Thursday, May 21, 2009

Stripes Interrupted

This is the second time while working with a self striping yarn that I came across a knot where the yarn ended and the new strand began. This time it was Red Heart "Heart & Sole" yarn. However, they were kind enough to tie it on in the same pattern as the yarn before it. I had this happen before with a different brand and the new yarn was reversed from what I had been working with so the stripes didn't match up after the knot, I had to unknit several rounds and wind the yarn out of the skein and reverse it for the second sock to match the first. So at least all I had to do here was pull out several repeats of color until I was back where I was supposed to be and go from there :o)

Here some of the Hummingbirds that visit our deck. I LOVE hummingbirds, they move so quick though its hard to bird watch them, LOL!!


Sunday, May 17, 2009

The sun is trying to come out

Its been one of those days where the sun keeps trying to come out, but the clouds keep hiding it. Its about 60 degrees out today, but a little chilly because of the lack of sun. Yesterday was nice, not too hot and sunny.

I finished one of the socks for my mom's birthday, took about a week. So I am confident that I will have them done in time, the end of the month. I also picked up a tank top that I started eons ago, then ripped out because I realized in my uneducated beginnings I was doing it wrong and the gauge was bad too so I don't think it would have fit, and started it back up a couple of months ago. Now the back is almost complete, will probably finish that today and maybe cast on the front.

I finished planting all of my pansies yesterday before they died a horrible sun drenched dehydrated death in the small plastic flat containers from the nursery. You'd think if it rained for two days they wouldn't need to be watered! Apparently one morning of sun dried them up.

Last weekend we went to a small sheep farm to see the babies. Its a lovely piece of property with rolling hills and lots of trees around all the fields. The weather was perfect for being outside.




The above two are the rams.


Here are some of the babies sleeping in the afternoon.


And here's one of the babies that the owner said were extra tame and could be mingled with.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Revelations of a Delusional Knitter - Episode 2

Episodes can be downloaded from Revelations of a Delusional Knitter

News & Stuff

Building a hibachi ... 2 silly adults and rum and coke

Riley

Everything is green and blooming

Knitters' Guild Meeting

New MP3 Player & Audible.com

Law & Order and Castle

What I'm Currently Knitting

Prince of the Wood Elves Socks in Tinsel Toes

Finished Objects

Coriolis Socks - New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Hobbiton Socks - The Unique Sheep
Reavers Socks - Christina Marie Potter

Book Review

The Eclectic Sole by Janel Laidman

Podcasting

Episode 2 was recorded today and I noticed that I think I have a running trend where I pick a "word of the day" and I repeat it a tremendous amount during the podcast, LOL! I believe the first episode I chose "cool" and for the second one it was definitely "enjoyable". Hey, maybe once I get an audience I can run contests where people can email me the "word of the day" and I can pick a winner from the entries, hahaha!! I also think that I misspelled the web address ... missed a few letters. I really need to have that in front of me. I can spell, but its hard when you know you're being recorded and you don't want to mess up ... inevitably you do! I'll fix that and the next episode will be posted tomorrow.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Understanding why

I always wondered how people could not get things done that they said they would do. The following is not a good excuse, nor one I intend to use in the future, because I am always a person who does what she says she is going to do and gets it done when she says it'll be done. Other people who do not have this philosophy are a big pet peeve of mine, they really rub me the wrong way. I've come to realize in the last few months since we own our own home now and enjoy where we live, its quite easy to just ... be ... and not worry about anything else. Where I used to live I always wanted a mental escape so I was always busy doing something, found plenty of hours in the day for volunteer work or school, or whatever. Now that I enjoy just being here, I can often let an entire weekend day go by and find that I've accomplished pretty much nothing, maybe catching up on tv, knitting, sitting outside. But that's how I like to spend my time and that's OK. I did gain a different perspective on life though and will maybe be able to tolerate "forgetful" people better.

While I was enjoying doing not much of anything today but sitting and eliminating some used up space on my DVR I decided to clean up some laundry. One of our cats likes to lay up in the closet on the shelf. Its her sanctuary from the other cats when they pester her, she's a people-cat, not a cat-cat. She had knocked some clothing down on the floor in the closet. When I went to pick it up, I noticed it was damp. Our bedroom is in the finished basement ... obviously not finished enough. There was no leak, I think its just water seeping up through the foundation. I was complaining that the basement room smelled damp and stinky, but thought it was just because ... well it is a basement. Now I know why it smelled. I got everything out of the bottom of the closet before any damage was done and sprayed a diluted bleach/water mixture on the carpet and baseboards and put a fan down there to air it out. I am hoping this doesn't become a real problem. I did notice old water damage on the baseboards in that corner, but didn't think much of it. Ahhh the joys of owning a home, LOL!

Here are some actual joys of owning a home:





Everything is turning green here and we can sit on the deck and watch the birds come to the feeders. We have a lot of plants popping up in the yard that we are waiting to find out what they are, can't tell just yet.

I picked up a real MP3 player yesterday. I had a freebie one that was an employee gift and told myself if I used it enough I could justify the purchase of a nice one. Well I used it all the time and I went to audible.com and downloaded an audio book and it wouldn't play it because it couldn't read the protected format, so that really made me want to go buy one! I sat on the deck this afternoon soaking up some sun listening to an audio book and it was great. I don't enjoy knitting outside too much if I need to refer to a pattern, inevitably, even if its not windy there's a breeze that blows the papers around, so I took my MP3 player out there instead.

FO: Reavers Socks



This is a really nice pattern with cables and lace. It is a for sale patter, but definitely worh the few bucks to purchase it.

Pattern: Reavers Socks (Raverly link)
Yarn: Arucania Ranco
Needles: Knit Picks Size 2 (2.75mm)
Cast On: 4/2/09
Cast Off: 4/30/09