Sweet Home Chicago

Road trip anyone?
We are going to visit the relations, of which there are many. I can't wait. Portillos here we come! WE will be taking the MKs downtown for the first time. They think we live in a big city but they have no idea... I can hardly wait...pictures when I return...

update to yesterdays feature Why people suck... turns out there is a cell phone in little guys name and ssn... These people SUCK! irs says 6-8 weeks to fix it...

as to knitting... the scarf goes on...the hat was frogged due to gauge issues. it is a good idea, wrong needle
I started a new project, wait for it...a sock! yup knitting a sock. I have a few more rows on the heel flap and then I turn it. I am using Quicksilver needles and I don't like them much. The yarn sticks to them. The heel flap has sucked so far.... It is a free pattern from Loin Brand yarn. i picked it cuz it is pretty plain and I wanted something easy for my first try. I got really nice yarn so I would finish the thing. I will take it with me and show you when I get back...

The MKs are sitting and watching cartoons like nice little monsters... I wonder how long it will last. They played nice for an hour last night while hubby and I made plans to redo the basement. It will be a DIY home theatre.
Maybe the they will behave for 7 hours in the car tomorrow...I am pretty sure I am deluding myself there.
Stay tuned for a new feature. DIY with the MKs in tow, should provide a few laughs.

This is why some people suck...

I have a friend who had a preemie last year. the sweet little guy only lived for 29 days. his funeral were the saddest thing I have ever been too...My friend went to file her taxes and filled in the info for her little guy. It brought it back to her and she had a tough day. she is a trooper so she got up the next day feeling better after a good cry. She got a call that same day from the IRS telling her that she could not file her taxes because someone else had claimed her son. She works with the media and a someone working on a story about identify theft told her that one method was to steal the ssn for children that had very short lives and use it to get whatever. This kind of thing happens all the time. My poor friend feels like this person stole her son from her....She lost him again. She is fighting, checking on credit reports to see if someone is using his name and ssn...Whoever these folks are I hope for their sake she doesn't find out who did it...
Whoever these people are...they suck...alot.
Bastards.

Spring!

Well we are having another round of great spring weather, as I type I can hear the birds returning to the yard and see the first buds on the trees. The kids are so ready to be outside. At 6:30 am MG wanted to ride her bike... I told her that 6:30am was too early to get up on Sunday and to go back to bed. She did and got back up at 7:15. Ah well, I keep telling myself that there will come a day when I can't get her out of bed let alone out of the house on a beautiful day...So it is all good, our house backs the park and I can sit and knit on the porch and watch the kids play...
As to my knitting... The Irish Hiking Scarf goes on slowly... and the hand dyed creature grows as well. It will appear when finished as I still have no idea what it is yet.

I dyed another batch of yarn yesterday. It came out just as I had hoped. I was really pleased. I designed this one with my sil in mind. It is still drying as it rained all day yesterday so no pics yet. I think I will combine it with a solid for a something. I made her a scarf for her last birthday that is soft and fuzzy, I want this to be something sort of warm she can wear in the fall. Her birthday is months away yet so I still have time to find the right pattern.

I have also started yet another project. I am not using a pattern just making it up as I go, it is my take on a stocking cap. I'll show you when I have more than 10 rows of ss.

I want that!!!

anyone else have kids who get this? You know Mommy I WANT THAT and that and that and that!!!!!! My kids do, It seems that Easter has become the mini Christmas. I was told I am to give gifts. "You know Mom...the Easter bunny is like Santa, he brings us stuff." Great, let me tall ya this kid does not play with the stuff she has and yet she want more. What she does not need is more crap... but most of the stuff she wants is crap ah well this too shall pass...
On the other hand the girl child(Yep, same one) left the following note in my pocket today." I love mommy and mommy loves me" Gotta love that kid...


In the spirit of I want that and seeing how my b-day is soon and Aunt Lynn and Mom always start asking this time of year. here is my I want that list

1 the EZ book The Opinionated Knitter. I very much want to knit the Baby Surprise Sweater. A friend just told me she is having a baby!

2 A nice hand painted sock yarn to knit said sweater. I have seen some pics of the most beautiful sweaters like this.

3 A niddy noddy..... I am tired of skeining yarn for dyeing over my arm or the chair. for that matter I could use a ball winder...swift maybe...

4 A book on sock knitting or some sock patterns. I cast to double points and knit a little bag the other day. I feel like I might just be able to do this hand knit sock thing.

5 A European vacation...hey a girl can dream right?

6 To quote Danny Kaye in White Christmas " 45 minutes all to myself"

Dilly Ding

The Monster kids and I are watching How to eat Fried Worms. Not bad really. Here's is a sample. Billy (worm boy) is talking to his little bro Woody.
W: you re hurting my bike
B: How can I hurt someones bike?
W: Well you re shaking it and it is hitting my Dilly Ding....My Dilly Dings my PEE NUS!

almost fell over laughing! Over all if you remember this book from your childhood as I do you will like this movie. The kids will love it. mine do this is the 10th time they have watched it this weekend.

So looking back over my blog I see I really haven't put much up here other than knitting and the furry middle child. So I sat down last night and typed up a nice long post about this last week... Blogger ate it, the bastards! So here I sit to give it another go. So I work for a theatrical supply company. I handle all rentals of scenery and rental equipment. Let me start by saying that I am very lucky... I have the job I wanted when I was studying theatre in college... And I love it, most of the time. Here is a sample of things I had to do last week:
Fix up some fake palm trees. this involves hot glue,moss, paint and a lot of foul language.

Repaint the busts of the weird sisters, I will have to get a pic of these

Order, pick up, put together and learn how to use a brand new follow spot.

Give a tour of the building to big time clients and explain that yes that really is the Trojan horse they see being built, and a big red barn and a fire truck...

Deliver one cow to a high school

buy and install a new steering wheel in Grease Lighting.

Paint rocks

This is the fun stuff... well I also handle sales and some marketing but...Pretty cool eh?
However let me say that working in a place that has 7 women and 30 dudes is quite interesting. The men folk seem to all have a defective chromosome. This is a theory my Mom and I have had for a while... Girls you know what I mean...
Don't get me wrong they are a great bunch of guys who help me out a lot, but boy there are days...

On the home front. Hubby the monster kids and I will be going to Chicago in two weeks! Yeah! We are going to see my folks and take the kids downtown. Winston will go to the doggy spa (vet) for his checkup and bath and grooming. The people there are so nice and great with him. The first time we boarded him there MG was very upset to leave her dog so I called ahead and told them... they greeted MG at the door and made a big fuss over Winston... they even let MG go back to the kennel. very good service...gotta love that
MB has just removed all of his clothes and is running in circles... Ah to be 3 now if he would just use the potty...sigh

Well I hope this gives you an idea of what my life is like, we are off now to the store to buy yarn to dye for my secret pal and something for the kids to make a mess with...of course this means I have to clean the kitchen first...

Irish Hiking Scarf

So here is the scarf.I like the simple cable design, not too fussy.

In other news I got an e-mail from my pal for SP10. Yea! This should be fun. I also sent an e-mail to my spoliee. from her blog she seems like a cool person. gotta go for now kids are home, I hear yelling...

update to last post and new wip

Well the pretty blue and green yarn turned a lovely shade of kelly green. the colors ran together. I thought they might. well learned something there. I also used too much dye. It did however dye nice and evenly throughout the skein. Ah well live and learn.

In other knitting news... I knit my very first cables last night!!! well ok I had done cables on my loom, but this was the first on the sticks. And I thought it was going to be hard. I cast on for the Irish Hiking Scarf from Hello Yarns.(in Paton's classic merino Red) I have always loved cables and feared them as advanced knitting but no more! Yeah me! I am knitting this project for me. Yep that's right I am keeping this one. now I just have to knit 5 more feet...

No knitting photo today. So here is Winston our dog. Husband and I call him our furry middle child as we got him between children. Our boy is loyal, loving, and even helps watch the kids. Mixed breed we believe is Aussie shepherd and Burmese Mountain dog. he is about a 100lbs. Winston likes to sit with me when I knit (if the kids are in bed) We love him

And the dye job goes on...

So today I dyed 2 full skeins of yarn. 220 yards each. The pink orange and green was done with kool aid. The blue and Green was done with food colors I got at the craft store. the b/g is still in the pot cooling. I will post later when it is all skeined up.

The dye job part II and where all this is going...

So I played around with another ball of wool and more kool aid. The one on the left was dyed with fruit punch first. The I retied the yarn and dyed it orange. I like the little bumps of orange with the red. The middle is the one from the last post that I said I was going to overdye. I did with black cherry. I love this one. The last 2 are strawberry and lemon lime. both are bright and very fun. So What am I doing with the these little bits of hand dyed yarn? The knitting you see above is the begining of a new creature I am designing. Stay tuned for futher sightings.

The Dot Bag and The Dye Job

So here is the felted bag from the last post.

Overall I am pretty happy with the result. I do not like the handle monster girl picked out. It is tortoise shell like and just does not look right. MG still really wants it but Mommy will resist. I may have to knit one if I can't find one I like.

The other photo is my first try at dyeing yarn. I used some left over Paton's classic merino and Kool Aid Top left is 1 pkg grape, top right is 3 pkg grape (walmart brand),Middle left is 1 pkg orange, middle right is 1 pkg tropical punch, the bottom is 1 pkg orange and 1 tropical punch. I wrapped that yarn really tight then put it in so there is lots of white left. I think this one will get an over dye. There is only a little bit of each color, so i think I will knit up a little creature...

My new design

I loved the color pattern from my Center Square hat so much I thought it would make a great bag. The color in the picture is bad but as there is 10" of snow out right now it was the best I could do. When the knitting is done it will get a light felting and some fun plastic handles. What do you think? If it turns out well I may try to write up the pattern. I think I need one more pattern repeat then a few rows for the top.