Tuesday, January 29, 2008

A finished pair of Monkey!

Yay! I just finished the Kitchener stitch on my second Monkey sock:


(Please do not be desperately jealous of my matching lounge pants. I got them at Shopko, if you are in the market for some. LOL)
And we're back from Lodge at Cedar Creek, where the kids had a great time at the Waterpark.

Just ask Jacques "Anna" Cousteau!

And now, we have gone from 40 degree temperatures to...well...a snowstorm again. We left Wausau early, because we didn't want to run into the nasty weather--they were already letting the kids out early. They didn't let them out early here, although (surprisingly) on schedule at 2pm the ice arrived. It looked like "Day After Tomorrow" when the cold comes all of the sudden and the flag freezes...it was that sudden! All the water from the melting snow (and rain last night) is now ice, underneath snow. And 50mph winds. Keep your fingers crossed the library is closed tomorrow, the schools are closed tomorrow, and I can have a "just stay inside and knit" day.

On deck: I just joined the Sock of the Month Club over at The Knitter.com, so I am hoping that comes in the mail soon. Yes, I know, I need more sock yarn like I need another hole in my butt. I just thought it would be fun until I become overwhelmed again. LOL

Monday, January 21, 2008

Pay It Forward 2008

I have decided to join the "Pay it Forward" exchange for 2008 that I found on Ruby's blog:

Pay It Forward - here's my promise to you:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.


So if you'd like to be the recipient of a handmade gift from me this year, please make the pledge on your blog to participate! :) And email me (Annasmommy AT gmail DOT com) with your snail mail address so I have it when I'm ready to send! This is going to be fun...what a great idea!

Depression in Titletown

As you can imagine, we're all a little disappointed here in the Frozen Tundra. I took this picture before the game, because I figured we wouldn't want to take pictures if we lost. I shouldn't have said anything...maybe I jinxed us. Maybe Anna should have worn her NFC North champions shirt. Maybe it was the new cheeseheads Grandma got them. Or maybe it was just too friggin' cold, and the Giants were just a little less crappy than the Packers.

I'll be sending Thora's husband Tom some Wisconsin Cheese--Extra Sharp!--I had maple syrup from New York on the line there...darn it!

I DID finish my first Monkey sock. It fits perfectly. I wish I could snap my fingers and have the other one finished. I am SO SO SOOOOO tempted to start something else, but I know I will never go back and finish the second one. So I will cast on for the second one right now:
It's a lovely pattern, and I am thrilled that it fits so well. And considering it is all lace work, it really didn't take that long. I am just ready to do something else. I think I need to learn that Magic Loop thing, so I can make 2 socks at the same time. The age old single sock problem.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Working on a Monkey

I've been working on my Monkey socks. They are time consuming, but pretty. I thought they would be WAY loose, but they aren't, because they ended up longer than I usually make my socks, and my calf is still plenty round to hold it up.



And that's the extent of my knitting--I am going to attempt an Illusion scarf and see how I do and if I can figure it out...I'd like to get some nice wool and make it for the "I Love My Library" silent auction...if it looks decent enough. I have such little self esteem about stuff like that.

Otherwise it's just COLD--it's -5 now (feels like -25) and tonight the air temperature alone will be -16. We thought tomorrow's temp was a good sign (4 degrees...like Brett Favre's number) but now it is down to 2. Let's hope it isn't a jinx.

I have been militant about not jinxing the Packers...we have a Packers flag on our flagpole, which is tearing in the trees. But I can't replace it--what if they lose because I replaced it? The kids? Well, they need to wear exactly what they wore last week. We are already going to my parent's house instead of here, and ordering pizza instead of cooking out, so I hope that isn't a problem.

Militant.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

GO PACK GO

It's official!! Titletown USA, next Sunday! WooHoo!

GO PACK GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snow Day

What a difference a few days makes! Yesterday we had unexpected snow...and it's still snowing! I know Brett Favre loved it for the Packers win over the Seahawks yesterday! Maybe the Giants will win (Ok, the proverbial "Snowballs chance..." maybe for this one--Let's hope Romo has had too much Jessica Simpson in the off week...) and they can come to Green Bay and play in the snow next week. WAY better than going to Dallas.



So here are some snow pictures for you:

And remember that table from the other day?:




AND some really nice yarn I got in the mail:



Thora emailed me on the 1st and told me about Discontinued Brand Name Yarn's Cherry Tree Hill sale. Now, my budget is tight, and I really don't need any more sock yarn...but OH MAN Cherry Tree Hill is my favorite! So I splurged and bought 2 skeins. AND I was one of the first people and got the goody bag too...what a nice thing for them to do! So here is what I got with my order:

So I'll be set for a while! I think I'm going to break out "Knitting on the Road" by Nancy Bush and see what solid socks I can make!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Manic weather and a monkey

I started Monkey last night--you can barely see the pattern emerging(and my hand is that red from being outside):



The twisted rib looks great, but holy man, is K1 tbl hard to do on the cast on row! And for now it's a pattern to do when the kids aren't around--the individual rows are pretty easy to remember, it's losing my place I'm worried about.

The weather is one word: Miserable! It poured yesterday, with thunderstorms. It poured all day today--no thunder, but about 34 degrees. Cold and very wet. And now, snow. It just started about 20 minutes ago. Not my best work as a photographer, but I tried to get it--the fine conditions combined with how dark it is (It's been that dark all day) make it hard. The last pic shows the icy snow on the table and deck...mind you, in 20 minutes.






Snow day tomorrow? If all this water freezes, the roads are going to be WAY bad. I could use a mental health day! I just have to hope that the library is closed with the schools.

I was thinking today after going to Ruby's blog and seeing her sensible and doable resolutions. I really need to get organized. My life is chaos, and a lot of it I can't control, but I need to control the stuff I can. Also, Anna is way disorganized at school, and I know it is because her home life isn't exactly a see of organization--we're not exactly good examples. So that's it--I'm going to get organized. A little at a time, a room at a time. I think I can do it.

Maybe I'll start by organizing my needles and stash, and logging them at Ravelry. It's the little things, right? :)

Monday, January 7, 2008

First FO of 2008!

I am thrilled to say I have finished Anna's Butterfly Bows socks! They turned out really nice--I am very happy with them:



My birthday was pretty good. I went to Il Angolo with Maureen from work for lunch. And she not only paid for my lunch, but she bought me a present!!! And not just any present--beautiful alpaca yarn in gorgeous greens!!!! It was so sweet of her...I was happy to have someone to go out to lunch with me!



Maureen says I have to make something for myself with my new yarn (HA! No one else was getting anything from THIS yarn anyway!) so I have decided to make myself a pair of Monkey :) That's my project to start tonight!

BTW if you haven't been to Hungersite.org, you should go. They no longer carry the yarn that Maureen got me, but they have some other gorgeous alpaca yarn--mohair and silk too--at a great price for a great cause (and some cute scarf kits too! Just do a search for yarn!)

We were going to go to HuHot for my birthday, but the wait was 45 minutes and the line was out the door :( So, since the kids were hungry, and my parents were along, we ended up at Ponderosa. I have decided, like Mall Rats, Ponderosa is the "dirt mall" of restaurants. Or like Vegas Vacation "It's all you can eat Clark--we only need one plate" and "I'll have some of the green. And some of the yellah..." It just was the opposite of good.

BUT we went early Sunday night to HuHot instead--it was great! We went at 4pm, and by 5pm the line was out the door again...on a Sunday night! Part of it was the weather. It was foggy and everyone was cooped up all day.

And speaking of weather. Today--pouring rain. In January. In Wisconsin. There was a tornado south of here. A TORNADO. We had thunderstorms. And some hail. I took some pictures in case no one believes me. Note most of the snow is gone. It is very sad, and putting me in a blue mood.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Happy New Year

OK, I know I'm a little late, but Happy New Year!

Brian and I did go out for New Years Eve (the first time in about 15 years I think) but it was a bust, and I was sick (self induced) the whole next day, so I won't be doing that again. We started at Sergios Restaurant, where they were doing country karaoke (I decided anyone can be good at Country Karaoke. I didn't have nearly enough drinks in me to get up and do it though). Then we went to this little dive bar in Menasha, where the clientele were a little old and a little rough. But they had food, we had a table, drinks were cheap, we should have stayed. My brother decided we should go meet his friends at the Waverly, where they had a band. And a $10/person cover charge. And no free beer (as a matter of fact, beer was $4 a bottle!). And they weren't going to let Brian in without his ID (which is pretty hysterical) Anyway, the band could have been better, the beer was expensive, and my Sister In Law invited her friend who just broke up with her baby daddy (again), so she spent the night sobbing. Oy.

Live and learn.

I have finally uploaded my Christmas pics to share:





Anyway, I have been working on Judy Gibson's Butterfly Bows sock pattern (also in Socksx3) for Anna. I am done with the first one and a quarter done with the second one. They are turning out nice, and you can see how pretty the Regia is knitting up. I had this yarn in my stash for ages, trying to figure out what to do with it--It's as pretty as I thought it would be.



Today is getting a haircut for Nicholas (It's too long), finding new snowpants for Anna (they're too short) and anticipating my birthday tomorrow (I'm too old). I'm going to lunch at a fancy schmancy restaurant downtown with Maureen from work, then I'm going out that night to HuHot with the kids. So that will be fun! And maybe I can sneak to Iris Fine Yarns and see what I can pick out--of course I need all my money for a new cell phone, but heck! Birthdays come once a year--yarn is forever LOL!!!