seriously

Yesterday I seriously wondered what happened to my brain. Because I…

• found Allysa’s med’s. They where in the computer kingdom (Mike’s office) right next to the printer.
• found my shoes. They where right next to the door where I put another mat for shoes. (urgh!)
• found Kailey’s favorite dolly buried in the vans toy box.
• found the camera upstairs where I left it on my bedside table, so ya know. I would remember to bring it downstairs after I took this picture.

I really need to start playing that brainage game my parents bought me last year for Christmas. My brain is screaming for a serious work out!
PS Dad, remember to play nice. I pick out your home, don’t you want a window? Mom’s getting a window mmmawhahahhahaha!
and I haven’t finished your mittens.

Advertisement

my children are killing me brain

Today…

• I lost Allysa’s asthma medication (but was able to get samples from the Dr. so all’s good)
• I lost my shoes. This is after I left the house and came back in and was getting ready to go back out (again).
• I lost Kailey’s current favorite baby doll. Somewhere between the Dr’s office window, elevator, parking lot, van and house. Yes. I’m on a roll today.
• I lost the camera somewhere in the bowel’s of the house. (bet its near Allysa’s meds.)
• I wondered how many more days before I end up losing one of the kids? Eh, I bet they are harder to lose then the van keys.

My children, are killing, me brain. I’m so glad that Monday is almost over.

a touch of sunshine

Its been good and cloudy here in Western PA for the past couple of weeks, November can be such a sucky month when it comes to weather. Sometimes we’ve had a bit of rain, others some snow. Overall though the sun hasn’t shown itself very much, and gosh I miss it! Every once in awhile the sun will peak out from behind the cloud and I’m fighting the cats for the sliver of sunshine! Not only am I thankful that our next week forecast is calling for more sunshine (and a bit more warmth) but I finished these fantastically orange socks a few days ago and I’m loving them because they are like a burst of bright orange sunshine!

pattern: Marigold Socks by pamela wynne
size: 54sts
yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock – Mediumweight colorway: sunstone (birthday gift from Mike 2 years ago)
needles: US1.5 (2.5mm)
started: June 9, 2008, they sat for awhile while my newly reclaimed sock mojo waned
finished: November 17, 2008
raveled: here

mods: because I just can’t make things easy for myself I knit these top down and reversed the chart. Because, well, the pattern was written for toe up socks and I was knitting them the opposite the way! I thought that by reversing the chart they would match the designers socks. Its way too hard to describe on such little sleep right now. I’m sorry, but basically the decreases are upside down then if I where to knit them toe up. (I think. sooo sleepy!) I used a short row heel, and changed the pattern on the foot.

Its darn cold where I live, and socks that have lacy bits on the foot are chilly when I wear them with my favorite shoes. I knit 7 rows then knit a purl row on the foot. I’m not exactly sure how I like it or not.
However. I do like how these socks turned out! Everyone should have a pair of orange socks, really everyone. They are so cheery, like a touch of warm, bright sunshine!

Stitches was lovely, it’s always nice to catch up with old blogging friends. I didn’t get much time at the market, but was still able to pick up a few lovely’s before I made my mad dash to the car. See most of it on flickr. Overall it was a great trip and it was nice to spend some time with Mike sans kids.

Stitches!

the best plans, are not only the best laid plans but the spontaneous ones too! If all goes well I’ll be attending the Stitches market on Saturday. Its not like I *need* anymore wool after the SOAR market and Rhinebck. I’m not exactly the one to look a gift sheep in the mouth and say nope. So if all goes well I’ll be wearing my Ravelery button (AmandaCathleen) if I can find it and this sweater

I’m almost done with the second sleeve. I’m using this brown/green mystery yarn that I bought off the old destash blog that I tried knitting into a sweater 2 years ago. Ran short, tried to use a contrast yarn to finish it even though I knew it would go horribly wrong. Which it did. I frogged it, and its sat untouched for 2 years. The seller claimed it was malabrigo, it can’t be. Its a 6ply and I’m pretty sure its acrylic. Cause it melts under fire. Anyway, I added sleeves to the sweater and I’m thinking about adding more buttonholes. I’ve already added 3. Good thing that I’m using US10.5’s cause Stitches isn’t that far away!

Let me know if your planning on going to the Stitches East market, I’d love to meet up with you!

It’s time

In all honesty I can’t wait for this election to be over. All the polictical phone calls to end, all the horrible tv ads to be gone, for the endless news coverage to be over. Today after dropping the van off to be serviced (again), Kailey and I had breakfast and I was hit with a migraine. Thankfully it was just a visual one and a bit of aleve and it was gone and it was off to the polls. I can’t wait for this election to be over. I’m still not sure if my choice was the best, its hard to choose between the two.. Dragging Kailey to the polls, the lines weren’t too bad considering they consolidated the voting stations. They didn’t have any stickers *sob*

To my American friends, don’t forget to vote today. And how many freaking years has Nader been running for president?!

didn’t I show you my mittens?

here’s hoping that showing ya’ll my fiddlehead mittens that I, umm.., finished in *cough* April *cough* and never blogged about will distract you from not noticing that I didn’t blog this weekend with adorable pictures of my children in their super cool Halloween costumes. The pictures that I took Friday night after trick-or-treating look like crap and I was planning to retake the photo’s when Corra and Bryce came home from their Dad’s Grandparents. But my darling ex-MIL sent Corra’s pants home with her father and forgot Bryce’s hat. *gr* So pic’s will have to wait till next week. (She can be such a pain in the ass.) My other excuse for not blogging was because Mike called me Saturday morning and asked me to go down to Virginia to meet him, bring him home so he could bring the camper down to be serviced. I was so happy to be home Sunday afternoon and catch up on that growing pile of laundry.
So, did you see my mittens?

Last spring when Adrian came out with her fiddlehead mitten pattern I knew it was time to learn fair isle. I was thrilled when she made just the pattern available for purchase, since I can’t touch the yarn the kit came with (stupid allergy to alpaca!). I couldn’t resist the swirls so I searched through my stash and came up with a good sub.

I used Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool as the main color and Autumn House Farm Del Rio (50/50 kid mohair and merino) in Skye Sea Garden as the contrast color. For the linning I used Posh Yarn Lucia (cashmere/merino) in color Conquet I used US 3 (3.25mm) dpns throughout. I started them March 16 and finished them somewhere around April 20.

I learned a few new things with these mittens. Fair isle knitting isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, I have a feeling it would be harder with more than 2 colors. I do love to charted knitting! I’m pretty sure this is the first time I worked a i-cord cast on and plan on using it the next time I knit a pair of mittens. Oh, and the liners, LOVE THEM! Srsly folks, I shouldn’t have showed these mittens to my father because now he wants a pair.

It took me awhile and a book from the library to talk him into a new pattern with different yarn. While knitting these mittens my body decided it didn’t like mohair anymore. So know every time I touch it my fingers feel all numb, just like when I touch alpaca or llama. *sob* Good thing these baby’s are lined with yummy cashmere/merino cause they are staying with me foreva!

one last shot, I promise, of the innards. I’m so proud of my first fair isle project! It’s killing me right now not to cast on for another set of mittens. but there are other projects to finish up first. *sigh*
See? The mitten distraction totally worked!

shamless plug: I’ve put all my mohair yarn up for sale or trade. You can see them on both my ravelry stash page and my flickr destash set. They need to go to good homes!