Sock progress!

Finished the heel flaps... now I just need to turn the heels and keep knitting! Now that I know all I have is stockinette the rest of the foot, I hope the colors are exciting enough to keep me interested...

Crazy kid

Big Brother seems to have abandoned us for most of the summer. I guess it is much more fun when you go to your grandmother's house. PeeWee has been a busy little critter lately, and as you can see, she's just miserable most of the time.
We'll all be home tonight, it has been a while since we were able to sit down to a meal together. So, I guess that means I need to go to the grocery and come up with something everyone will enjoy. Enjoy the pictures of PeeWee being her regular self :)

forgot to add...

Please DO laugh at the P-K (post Katrina) landscaping in that last picture. Gotta love a baked dirt yard when you're married to a landscaper.....

Some things you can't pass up

I don't know why I am always surprized when my plans change. Saturday I had no knitting time in the car because I ended up driving. And bringing along my mother in law. PeeWee slept the whole way over and the plan was to stay an hour and sneak out when the bride to be started opening her shower gifts. Well, I tried that but PeeWee had been snatched up by The Aunts (my mother in law's sisters) and we couldn't get out the door. I had hoped to get out of there before it was late enough for PeeWee to fall asleep in the car again. You really can't sneak out of a party when the front door is behind the honoree and she's in the spotlight. So, soon as she was done we ran out of there and about 23 miles into the 24 mile causeway PeeWee crashed. It was a late night. She woke up from the car rarin' to go. Good thing My One and Only was well rested from a day off.

My blue sweater I started when I swore I wasn't going to start new projects is chugging along nicely, considering a total lack of knitting time. The sweater is an unknown blue wool/acrylic mohairy blend that's been in a ziplok bag for a few years. I know there's a lot of it, plenty for a sweater, but it was picked up during a yarn swap and had been balled into beautiful round sphere's, with no sign of a ball band to be found. But, there's a lot of yarn in there. And it is soooo soft. It's almost hard to touch it's so soft. It wants to slip right out of your fingers. I am happy with the unknown. The first 6 inches or so is a k6, p2 rib that I reduced to a k4, p2 rib. A bit of sassy flair. I like the scallop it is making where the knitting wants to curl. Plus, it gives a little more room for my behind to hide in the extra fabric. I like a little A-line in things.

I am working on some socks begun before the no new projects diet started. They are Lorna's Laces Hawaii. I like the way it is knitting up for the most part. I am knitting just a plain old sock so I don't compete with all that great color. I did about 5 rows of stockinette then 5 rows of 2x2 ribbing and the rest is just plain old sock. I like them short so I am starting the heels now. Like most of the Lorna's Laces I have chosen to use so far, they are bright and happy colors.


I went out today looking for a box to store yarn in. Keeping it hidden keeps PeeWee from tangling it into a crazy mess. I looked and looked, but instead of a box, I found this very fun orange basket, complete with belt buckle closure on the handle. I figure the orange works with the laundry (go on and justify it, Sarah), it is cheery, and it was on sale. I also came home with 2 bottles of wine I couldn't resist.

Vampire and Il Bastardo.

How do you pass up wine with names like those? You don't. I am a wine idiot (I know so little). It is apparently not genetic knowledge passed down through the generations, because my father and his brother are big connoiseurs (I don't even think I can spell that right) and their sister is married to an importer. And I buy wine because it has a funny name. And yes! the Vampire is from Transylvania. Couldn't pass it up.

such is life...

In the last 48 hours I have learned:


1) Give a 13 year old boy clippers and permission to cut his hair and you must smile and live with the results. He threatened a mohawk. And he had the nerve to follow through. (kind of proud of that, in fact) Gotta love Big Brother.

2) You can get Sharpie off of beige upholstery with nail polish remover and at least a roll of paper towels. Oh, PeeWee...

3) Sharpie comes off of gray upholstery with Spray n Wash and a stack of terry cloth towels.

4) Worry when your children get quiet. (they are possibly giving themselves crazy haircuts or using permanent markers to redecorate the furniture you have had less than 6 weeks)

5) Laughter makes almost anything bearable. Once it's done, no matter how much you want to run screaming out of the house, there's not much reason to dwell.

{huge sigh inserted here}


So much for not starting anything new. I started a sweater. But, it's stash yarn! And it's a sweater I have been meaning to start for almost two years, so I justified it. Oh well. It's soft and blue- does that help?

Tomorrow I will have some driving time- no, no, no!- RIDING time in the car to work on things. My One and Only said he'd drive us over the Causeway (longest bridge in the world!) and hang out with his brother while we do girly things. I am going to a wedding shower for our niece, who is getting married in Hawaii next month. The idea of all that time on a plane with PeeWee is INSANE so, as much as we would like to, we aren't going. Now that it is so close, I am a little sorry we decided not to go. That's the way it goes though.

I sent off the Rowan exchange gift! I had to send it mailman postal carrier mail because to send it to Scotland UPS was (gulp!) almost $200.00! That's a lot of yarn!!! I can't wait to find out how she likes it! Yay! I felt so good getting it all finished and packed and shipped right on schedule. And this week, that was really good.

Yeah, yeah...

I do know that a knitting blog with no pictures is, well, boring. So here are some I am sharing.

We had this flowerbed on the side of the house that had a lovely yellow climbing rose that was out of control and the whole thing was totally in the way. It had become an unfortunate holding place for the most unattractive garbage. We decided in the interest of pretending to create more space to bust it out. My vision is a play area for PeeWee, complete with a swing set and a slide. My One and Only thinks he is putting in a walkway to the backyard. There will be some discussion about this one. If I am going into the backyard I am going out the door to the backyard, not the kitchen door. The idea is to create space, get rid of something useless. He just has this thing for walkways going all over the place. He wants to put one down the side of the pool, too. Can you say runway? I am not so sure we have the same vision for the yard. I am not sure we have the same vision for most things involving this house. But he hasn't complained yet about anything major. Well, except the stove and fridge. Pretty major! They are a beautiful robin's egg blue and he recently told me how much he hates that color. Well, that was an expensive boo-boo. So, around here if you don't speak up, you definately have to live with the consequences. Since I didn't speak up about the poolhouse and am really not thrilled with the space, I'm speaking up about this. I don't want a house I am not happy with. My One and Only keeps saying how much he hates this house, so I figure since I am the one who loves it and really finds it works for us, I think my opinion has more weight. Plus, I am way more childish about getting my way, so there.

Well, THAT was charming... How about some knitting?

I have everything pretty much ready to ship to my exchangee, with the exception of finishing one project- needs ends woven in and the final touches. Here's a sneak peek! I am pretty happy with what's going out. It got fun in the last few days, looking around for things to knit with. A few things haven't been tried yet, if there's time later today, maybe... I wish I had been part of this exchange in the past so I had a clue if what I am sending is appropriate or not. Oh well, I guess I will find that out when my box arrives... I hope my exchangee will like her goodies. Why am I so anxious about this? Ack! Maybe because it's so new to me... I just hope my knitting isn't too scrutinized! I have to say though, I don't think the person I am knitting for seems like someone who might pick things apart looking for flaws. All my knitting insecurities are coming out here. I am so full of charm today. Oh well!

I started this thing with tulle- I bought 100 yards of it at the craft store. I am thinking it will be a bag when it is all done. I have never knitted with the stuff before and it has a mind of it's own. I like the fabric it is making. The big needles are hard to work with, but the tulle is not as hard on the hands as I thought it would be. It's very stretchy. I started out with size 11 needles and felt like I was making some kind of bullet-proof vest it was so stiff! So, I kept jumping up and feel pretty happy with it now. I am picturing an envelope-type bag that could hang on a doorknob and hold yarn, of course! The more places you can find to put the stuff, the more you can spread it out so it just doesn't seem like you have much at all! Logical? Completely. I keep looking at the bins of yarn that I have yet to deal with and I wish I could figure out a way to knit in my sleep. I know I am not the first person to wonder how to make that work. I am officially on a yarn diet though. I want to finish up all the UFO's around here. I am kind of embarrassed my the whole pile of them. As I unpack, I keep turning up new things that were stuffed away with all my other debris. My plan when PeeWee goes to school on Tuesday is to gather them all up and not start anything new until I finish what I am working on. But, I'll excuse preemie hats and socks from that list, of course. The preemie hats use up all sorts of bits and pieces of my stash and well, socks are the perfect portable project. My plan for getting things finished is to bring only those things to North Carolina when we go at the end of the month. That's a lot of car time to get knitting finished! The two things I want done before August is over are a sweater that has about 20 more rows on both sleeves (knitting them at the same time) and a sweater for a friend's son that is pretty much the same thing- sleeves.

One final thing... My mother bought us this for the house. I love it! It is glass and amazing! So, just one final picture I want to share. Boring? Me? Well, I may be, but at least I have pictures!

Spreading the word!

I have this need (I am sure you can all understand) to spread the word. A friend's birthday is coming up and I got her the best goodie basket of knitting equipment. She doesn't know it yet, but she's learning to knit! I got some good yarn- a treat you usually don't start knitting with- and nice needles and a book, a basket to hold everything in, and a little packet of notions. I can't wait to teach her! She expressed an interest a while back and now, well, she's gonna learn. In fact, she wanted to know if she could knit socks first, but I think maybe a little something should be first, then socks. I'd rather ease her in.... she still has a family to take care of! So, welcome to the world of knitting!

Another friend wants to learn too and asked me to start a knitting group. As soon as our couch arrives I plan on doing just that. I would love the company- minus kids though. Or with babysitters... Much as I love them, it is just too hard to knit with a group with little munchkins demanding attention. PeeWee loves to unwind yarn and has the most amazing knack for creating huge knots that take hours to undo. So, she'll have to be supervised...

We had been getting together for weekend retreats to Pass Christian, MS for knitting and needlepoint- girl's only! Since the whole place was washed away with Katrina (though the house we went to is remarkably still standing) we have stopped those get-togethers. But, the friend who was the organizer of the whole thing recently said she wants to do a few nights here and there to get everyone together and give them all a break. So, I offered up my house as soon as we have sufficient seating.

Speaking of the house, it is coming along nicely. I felt like it was really finished when we moved back in (love is blind) but there are lots of things we need to get wrapped up. Still, no doors. No doors ordered even. With the holiday and the stomach bug and My One and Only's long hours lately we haven't had a chance to go to the place and get them ordered. And, yes, normally I would go myself, since I am the one who's going to have the opinions, but I have no idea where "the place" is. The only problem with no doors is the lack of a bathroom door downstairs. I think we have one that we can pop in temporarily though, should we socialize any time soon. I know we have a laundryroom door we can use, too. For now we have a baby gate to keep PeeWee out of the laundry, and I am pretty tired of tripping over it. I should know better, since my mother shattered her ankle last summer falling over one... (add that to the list of lessons we SHOULD learn from our mothers...)

There are still a few plumbing issues, mainly the lack of a dishwasher. Washing by hand has lost it's charm. We now create a huge pile of garbage daily thanks to the paper plates we're consuming at an alarming rate. They are going to be abe to build an island with the debris they are picking up around here. In fact, that would be a good use for it. But, being Louisiana, the organization of something like that just wouldn't ever happen. Too bad, because there's a mountain of junk hauled away from here everyday. Wherever it's going they have new land being built. I still see the trucks at night, not so much during the day like you used to. But the freeway is full of the loads running out of town.

It's the thought that counts

I love getting things off the needles. I have been wrapping up things for my Rowan Yarn exchangee and it's been so much fun! She is a fan of blue and I have found so many beautiful things to do with blue yarn. Some I had already and some I bought just for her.

I have tried some new yarns and new things and it's been very fun. I like knitting things for the house instead of a person. I've been looking at knitting in a new way, and these last few days I've been cranking out some interesting little do-dads for her. I've had a few failures, things that are going into the toy box instead of the shipping box... It's not quite so nerve-wracking worrying if it fits or if it will look good. It is either a success right away or a total loss. No skin off my back! I am a little anxious if she will like what's coming her way, though... I am hoping so! I have some finishing touches to wrap up, but I am pretty much finished with the whole thing. Wow- ahead of schedule. So far, that is. Remember, I've learned not to look too far ahead!

I'm also pretty curious what's being made for me! Ohhhh, that makes me sound so darn greedy. Well, I am really doing this for the fun of making things for someone else, not for what I will recieve. In fact, I kind of forgot there would be something coming my way until My One and Only asked me if my exchangee was making something for me too. I think he is coveting something that's heading out in a box next week... So, it'll be like Merry-Half-Christmas here soon. We always celebrated that at camp- you picked a name and made something for them and we did a gift exchange. I like those. I like surprizing people. The hunt for the perfect thing you think they will like is such a challenge.

My friend in Indiana sent me a welcome home house warming gift and it was perfect. A signed copy of a Barefoot Contessa cookbook. Months ago she had casually asked me if I liked to cook, knowing she was fishing for info since my cookbooks flooded. She is totally thoughtful! She sent a big old care package to a friend who just had a baby recently, too. I want to be THAT kind of friend. Working on it.

Big Brother has come home, but we've barely seen him. It took about 17 minutes for his room to turn into a tornado's destruction path. You really can't even get in there. I was impressed. He had a friend spend the night and the blow-up bed is the last thing they could fit in the room. Ahhhh. I knew it was quiet when he was gone.

PeeWee has found the basket of yarn and has had a blast unwinding the odds and ends around the hallway, into the kitchen and back into the family room. She's got artist written all over her future. Her favorite toy is anything you can color with. We got her a magnadoodle type thing and she loves it. She draws pictures (scribbles) of us and blows them kisses. Warms your heart.