Tiger, Cables and Laundry

I am so jazzed tonight...Tiger won the FedEx Cup! My mom and I watched the tournament this weekend, and it was beautiful up there on our new Tv :) We always root for Tiger and this weekend he was on fire. He beat the runner up by 8 points, it was a blast to watch, and there was much cheering here at our house.

Watching golf is a great time for knitting, and I have run into my fair share of woes with these blasted legwarmers. I mentioned in my last post that I was practicing cables on them and I did get to do that. I was really displeased with the texture of the cables however, and have now decided to just do stockinette stitch the whole way. I feel pretty good about my first cables, though and am encouraged to try them again someday. So, I have begun the legwarmers once again and am doing them two at a time...like I love to do :)

It's hard to believe that the weekend is almost over. The weather has been so wonderful and fall-like that I am totally getting into the fall mood of things. I know this week is supposed to get warmer -in the 80's all week - and I will miss these cool temperatures. This Tuesday is homeschool coop once again and knitting class! We will see how much our students have done over the week. This ought to be interesting! :) I am hoping to remember to take the camera and get pictures for all of you out there in blogland, we'll see!

I got my Knit Picks order yesterday and that was exciting! My yarn ended up being significantly darker than the website portrayed, but I still like it and will be using it for my Tomten. I also ordered the beautiful colored wooden needles and I love those! I am starting a pair of socks for Aubrey, as soon as I finish the legwarmers, of course :)

I finally cancelled my Ram Wools order after 2 months of waiting for my self striping sock yarn to finish up a pair for Mackenzie and Zach. I ended up going to Knitting Warehouse and getting almost the same yarn. Hopefully their supply is more ample than at Ram Wools, lol. Wish me luck!

I have gotten stuck in a book series and I am so involved...it's been hard to put it down. It's the Alosha Trilogy by Christopher Pike. I only started last night and finished one of the two books written so far in the series, but now I am in the middle of the second and can't wait to read the rest! It's so hard to read and knit at the same time. It's pretty tricky to find books big enough to lay open in your lap - on their own, lol.


Oh, and Bailey loves laundry time. She is such a big help...what would we do without her?! :)

Catch up

This post is dedicated to June who gave me a very pointed look at B&N Tuesday night when speaking of "those people" who only post to their blogs once a week...June, this one's for you, girl-

So, life has been hopping this week and we have been running around more in this one week than we have in forever! Our homeschool coop started this week and my mom and I are teaching a knitting class for 5th and 6th graders. That was pretty interesting, lol but they all did very well and I can see that they will be ready to move on to purling pretty quick. The coop meets every Tuesday morning from 8:45 until about 1:00 so thats a pretty full day. Then, of course, Tuesday night is our B&N knitting group. My mom and I have been so blessed to get to know the wonderful women involved with this group and they have made us feel very at home here in Kentucky. We have more fun every week, with every opportunity to get to know them all better- Thanks KY Knitting ladies! :)

Yesterday we got our TV replaced, and my mom and I hooked it all up. It looks great! My dad also got a new HD DVD player and it is the ultimate in coolness! Of course, right now we only have one HD DVD (Superman) so we're all Superman-ed out by this point, LOL.
We have been without our beautiful TV for about 6 weeks now and it's so wonderful to have it back with us once more. Conveniently, I have just bought the new Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 XBOX 360 game, just in time to play it in HD...there's nothing better! It has this new feature that enables you to take a photo of yourself, upload it to the EA Game's website, and then the game creates a player based on your photo. It's so realistic, it's kind of scary! I am having a blast doing all that and trying to get away with playing XBOX as often as I can. Just FYI, it's not very productive to knit and play XBOX at the same time-for your knitting OR your game ;)

Today, we went down to Nashville to exchange some shoes. We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe with all the littles and it was a lot of fun. Of course, we were seated in the corner of the restaurant that houses all the monkeys and apes...who happen to all start screaming and howling about every 15 minutes, LOL. We did have a great time though and I did have the opportunity to work on my newest project during the drive there and back.

Speaking of projects, before going into my new one...I finished Kelsey's Christmas socks a couple of weeks ago but just haven't put any pics online yet-so here they are!






They fit her very well and I am pleased with the finished product. You can't really see very well from the photo, but I used the Diagonal Cross Rib pattern from Interweave's Favorite Sock's book.

Now, on to the newest addition to my OTN (On the needle) universe - legwarmers. Mallory specifically asked for a pair of thigh-high legwarmers to wear when she does ballet in the winter time. I casted on for them yesterday and am doing my first cables!! I feel like a real knitter now!! As Karen from knitting group would say, I am finally freeing my "inner knitter" :)

I got a Ram Wools order the other day- that's always so fun! I ordered some alpaca yarn for a scarf for myself (who knows when I will start that?) and the blue yarn for these legwarmers. The alpaca is so beautiful...I got the color called "Camel". The only drawback is that I either didn't look very thoroughly at the description, or they did a very poor job at describing it- at any rate, it's a lot lighter weight than I anticipated and I will probably have to buy a bit more. Ah well, I can use that as an excuse for another order later. A "while I'm here..." sort of thing :)

I am slowly whittling down my Christmas Knitting Queue...let's see, I still have these legwarmers, 2 more pairs of socks for the littles (I am still waiting on that yarn from Ram Wools! Argh!), and a pair of socks for Aubrey...so far! I've never started on Christmas gifts this early in the year before, so we'll see how successful I am at getting it all done! I can't start Aubrey's socks without a pair of #1 circular needles so I had to order some of those beautiful wooden ones from Knit Picks. Who can resist that advertising?! Oh and "while I was there" I got my Tomten yarn for the knit along our knitting group is going to be doing later this year. I chose Marine Heather, isn't the color wonderful?!

The weather is perfect now that we have our air conditioning fixed..of course :) This weekend is the FedEx Cup finale tournament (which I am following very closely...GO Tiger!), we have our TV back (the better to watch golf with) and I am working on a new knitting project...ahhh, life is good after all.

How The Lord Of The Rings should have ended

I laughed so hard when I watched this video...it's so true! As much as I love Lord of the Rings, this was such fun to watch. There are a lot of other videos like this at www.howitshouldhaveended.com. Check it out!

No A/C, no TV, but I got those fingerless gloves finished!

Well, that post heading pretty much says it all. We still have no air conditioning, our big screen TV has been broken for about 5 weeks now (still waiting on the one the warranty people have sent to replace it), but, yes...here are the fingerless gloves!


If you were at B&N on Tuesday night, you probably heard me refer to the gloves that my youngest sister, Mallory was going to get for Christmas. Well, I bought the yarn and the are finished. I can also proudly say that they are my very own design...my very first original design. OK, so they're not all that complex-but I love the way the look and they fit her like, well, a glove! ;) I decided on a knit 1 purl 1 rib at the top, then knit 3, purl 2 rib for the remaining length of the gloves and it worked out perfectly. I didn't have to decrease at all even though above her elbow measures 6 3/4" and her wrist is 5". That's my kind of project! :) I think my mom is going to crochet a small lace edging on them to add the finishing touches. Isn't she the best?! More pictures will follow as soon as that is completed.

Mallory loves these gloves and has somehow still not realized that they are really for her...so far, so good! By the way, how can a slim little girl like her have such chubby fingers? LOL

So, I have some money and I just have to get new yarn for the Tomten KAL that our knitting group is starting soon. What a shame! :) I have been dying to make one since I saw the one Jared made over at his blog. He makes me so jealous with his insane knitting ability! Well, I must have just the right yarn...Knit Picks here I come!!

Rain, rain DON'T go away!

It rained today for about 30 minutes and it was wonderful! I have missed it so much! Our poor plants are so thirsty and our front lawn has really suffered. It was wonderfully cool this evening and we all went out to work on our playground which is coming along very nicely...pictures up soon! The kids are so enjoying that, it has morphed into a ship with swing sets coming out of it. My uncle is here working on our remodeling projects as well as the playground-today he made an anchor, put on the helm and a telescope up in the crows nest. It's basically everything you would ever want to use your imagination in play, which is perfect!

My socks are coming along nicely although I had to frog them a couple of days ago because I wasn't pleased with the way I continued the pattern after the heel flap. I am happier with them now but it seems to be so slow as I work toward the point where I left off last time :) I ordered 4 different colors of this self-striping yarn from Ram Wools about a month ago and I got 2 of them, but they told me that the other 2 would be back ordered and ready to ship in 2 weeks. Well, I haven't gotten them yet and I am nearing the end of these socks. As soon as we get our A/C again I will be working on my afghan, but not till then! So, I will have to place another order I suppose :) Alas, what torture! I have already chosen the yarn that I will be using for Mallory's legwarmers. She showed me some baby blue, thigh high legwarmers out of a ballet catalog that she wants so I will be working on those. Fortunately for me, she has thin legs, lol.

I haven't done ANY spinning since we started all our projects in the house and am so looking forward to that. I helped my mom buy 3 pounds of fiber for her birthday and it arrived today. I am so jealous! It positively screams "spin me!!!". So, as soon as my uncle leaves for home on Saturday evening, we will be finishing things up and then trying to get back to "normal" life :). I am not sure I remember what that is actually!

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry --
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll --
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human soul.

-Emily Dickinson-

I have started a new blog! Unschooling, homeschooling resources

I have started a new blog called Resources for Natural Learning
I am going to list helpful and educational resources to help children learn through playing. I hope to give book and movie reviews, game suggestions, fun and educational website suggestions as well. I have already put several posts on there so you might want to go check it out!

Updates on knitting and life in general

Well, I have done it. I finally finished Levi's knee socks! And they fit him perfectly! I am so very pleased with how they turned out, even though I had to take them out a couple of times. I really don't like doing that because it feels like you've really knitted 1 1/2 pairs of socks instead of just 1, lol. Anyway, I am tucking these away for Christmas and have started in on another pair. This time they are for Kelsey and the colors are so much more fun to work with. The name of the yarn is "Crayola" and it describes it wonderfully. I also decided that I was tired of plain stockinette stitch for so long and am using a pattern that I got out of our new book, Favorite Socks by Interweave. It's called Diagonal Cross Rib. I love how it looks a little like cables without having to actually cable. So I have about 5 1/2" done so far and it seems to be going so much faster...I know it's just psychological, knowing that they aren't knee socks makes all the difference in the world! :)




Speaking of cables, I have yet to do any! I am going to embark on the cabling journey very soon though. I have bought my yarn for the Rogue Hoodie and can't wait to make that.

I haven't been working on my afghan at all since our air conditioning is out and its been record-breakingly hot the past few weeks. Today it was 101 at 11:00!

We got a new digital camera and I am so thrilled with it! The coolest thing it does is take panoramic pictures. You take three pictures then it "stitches" them together to make one long pic. It takes a little practice, but I am getting pretty good at it now and it looks like a pretty seamless photo! I will have to take one and put it up here soon...as soon as I perfect my technique :)

I am sorry that it has been so long since I have posted. My mom has been so faithful that you can probably just head over there and see all the latest, but I haven't had the heart to get online much since it's been so very hot outside and inside. My laptop just generates more heat, so I tend to avoid it, lol. I will be better about posting now. I promise! *fingers crossed*

I will close with a poem that really meant a lot to me-

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

-Emily Dickinson-

Random thoughts about knitting, golf, and puppyhood

I know I have been horrible about blogging lately...please pretend you haven't noticed! We are in full swing finish up and put-the-house-back-together mode. We spent all day yesterday painting and moving furniture. I believe that I will be painting our guest bathroom today, as well as the trim and door. Sounds like fun, huh? :) When my Uncle and Danny (my adopted uncle) were here, they built a loft for my bed in our bedroom. I have finally been able to move into that bed and I love it! There is plenty of room for a set of shelves at the head of the bed that hold everything I need as well as a few books that I probably don't need...too many late nights!

I have started re-reading Sense and Sensibility and am in love with it all over again. I have searched and searched for something with the same irresistable charm as the Austen books, but thus far have been unsuccessful. Her writing always makes me want to go back in time :)

For those of you who watched golf this past weekend, I am so thrilled with Tiger's victory! I know I haven't really mentioned it here, but I am a big golf fan and always watch when my favorites are playing. My favorites are Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Retief Goosen, and Vijay Singh...among others :) This is Tiger's first victory since becoming a father and he has had a dry run since the Wachovia Championship in May so it was wonderful to see him win again.


Now, to the knitting realm. I have put down my stole almost completely as I feel selfish when I work on it, lol. I have focused on the pair of knee socks for Levi and the afghan. I have devoted all of my tv time to the afghan since it is pretty mindless garter stitch, and then everything else I have given over to the socks. I have determined that I don't like the even stripes of this yarn. It's so predictable that I am getting frustrated. Plus the fact that the colors are so drab and boring, but Levi loves them so that's all that matters I suppose!



You may not be able to see in this picture, but I am using some of the new beaded stitch markers that I made the other day. I also have a new creation...a beaded row marker. I love it! I got frustrated with trying to remember what row I was on for my decreases and wanted something pretty to help with that. I saw an idea for something along these lines on someone's blog, so I just modified it to look the way I wanted it to. I know these pics are horrible quality, but I cant ever get my camera to take a good photo of anything that could remotely resemble jewelry. Argh!









I went to take a picture of my socks and Bailey immediately jumped up onto the couch and posed for the camera. I had to take her picture then! Here she is looking gorgeous. I have determined that as soon as all our company leaves and life settles down somewhat, she and I are doing some serious obedience training. She's so sweet and I am perfectly fine with her little 'tudes, but I realized that it's not so overlook-able to other people and some of her little quirks can get annoying when you can't tell her to stop. For example: she thinks that if she barks at something that she wants, you will give it to her...now don't ask me HOW she got that idea, but there it is. Another thing...she is crazy with excitement when she first sees someone until they properly greet her. Now, by properly, I mean that you have to giver her your whole attention for a few minutes and say hi. Now see, to me this is adorable because I would probably do all that anyway, LOL. So, the day has come where puppy and her mommy, have to grow up and face facts. *sigh*

Juggling three knitting projects!

Compared to my mom, I feel pretty pathetic now. Here she is, managing her household (upside-down though it may be right now), working on her knitting projects, blogging, AND making the meals. So, here I am...back in blogland once more. I have been faithfully working on my knitting lately, and they are really moving right along! I finally got my order from Ram Wools and it was so exciting! I got Patons Kroy Jacquard self patterning.


So, I am using the brown/blue/cream yarn for a pair of knee socks for Levi, and I will be using the red for a pair for Kelsey. We bought Sock Wizard software and I used it to generate my pattern. It's so great!

I am knitting these socks 2 at a time on circular needles and I love doing that. It really prevents those one-sock-blues :)






I am also in the middle of my stole, I really hope I will have enough yarn to finish it to the length I want. I am looking for about 5 1/2 feet so we'll see! I am keeping my fingers crossed, and will keep updating online.


Project number three is an afghan for a friend of mine. I have been forbidden to post pictures of it online, but you can see it by clicking here. It getting pretty big and I have discovered the joys and perils of knitting something so large and warm. On a cool evening it's great, but in the heat of the day it's not so great :)

I have gotten the photo book that I ordered from Shutterfly. It's 20 pages of Bailey pictures and I love how it turned out! It would normally have been about $30 and after getting this one, I would do it again! It's bound just like a really hardcover book and the pictures look great!

I am off to continue working on one of my three WIP's. Wish me luck!

Update on knitting projects & remodeling

Sorry that it's been so long since I have posted, we have been hopping over here at the Thornton Household. My uncle came up from Arkansas to work on some remodeling we wanted done in our house. It's going to be great when it's all done, but in the meantime it just makes a huge mess! I have been working on my stole as often as I can invent an excuse to sit down and grab it :) I have had to frog it 3 times, but I finally got the hang of this lace pattern and now it's flying along. I will be posting pictures soon, when I get enough done to actually give you an idea of what it's supposed to look like (and when I can find the camera amidst everything). I got some yarn the other day in Nashville for my rogue hoodie pattern and I can't wait to start that! Of course, now that I am already (selfishly) working on something for me, I think it will be awhile before I start it. I found out last night that my little ballerina sister wants some leg warmers for Christmas. She wants them thigh-high in that classic ballet pink color. I don't think it will be too difficult (especially since she's a short little thing), and I know she will love them. She also wants a wrap around sweater in that same pink, so I think I will put some other colorful project between those two. You can only take so much pink at once, lol. I am still waiting on my self-patterning sock yarn from Ram Wools and I am really looking forward to making socks out of that! I've never done anything with that kind of yarn and it's so exciting!

Of mowing and stitch marker creation

Mowing is something that isn't usually very fun. It's hot, sticky, and you get grass clippings all over yourself, and its very loud. Yesterday, my sister Aubrey and I did the mowing together. We now have 2 mowers, one is a very agile Dixon and one is a very not agile Cub Cadet. So, Aubrey zipped around all the trees and shrubbery with the Dixon and I plodded around and around on the Cub Cadet. It was my first time driving it, and it's so cool! It even has cruise control! actually had a pretty good time with us working on it together and as you can see, the yard looks great! It was very rewarding :) This is the view from our front porch, and that's Levi there in the corner. This is approximately 1/4 of the yard.



Today I worked on making some beaded stitch markers for my mom. I am actually really proud of how well they turned out, even though I wasn't able to do as many as I wanted to. We have seen the beautiful stitch markers that June has, and I was inspired to try some myself. I looked online at all the different methods that people have used to make these, and finally settled on using the circular side of a plain toggle clasp. It worked perfectly, and I think they will safely fit all the needle sizes that we use. So, I feel that the past two days has been pretty productive for me!

Knitting through time and space

There has been a warp in the time-space continuum of my knitting universe. Is there a penalty for bumping knitting projects up in your queue 3, 4, or 5 places? :) I sincerely hope not because, as you are about to read, I would be in big trouble!

You know that purple Shapely Tank that I was working on? I decided that I was displeased with it and not even enjoying working on it anymore so...out it went! So, then I thought, I will start working on that pair of socks for Levi. As I am knitting along happily on the gauge, I was talking to Levi about what he would want in a pair of homemade socks. Turns out he wanted something colorful with stripes, of course- something I have none of! I then decided to go online and I ordered enough yarn to make 4 different pairs of socks: 2 skeins each of the 4 different colors of Kroy Jacquard (Patons) from Ram Wools. While I am waiting for that order to arrive, I think to myself, I will start that hooded sweater pattern that's in my queue! I have been wanting to do that for so long now and I got really excited about it. I bought some purple yarn from a store in Cincinnati recently just for this pattern, so I begin to whip up the gauge. About this time, I thought to look at the pattern and check the yardage requirements-I have 1200 yards...the pattern calls for 1500!! ARGH!

SOOOO...The only thing left on my queue that I could do (without going to buy new yarn) is a stole :) And, I couldn't possible be without a knitting project right now! I could never show my face in polite society again! ;) So I have now taken that same yarn that was intended for the hoodie and am making myself a stole. I knew I would get to that stole, but I didn't know it would be this soon! I took a pattern for a scarf from the Little Box of Scarves by Melissa Matthay and Sheryl Thies. I chose the fern lace wrap pattern and am making it about 3 times as wide as the scarf pattern. I am 2 rows into the pattern and it is turning out very beautifully.

I also bought some yarn today to work on that lap afghan. So, I will be doing those at the same time, I think I will take the afghan to knitting night at B&N because I am planning on doing it plain garter stitch. That will be so easy! No interruptions from chatting!

As far as my spinning, I think I will use that merino for a scarf for myself. I have chosen one, but I might see something I like better between now and then. Who knows, that might not be too far away! :)

I have found a blog that has inspired me to add SEVERAL more things to my knitting queue. I don't even know if anyone needs these items, but who cares! You have to go check out Brooklyn Tweed- Especially if you are a fan of Elizabeth Zimmerman. I am just in awe of all his completed projects and have to have a Tomten Jacket just like his! My mom introduced me to EZ's patterns and we both love her. We went to knitting camp in 2002 and fell in love with her daughter, Meg Swansen, as well.

Great Perseids: Meteor Shower on August 12th

I get updates from NASA Science News in my email every so often and this seemed like one to share. I love meteor showers and will definitely be out there on the 12th!

___________________________________________________________________________

Got a calendar? Circle this date: Sunday, August 12th. Next to the circle write "all night" and "Meteors!" Attach the above to your refrigerator in plain view so you won't miss the 2007 Perseid meteor shower.

"It's going to be a great show," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "The Moon is new on August 12th--which means no moonlight, dark skies and plenty of meteors." How many? Cooke estimates one or two Perseids per minute at the shower's peak.

The source of the shower is Comet Swift-Tuttle. Although the comet is nowhere near Earth, the comet's tail does intersect Earth's orbit. We glide through it every year in August. Tiny bits of comet dust hit Earth's atmosphere traveling 132,000 mph. At that speed, even a smidgen of dust makes a vivid streak of light--a meteor--when it disintegrates. Because Swift-Tuttle's meteors fly out of the constellation Perseus, they are called "Perseids."

Note: In the narrative that follows, all times are local. For instance, 9:00 pm means 9:00 pm in your time zone, where you live.

The show begins between 9:00 and 10:00 pm on Sunday, August 12th, when Perseus rises in the northeast. This is the time to look for Perseid Earthgrazers--meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping the surface of a pond.

"Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful; they are among the most beautiful of meteors," says Cooke. He cautions that an hour of watching may net only a few of these--"at most"--but seeing even one makes the long night worthwhile.

As the night unfolds, Perseus climbs higher and the meteor rate will increase many-fold. "By 2 am on Monday morning, August 13th, dozens of Perseids may be flitting across the sky every hour." The crescendo comes before dawn when rates could exceed a meteor a minute.

For maximum effect, Cooke advises, "get away from city lights." The brightest Perseids can be seen from cities, he allows, but the greater flurry of faint, delicate meteors is visible only from the countryside. Scouts, this is a good time to go camping.

Knitting,spinning dogs, and life

This is my puppy, Bailey Marie, a blue merle sheltie. As you can probably see, one of her eyes is blue. Isn't she beautiful?! She's 7 moths old now and I don't know what life would be like without her :) She's everything I always wanted in a dog- loyal to a fault, (she ran alongside my dad's truck tonight when she saw that I was in the back) sweet and loving, affectionate and very happy. Pets make life all that much better! Oh, and Bailey enjoys my spinning as well ;)



As I mentioned in my last post, I am a member of Dogster. I have thoroughly enjoyed that and they just recently sent me an email informing me that I had a special offer from Shutterfly, who has recently teamed up with Dogster. Anyway, they gave me a free 8.5" x 11", 20 page photo book for free since I have been a member with Dosgter since before June of this year. I have been working on compiling all my photos of Bailey and arranging them in this book. They give you all different kinds of backgrounds, layouts, and options to add text and captions. It's so awesome! So, I am almost done with it and I just have a few more pics to add...I will keep you updated on this (although it is probably not exciting to anyone but me, lol).

Today was my sister, Kelsey's ninth birthday and we all had a very good time. We have a family tradition that the birthday girl (or boy) gets to choose their birthday dinner. Kelsey chose sauteed vegetables and fresh corn. We had a dessert of oreo pie and ice cream :)


My knitting projects are frustrating me right now. I am about 3/4 of the way done with my shapely tank, but I ran out of yarn. So off we go to Hobby Lobby to get some more, and, of course, the dye lot was a teeny bit off. My brilliant mother gave me the idea to change the pattern of the top half of my tank to disguise the yarn color change, and it IS working! The only drawback is that I am doing a seed stitch now, and that takes me about twice as long to knit, lol. Anyway, I am STILL working on that and I am so ready to be done with it. I mentioned before about the pair of Christmas socks I also have on the needles, but to be perfectly honest, I still haven't officially casted on for those. Tuesday night, at our knitting group, I did a gauge swatch. Then I realized that I should've done my swatch in the round...so I took it all out and started again. About 1/3 of the way through that swatch, I realized that my needles weren't the same size so I was totally throwing my gauge off. Since then, I have found the other pair of size 2 needles, but haven't had the heart to start again. :) I am also working on finding that magical measurement of the intended foot x stitches ratio and that's slowing down my motivation as well. Tomorrow, I WILL tackle that!

I am almost done with my Tour De Fleece-fleece :) I have been faithful to spin each day and I am very proud of myself! I am using a double treadle Lendrum wheel and it spins like a dream. Of course, I already had this bit of purple merino about halfway spun up before I started this, so I guess it doesn't really count. I will be starting something new soon and I am excited about that! I have been inspired by Peggy and my other knitting friends to branch out, break free, and otherwise cast all bonds of one-project-at-a-time-itis aside and have more than one project going at a time! You would be proud of me ladies! (and my mom, who has started to at least think about it, lol)

Dogster

For those of you in the blogging world who love to blog AND love your dog, you have to check out Dogster. It's like MySpace for dogs! It's so cute, and really fun to browse through and read about all the different pups. You can make your dog's complete profile, upload up to 10 photos, and even write journal entries for your puppy. Bailey and Angel both have a dogster page, feel free to go over and see them! Oh, and the pups appreciate it if you give them a bone when you visit :) If you sign up, please let me know so I can see your pup's pics!

Stole pattern

I think I may have decided on a stole pattern. Once again, I am not actually starting this project...just planning ahead :) I also have to measure how many yards of yarn I have spun to see if this will work with this pattern. I think its a very beautiful design and I cant wait to work on it! So, I am going to stay motivated to finish my other projects, right? Of course!


Right now I am working on a pair of socks for one of my brothers for Christmas (Levi), and I hope to get a pair done for each of my youngest siblings (5) before then as well. I haven't ever been able to actually accomplish this, but this year I have a new found fervor. I will do it!
(We'll see, lol)

Tour De Fleece Project

I have begun my spinning project for the Tour De Fleece! This is the fiber I am working on (merino) as well as what I have plied so far.I am very thrilled with how it turned out. I am planning on using this for a stole, but we'll see what happens between now and then, lol.

I have had a recent opportunity to experience one of my pet peeves. I cannot abide when one bobbin of singles has more on it than the other! When you ply, you are left with singles on one bobbin and not the other...what is the cure for this malady? Please, someone give me an idea! I was talking to a couple of my knitting friends (Peggy and June) and they mentioned weighing your bobbins before starting to ply to determine that you have an even amount on each. I may have to resort to this method! As you can see, I have a significant amount left on this bobbin, ARGH!

So, I will soon be looking for that stole pattern. It will be my first shawl/stole to make and I am actually pretty excited about it! I will be posting the link to the pattern as soon as I decide on which one I like the best. Of course, if you have looked at my knitting queue, you will know that I have no business thinking about this yet, but a girl can dream, right? :)

The myth of the center-pull ball

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have successfully found the end of yarn in the center of the center-pull ball. ARGH! I always end up pulling out about 15 yards before stumbling upon that elusive end. Would someone please tell me that I am not alone here?! It's a great concept in theory...this pretty little ball of yarn, but evil lurks beneath that fluffy exterior. Be warned!

Knitting projects now and later

Well, at this moment, I have several knitting projects I would like to be working on. I continue to file more and more away as "I'll do that next" projects.
Right now I am working on the Shapely Tank, which was a free pattern I got online from White Lies Designs. This photo is what the pattern is supposed to look like, but I don't think mine will be quite this "shapely". For one thing, I had such trouble getting my gauge to match the pattern that I ended up just improvising and altering it to suit my fancy. I am just approaching the point where I have to start shaping at the underarms, so we'll see how it goes! As far as my knitting queue, I have added a little knitted monkey, a pair of socks for each of my five younger siblings (we'll see how far I get on that goal, lol) a hooded sweater for myself that is just gorgeous, a shawl that I have yet to choose, a scarf, and an afghan for a friend of mine. I am sure there are more things I am wanting to do, but they haven't surfaced in my mind yet...Is this ridiculous or what? I have decided to add a running list here on my blog to keep track of my project to-do list and the order that I want to do them in. Maybe this will keep me motivated to stick to the list and not stray too far into that enticing land of knitting patterns, LOL. All you knitters out there have to know what I am talking about! So much to knit, so little time!!

To Thine Own Self Be True

Yet here, Laertes! Aboard, aboard for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for.
There ... my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg’d comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel but, being in,
Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

-Hamlet, William Shakespeare-

First iTunes Purchase/Music Review

I have made my very first iTunes purchase since buying my iPod Nano (8 GB). I couldn't resist any longer and absolutely had to have the new Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Soundtrack. I have always loved filmscores with a great passion and the original Pirates filmscore has always been one of my very favorites. Klaus Badelt was the composer and although the entire filmscore was performed on a synthesizer, it is still very well done and very "piratey", for lack of a better word, lol. Well, when I went to see the latest Pirates movie, I was struck by the immensity of this new score. It is composed by Hans Zimmer (who happens to be the mentor of Klaus Badelt) and is a work of genius. The themes are sweeping and awe-inspiring. He takes that original, unmistakeable Pirates theme and builds on it to turn it into a work of art. Although I was a bit disappointed with the way this latest movie installment was concluded, the creation of the score alone was worth going to see it. I highly recommend checking this one out to those of you who enjoy filmscores...you will not be disappointed! My favorite tracks are:

One Day
Drink Up Me Hearties Yo Ho
Up Is Down
At Wit's End

Confessions of a Jane Austen fan

What is there not to love about Jane Austen? And, who isn't in love with Mr. Darcy? I find myself getting caught up in the romance of it all, and by the end of a book or movie, it's difficult to come back to "real" life :) I just recently finished watching Emma and Pride and Prejudice. There's something about that world that is so enticing. If only there was such a perfect place where women are graceful yet independent, witty yet perfectly demure. Where men are noble and honorable, above reproach and perfect!

My favorite Austen character has to be Elizabeth Bennet. She always has a clever remark that's perfectly suited for the occasion, she's loyal and good to her family, and she's willing to admit being wrong about Darcy. She's that charming girl you always want to be :) Bottom line, Jane Austen's books transport you to a place that you hate to leave, where love conquers all. If you haven't explored them, you must! If you have, you know exactly what I mean. Now, I must go and start reading Pride and Prejudice again... it's been far too long.