattern at the LYS in Colorado not far from where we were (as I mentioned in the previous post). Anyhow, a word of advice about the yarn... the loose fibers go up your nose and they set up camp and make it their mission to drive you insane. In all my years of knitting, I have never worked with a yarn that had me constantly sneezing and rubbing my nose and just going crazy in general. It looks good, it feels great, but it's a pain in the butt (or nose) to work with. Never again. I'll substitute for the next pair.

In other knitting news, I'm still stuck on Colin's sweater, I'm still waiting for my addi turbos for lace knitting for the lace wrap, and I'm still working on the cotton socks that I started in Colorado. I've been mulling over some holiday projects but I think I'll give myself a break this year and declare Christmas 2007 a non-knitted gift year. I'm going to try hard to squeeze in one felted purse for my son's girl friend but I'll be lucky to get it in and I'm not going to stress about it if I don't. That's why God created shopping malls.

Our 7th Annual Golf Tournament for MS was a huge success last Thursday. We had a beautiful day and tons of support from the local community. With so many charity golf tournaments going on, we are truly blessed to have so many people show up at ours. We had tons of great prizes too and what did I win? A dozen golf balls. Oh well, it made my husband happy.

Rocky Mountain Knitting

We had a great time in Colorado. Lots of knitting was accomplished but not on the intended project. I am still struggling with the Zoe Mellor pattern I'm trying to do for Colin. I thought we had the bugs worked out, but as I proceded, I realized we didn't. I finally sent her a snail mail letter to ask about errata since her email address is nowhere to be found.

I started a pair of "spa socks" from this magazine:

These shortie socks are very cute and very quick done in Blue Sky Alpaca's Dyed Cotton yarn on size 8 needles. My sister had the magazine, and we lucked into the yarn the pattern called for here:

The Yarn Studio

The spa socks are in aqua. The other sock shown is more Colorado knitting done in yarn my super secret pal from last year sent me. It took me a while but I knew I'd get to it.

Here's my new Vera Bradley knitting bag (birthday present) from my # 1 daughter... I just love it.

Here we are at the top of Beaver Creek mountain with the Gore Range in the background.

It's beautiful in Colorado.