Bowling Fumes

I'm pretty excited & still slightly high on bowling fumes.  My son is one of a team of three Virginia State High School Scratch Division bowling champions.  The tournament was last weekend & it was a Very intense day of bowling.  My son's team, the Richmond team, and the second place team from Tidewater fought each other for the lead all day.  The championship win came down to the last throw of the last ball of the last game.  Talk about tense!  I think I ground my teeth down to nubs.  The tension wasn't helped by the fact that the bowling alley's equipment kept malfunctioning which caused long pauses in the bowling.  All those pauses can really mess with a bowler's bowling mojo but the kids handled it well.  I was extremely proud of their professionalism and awesome sportsmanship attitude.  Congratulations Richmond, VA!

There's Zack receiving his Championship trophy and scholarship awards certificate.  I cropped his teammates out of the picture because I failed to get their permission to post their photos & I think it's rude to post names or pics of other people's kids without permission.

On to knitting news....

Even though I finished the shawl in early December, I'm still high on yarn fumes from the Starry Night project.

The photo is pretty lousy.  For one thing, I can not fathom what possessed me to recover my mannequin in that weird gray fabric.  Yes I can, it was on clearance & I was being cheap.  Stupid move!  Nothing shows up well against that gray.

But the shawl itself is Gorgeous!  The moment it was unpinned from the blocking mats, it became my favorite knitted piece.  Ever!  I've worn it so many times, I've already had to wash it!

Again, a really horrible photo, but it shows how I use it as a scarf instead of a shawl.  The colors aren't showing up very well, but the yarn is a tonal blue that ranges from favorite faded blue jeans to an almost black blue and it's got just the tiniest bit of silver sparkle added for interest.  And it's soft!  So cuddly soft!  The shawl's softness is partially why I've had to wash it already - I find myself stroking & petting it every time I wear it.  Honestly, I was a little surprised by the softness of the finished product.  The yarn itself, while not uncomfortable in the least to knit with, didn't have that "pet me" feel to it.  Maybe because it was lace weight which sort of never feels pettable.  Just not enough width to the yarn to pet I guess.  I was also a little worried that the Stellina (what makes it sparkle) would be scratchy, but it's not.  You can't even feel the Stellina.  But during blocking, the yarn bloomed just a teeny tiny bit and Poof!  A gorgeous, pettable shawl was born.

 The yarn is Night Sky and it came from a fellow Etsian, Swift Fiber Studio.  Tamsin, the shop owner was a delight to work with & quick to answer questions, so if you are in the market, please check out her shop.

Currently, I'm working on a chevron scarf using self striping sock yarn.

I really like the way the stripes are working out.  I'd be finished by now but I keep having to tink row repeats.  For the life of me, I can not remember to purl two together at the end of the purl rows.  This is definitely one item who's price will not be based on an actual hourly rate!

I may have to pause the chevron scarf today & go knit myself a new sweater, hat & mittens.  So far, it's been an extremely mild winter.  We've only had a few nights were the temperature has dipped below freezing but the cold arctic air is swooping down towards us and tomorrow we are supposed to see 13 degrees.  Brrr!  I think 13 degrees is definitely new sweater worthy!  Now, if I only had some yarn....

I do believe I need to grow my stash pile!

Off to find the yarn catalog....

Puttin' on the dog

Let's talk dogs.  This is Minnie:

Minnie is a Fox Hound/Lab mix.  She is smart as a whip, as hard headed as they come and tenacious with her desires.

Max is a Great Pyrenees/Irish Setter mix.  From the Pyrenees side, he gets his loyal and overly protective traits.  His neurotic tendencies come from his Setter genes.  Actually, I don't know if Irish Setters are typically neurotic or not, but the only one I've ever known sure was so I'm making a bit of an assumption.

Both dogs were rescued from shelters and while neither of them are what I'd intended to get when I entered the shelter, I already had that possessive mother's love for them before I got either of them to the car.

So, why am I talking about my dogs today?  I recently made a rather public comment that didn't go over so well.  I innocently, or so I thought, made an off hand comment about "beating the dogs."  I never in a million years meant to imply that I actually physically harm my dogs.  In our house, "beating the dogs" consists of either a firm, "No!" if they are actually caught in the act of doing something wrong, or the more usual form of pointing a finger at them when we come home & discover they've been having wild parties while we were gone.

Coming home is always an interesting event.   Before we even enter the house we can tell if the dogs have misbehaved while we were gone.  If no wild parties were had, both dogs will be at the door, howling like crazy to welcome us home.  Minnie has even taught Max to howl like a hound dog.   If both dogs participated in a wild, destructive party while we were out, they'll both be upstairs barking to welcome us home.  If Minnie was the trouble maker, she'll be upstairs barking & Max will be downstairs at the door barking.  As soon as we enter the house, Max will up the volume of his barking & keep looking at the steps while Minnie stops barking & begins to whine and slink around carrying her "baby" (a very bedraggled pink teddy bear) around in her mouth.  If  things have gone the other way & Max was the wild man & Minnie behaved, Max will be upstairs barking & Minnie will greet us at the door doing the whimpering, baby carrying thing.  We always know who the culprit was by their behavior.

And Minnie is smart!  Have I mentioned that?  She has learned how to open firmly shut doors.  Once, when we'd tried to save our sanity by putting her favorite squeaky toy up on the closet shelf at night & we forgot to get it down for her during the day, she dragged a Rubbermaid tub out from under the hanging clothes & used it to stand on so that she could jump up and get her squeaky toy.  We know this is what she did because of the teeth marks in the Rubbermaid tub & the dirty paw prints on the clothes. Minnie has also learned how to take a chair, place on the couch or a favorite toy from Max without getting beaten up for her efforts.  (Max can be a bit protective of his spot on the couch or a good chew toy.)  When Minnie wants what Max has, she simply suddenly runs to the door or out to the back yard (they have a dog door) & starts her "Danger! Danger! barking.  Max goes running to help protect his humans & Minnie comes back & takes the spot on the couch or the toy.  And Max never seems to learn!

Okay, back to the topic....   We really don't beat our dogs.  At worst, the most "abuse" they get is too many human food treats.   They really should cut back on their pizza intake.  Punishing our dogs consists only of saying NO! or shaking a finger at them.  Minnie Hates the finger!  She knows she's been bad & will slink around guiltily for hours when you point a finger at her.  Max tends to get that look teenagers sometime give you when you are fussing at them.  You know, that belligerent, "I know I broke the rule but I don't really care & I'd like to tell you where to stick it, but you are my meal ticket" look teens occasionally display.  Then he lays down at my feet & tries to pretend it never happened.

But getting slammed for what I thought was an innocent comment made me realize that we do use a lot of dog phrases.  Southern colloquialisms, if you will.  And when I stop & think about it, some of them are very strange and have nothing at all to do with their meaning.  Here's a few examples:

"Puttin' on the dog" is doing something in a fancy manner.  You might put on the dog & get all dressed up to go to a fancy dinner party or for a night at the opera....

"Going to the dogs" usually means that something is past it's prime.  A person who's looking a bit haggard could be going to the dogs.  And old worn out chair could also be going to the dogs.

A man (not sure why it's only the men) might say he's going home to "whip the kids & beat the dogs."  By that he actually means he's looking forward to going home to see his family & plans to hug & snuggle with them on the couch.  A man with no kids of the two or four legged variety might simply say he's going home to "beat the wife."

A "dog fight" is any close competition where both sides are equally matched.  This past weekend's bowling tournament was definitely a dog fight!  The first & second place winners fought hard during all 12 games and stayed neck & neck with each other point wise.  The score was so close that the championship came down to the the very last throw of the very last ball of the 12th game.  That was a dog fight of a tournament!  And don't worry - you'll be hearing details soon.  I'm a rather proud mother at the moment.

A person can have a "hang dog" expression which means they look sad.

You can find yourself "in the dog house" which means you've gotten on someone's bad side or irritated them in some way.  Husbands frequently find themselves in the dog house.

When you're excited that someone's coming for a visit & you plan to welcome them with open arms, you tell them you'll "chain up the dogs."

"Dog gone!" is a positive version of OMG!  As in, "Dog gone!  You baked me a cake!"

"Dong gone it!" is a negative OMG!  As in "Dog gone it!  I dropped my cake on the floor."

The "dog days of summer" are those horrible, hot, humid days that suck the life out of you.

I'm sure there are others, but no more are coming to mind.  If you can think of any, please, send them my way.  I'd love to hear them.  And once again, I apologize to anyone who was offended or upset by my original comment.  But that's the last time I'm going to apologize for it because it's starting to feel like I'm beating a dead horse....  (Yes!  Another beating related southern colloquialism.)

Now, on to knitting.

I received a bit of yarn for Christmas and I believe these two yarns will be a part of my next project.  Still not sure what that project will actually be.  Some kind of shaw or scarf, but as for the design, I haven't made up my mind yet.   Stripes?  Chevron?  Slipped stitches?  I just can't decide.  I may have to knit a hat while I consider my options.

Oh, and by the way, I think I should get points for correctly spelling "colloquialism" on the first cup of coffee.

Hearts!

I hope the new year is treating you well.  Rather than loosing those 10 pounds I swore I'd loose on January 1st, I think I've probably gained another 10 pounds.  But, the rum balls, cookies & all the other Christmas goodies are gone.  We are pretty much a healthy household once again, at least pantry wise.

So, instead of loosing weight, how did I spend the first week of the new year?  By sewing felt hearts.

Lots & lots of felt hearts.  I'm not overly mushy & the only reason for Valentines Day in my mind is to gorge myself on discounted chocolate the next day, but I love these heart ornaments.  I also love the idea of decorating my wine bottles.  And of course, they can be stashed away & used as Christmas tree ornaments too.  And what better Christmas ornament than one that doesn't need to be stored after Christmas.  Just take it off the tree & toss it over a wine bottle & you're instantly ready for Valentines.    Anyway, I made a zillion different ones & you can find them in my Etsy shop.  As of this moment, they aren't all listed for sale yet, but over the next week they should be.

Meanwhile, I've also been knitting on a fishnet shawl made with Lorna's Lace's wool in the Icehouse colorway.  I'm extremely happy with the shawl, except that I'm running out of yarn.  Instead of being large enough to go around my shoulders, it will be sized to fit an anorexic two year old.  I'm hoping it will stretch during the blocking process.

Starry, Starry Night

Hey, look at this - two blog posts in one month!  I'm on fire!

For the past two weeks, I've been knitting on Starry Night, a lacy scarf or shawl.  It will be shawl size, but it will probably end up being worn as a scarf.   I'm thinking of changing its name to The Infinity Shawl though because it seems to be never ending.  It may be the year infinity before I finish it.

Two weeks of knitting and I'm only at the 29 inch mark.  I have no idea why it's taking so long.  It's an easy pattern and nice yarn to work with.  The yarn is not at all splitty, or so slippery that it falls off the needles accidently, nor does it hug the needle & refuse to move from one to the other.   It feels great in my hand.  It has just, for unknown reasons, become a lifetime project.  Probably because it knows I have other things to finish before Christmas.

Here's a close up in bad lighting.

I love the slight color fluctuations.  And I really love the glitz it gets from the tiny bit of silver thats been spun into the yarn.   The yarn is Night Sky from Swift Fiber Studio which is a great shop on Etsy.  The owner is very friendly so if you are in the need of yarn, stop by.

Here's another close up:

For once, those little fuzzy things that look like dog hair stuck all over the yarn, aren't dog hair.  They are tiny bits of silver that have been spun into the  yarn.  The little bits of silver give the finished product the appearance that you were probably working with silver glitter some time over the last few days.  It's simply gorgeous!

And as a space filler,

Minnie says she's been a good girl.  It wasn't her that got into the trash can.  Really, Santa, it wasn't.

Max says, "Yum, that was tasty.  When's the next meal?"

In Remembrance

Today is Pearl Harbor Day & it always reminds me of my dad.  Dad always got weird on Pearl Harbor Day.  He wasn't there, but he had many friends & family members who were.  Dad's WWII experience was in Europe.  He hit the beaches of Normandy on Day 2.  After surviving that, but made his way across the land & survived The Bulge as well.  At the Bulge, he picked up a bit of German shrapnel which he carried in his leg until his death many, many years later.   Dad was always respectful of D-Day and celebrated in his own way, but on Pearl Harbor Day....

Every year, on Pearl Harbor Day, I'd wake up & come down stairs to find my big, strong, strapping, full of life father sitting in the rocking chair, lost in thought & frequently with a tear running down his face.  He'd remain in that spot all day.   As a small child, it was a bit scary.  A quiet, silent, lost looking father was not normal.  And by the time I was 7 or 8 years old, I knew that it was not a day for loud noises, lots of laughter or for having friends over to play.  It was a day to be respectful.

And so, Pearl Harbor Day has become the day that I'm reminded of my dad, even more than I do on his death day.  So, on this day, I take a moment of silence to honor both my father and all those men & women who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor.

And now, because it's been months since I've posted here (yes, I'm hanging my head in deep shame) let's talk knitting.  A friend asked me to knit a shawl for her.  The pattern was for a cape, but I lengthened it and now it's a collared shawl.

The yarn is Chrystal Palace Mochi Plus in the Blueberry Pancake colorway.   If I'm ever lost on a deserted island, I'm taking a big pile of Mochi with me.  I don't care what weight, it's all heavenly, but as long as I have some Mochi, I can survive.  I absolutely LOVE this yarn!  I may not take Blueberry Pancake though.  Not sure that would be a good thing considering the entire time I was knitting this shawl, I was craving blueberry pancakes.

The lace border detail looks like this:

That's all I'm going to talk about for now.  I'm hoping that by not telling you what I'm currently working on, I won't wait another two months to tell you about it.

While you wait for that next post, I hope you'll check out my Facebook page.  I'm counting down the days until Christmas with gift ideas for your favorite crafter.

See you soon, I hope.

Football!

The official football season kicks off this Wednesday with the Cowboys playing the Giants.  My Redskins don't play until Sunday, and to celebrate I've decided to offer 10% off in my Etsy shop the week following a win.  The offer will stand all season and will run the day after a win through Friday.  Just use the coupon code, "Redskins" to get your discount.

Another exciting Etsy announcement is that Etsy is now offering gift certificates.  You'll need to pay with a credit card rather than Paypal, but you can purchase the gift certificate & either print it to give away or email it to the recipient.  The gift certificates will be good for any Etsy shop.

In knitting news, I've been busy finishing up (as in the dreaded weaving in the ends and/or blocking) all the projects I completed while I was laid up with the leg injury.  I haven't photographed everything yet, but a few of my favorites are:

I absolutely LOVE this one!  It's a rectangular shawl or oversized scarf knit with over 30 different multicolored yarns, some in shades you'd never in a million years think would work together.  The end result, however, is a blur of subdued color.

This scarf is incredibly soft and the colors remind me of stained glass.  This is another one that I had a hard time listing in the shop instead of keeping for myself.

The photo is not doing this shawl justice.  It's knit with a hand painted sock yarn in shades of plum, wine, burgundy and a light purple that looks more gray than purple.  This is another project that I was tempted to keep for myself.

If you are interested, all of the above can be purchased here, as well as a several other new items that have been recently added.

Now, I'm off to go make my football grocery list.  What will you be eating during the game?

Drama

It's been a very dramatic day today.  After pouring coffee, I headed outside for my morning ritual of garden checking followed by porch knitting.  The garden is looking pretty good.

Okay, don't laugh.  For me, that's an Excellent garden!  For a southern girl, I can't grow diddly squat outdoors.   But this year.... I've got tomatoes, more tomatoes than I've ever grown in my entire life combined!  I've got green pepper plants and I've got squash plants.  They are all doing fantastic!  I'm super excited about the whole thing and feeling a bit like Martha Stewart.

Want to know my trick to my new found ability to garden?  Lay a bag of dirt down where you want to plant something.  Cut what's now the top of the bag off, leaving a few inches on all four sides.  Take a pitchfork (an ice pick will do in a pinch) and take your frustrations out on the bag.  Go psycho on it and just stab, stab, stab the bag.  This creates holes on the underside so that water can drain out and the plant roots can grow through the bag into the ground.  Then plant your plant in the dirt.  Presto-magic - you're farming!

But, the drama started when I discovered that the squash plants are covered in these bugs:

Honestly, I'm not sure how terrible those bugs are because I kind of forgot about them when I discovered

My morning coffee drinking chair has failed me.  It's been dying a slow death since late March.  Every morning, I notice that a few more .... what ever you call those plastic fake wicker tubes things  have broken.  I've known the end was coming, but I didn't think it would be so soon.  What you can't see in the picture is that the seat is no longer attached to the front of the chair at all.  It's come completely separated.  The seat still holds me, but it's sort of like sitting on the couch without a cushion.  You feel like your butt is going to hit ground at any moment.

Well, I guess if my chair had to die, it picked a good time to do it.  For the next four days, we are supposed to be hitting temperatures between 101 & 105F.  Doubt I'll be doing much porch sitting this weekend!  Hey - maybe I could knit a new seat.  I've got four days to try!

The next bit of drama was over dog food & laundry detergent.  We've got two dogs, Minnie and Max.  Max NEVER misses a meal and will in fact start barking at me if I'm as much as five minutes late feeding him.  Minnie on the other hand likes to savor her meals occasionally.  Sometimes she waits several hours before she eats her breakfast.  The problem is, on those days, she gets mad when Max goes into the kitchen.  She'll hear him on the move and will come Running from upstairs or even outside and cut him off at the pass then she starts growling and barking at him.  So, today, she happened to be laying in the kitchen guarding her bowl, but not eating from it.  I was pouring laundry detergent with my back to Minnie.   Max entered, Minnie went wild & it startled me and I dropped the open bottle of laundry detergent.  The brand new, first time it's been used, economy size bottle of liquid laundry detergent.  From now on, if Minnie doesn't eat before the coffee pot finishes filling, I'm taking away her bowl.

Next, it was shower time.  I reached in & turned on the shower, stripped naked, took off my glasses and stepped under the stream of water.  I looked down and Holy Moses!  A bug!  A big, gigantic bug! A bug big enough to look gigantic when I don't even have my eyeglasses on!  I immediately grabbed the shampoo bottle (Mike's of course.  I certainly wasn't going to get bug guts on mine!) & started smashing it.

After that, it was time to check the email.  My email won't open.  I have two addresses and neither will open.  They start to open.  The bar goes almost all the way across, then it just stops.  Uh-oh.  And it dawns on me.  Last night, after shutting the computer down, I accidently knocked it off the desk.  Did I break it?  It's had worse falls before and been fine.  Was last night's fall the proverbial straw?   I went over to Hubby's desktop and was able to get into my email just fine.  Back to my laptop.  Shut it back down, turn it back on, go to my email, and the bar starts going across, then stops just shy of being done.  For both email addresses.  I won't repeat here what I said then.

Finally, our IT guy wakes up (our teenaged son) and I holler for him to come help me.  He messes with the computer and decides there's something wrong with Safari.  For some reason, even after resetting it, Safari won't access my email.  I'm going to have to use Google Chrome.

I can not count the number of times I have accidently pushed the Safari button today.  And the worst thing is, the Safari screen & the Chrome screen look exactly alike, until that blue bar gets stuck & refuses to finish going across.

Oh, and we are out of chocolate and Cheetos.

It's been a very dramatic day.

Oh, I almost forgot.  One good thing - I finished the first baby sock.

Sorry - the picture was taken with my phone.  The phone I dropped and no longer has working sound 100% of the time.  Okay, so technically, it isn't finished.  I still need to Kitchener the toe but I always wait until I have knit the second sock before I Kitchener.  It's just easier to compare measurements, I think.  Actually, I generally wait until I have 50 or 60 socks to Kitchener.  Kitchenering (boy, that's hard to say!) ranks up their with weaving in ends.

Marvelous Monday - Hawaiian Tropic Sheer Touch

It's Marvelous Monday & today, I'd like to talk about Hawaiian Tropic Sheer Touch sunscreen.  I LOVE this stuff!  I have to admit, the scent of Hawaiian Tropic (and Coppertone, for that matter) sends me into scent Heaven.  One sniff and I'm instantly on an island, a sailboat, or the beach I where I spent my childhood.  A second sniff and I'm tan and model thin. And 20 years old.   That coconutty smell instantly takes me back to my youth and a zillion different awesome times I've had with friends and family.  Which is sort of odd actually, because I was never very faithful about wearing sunscreen during my youth.

These days in my old age, I have to be faithful about wearing sunscreen.  I've mentioned before that I have Rosacea and the medicine I take for it makes my skin HIGHLY sensitive to the sun.  Which is not a good thing because I could happily spend every warm day of the year sitting on the beach from sun-up to sun-down.  Unfortunately, these days without sunscreen, I get sunburned just driving to the grocery store.

On my last sun screen shopping trip, I picked up a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic Sheer Touch.  I've always liked Hawaiian Tropic but I've never used Sheer Touch before.  The main reason I chose this particular bottle was because it was one of those "Bonus 35% More" bottles.  I love a bonus and I'm so glad I chose it!  I LOVE it!  It's got that fantastic coconut and summer smell, but the smell disappears very quickly - which I also like.  As much as I love being instantly transported back to my carefree childhood, I don't want to walk around smelling like sunscreen.  A tiny bit of the lotion, as in a glob about the size of my pinky fingernail, covers my entire arm.  In other words, that bonus 35% is going to last me a long time!  But best of all, it makes my skin feel so soft and smooth!  After applying a tiny bit of $8 sun lotion, my skin feels 40 times smoother and silkier than it does after I've applied gobs and gobs of $20 specialty moisturizer.  I've also noticed that after applying the sun lotion, my hands (palms) feel soft, but not sticky.  After applying my specialty moisturizer, I always have to wash my hands because if I don't, they feel sticky for hours.

So, go get some Hawaiian Tropic Sheer Touch then go spend a day worshipping the sun without guilt.

As for knitting news, I got zilch accomplished last week when I was sick.  At one point, I didn't have the strength to hold the knitting needles and even if I could have held them, I didn't have the mental capacity to know what to do with them.  Talk about miserable!

Over the weekend I perked up a bit and almost finished the mitered square lap robe.  I only have three more squares plus the border to knit.  Except I'm thinking I'm going to make it into a regular afghan size and not just a lap robe.   So, while I try to make that decision, I put it aside and started another in autumn colors.  This one will be a table runner rather than a blanket.  I've only gotten two squares done so far so there's not much to look at.  I also started another lace shawl.  Although I'm 40 some rows into it, there's only a few inches of fabric and again, not much to see yet.  Oh, and I finished the ruffle on the baby blanket.  That was quite an accomplishment!  I didn't count the number of final stitches but I do know it took me a little over two hours to knit one round.  I haven't woven in the ends yet, or blocked it, but as soon as I do, I'll post a photo.

For now, I think I'll go smooth my skin with some Hawaiian Tropic then go sit in the sun and knit.

Announcement

First, I'm announcing that this blog is on hold due to the flu.  It's making it's way through the family and I have absolutely nothing to discuss unless you want to hear about the differences in Mucinex, Nyquil, Robitusin & Tylenol.

Secondly, I'd like to announce a VERY poorly planned sale in my Etsy shop.  I'd planned to make a big production of it and write a very nice blog post about D-Day and my dad, but....  the flu hit and that was the end of all plans.

The gist of the story, however, is that my dad arrived on Omaha Beach on Day 2, June 7, 1944.  His story was that before they left their ship, they were told to go straight to shore, dig a hole & get into it.  All they knew about the previous day's invasion was that "it hadn't gone well."   Well, Dad was never known to be a sheep.  He didn't follow anyone or anyone's instructions.  He was in charge of the radios & communications and had a half a million dollars worth of radio equipment with him.  He figured there was no way they'd send him into danger with all that equipment.  He hit the beach, found the only tree still standing, set up his cot & lay down.  Immediately, his tree exploded.  He'd been shelled.  Then, in the telling of the story, he'd laugh & say, "You never saw a white man dig a hole with his helmet so fast in all your life!"

But despite the tree shelling incident, Dad survived Omaha Beach and made his way over to The Bulge which he also survived.  To celebrate the anniversary of his survival, I'm offering a 50% off one item coupon in the shop.  Go check it out & if you see something you like, just use coupon code "DDay50".  Since I got such a late start making the announcement, the coupon code will be active until 9 p.m. tomorrow.

Sadomasochism

Today is proving to be another of those days where I'm torn between being ecstatically happy and experiencing abject horror.

First, I slept until almost 11:30 a.m. today.  That is NOT like me.  I must have needed the sleep though because I woke in the exact same position I'd fallen asleep in.  Of course, after laying for 11+ hours in one position, my back was so stiff I could barely move for the first hour after getting up.  I also don't remember having a single dream which defies my recent activity.  Lately, I've been having The Weirdest dreams ever!  And having them all night long.  But what ever.  I'm relatively kink-free now and feeling very well rested.  Granted, the morning coffee "hour" is taking me straight into the evening coffee hour, but I won't worry about that right now.

Then there's the fear I've become a sadomasochist.  Lord help me, but I've started another mitered square afghan.  And once again, I'm using fingering weight yarn & #2 needles.  I really enjoyed knitting the last one, at least the knitting part.  Not so much the weaving the ends in part.  But the knitting was fun.  I enjoyed being able to change colors so frequently.  It totally kept me from getting bored.  It was also nice to put some of the scrap yarn to good use.  So last night when I came home from the The Knitting Basket with the bag of new stash and none of it wouldn't fit into the stash drawers, boxes or chest no matter how hard I shoved & cussed at it, I knew it was time to make another mitered square afghan.  This time, I'm putting a black border around each square in hopes that it will look like stained glass.  So far, I only have a couple of squares done so it doesn't look like much of anything yet.

On a ecstatically happy note, Wendy Knits put the first installment of  her Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl KAL up for grabs today.  Which of course I grabbed.  I love Wendy's patterns and find them to always be well written & error free.  And best of all, when I have those duh moments & can't figure something out, she always responds promptly to my questions.  Can't ask for better customer service than that!

Another ecstatically happy point is that I don't believe I have any stashed yarn that will work for the KAL.  According to the pattern directions I need solid colored fingering weight yarn and the majority of mine is variegated to some degree.  And why does that go into the ecstatically happy column, you ask?  Because it means another yarn shopping trip!  Ooh!  And beads.  I'll need to go bead shopping because I am NOT knitting those dang nupps.

On a abject horror note, Zack is still feeling poorly & I fear there may be an ER visit in our future.  He says he doesn't feel like going bowling tonight.  Aack!  If that kid doesn't want to bowl, he must be on death's door!

And now, my daughter is asking me to go on a walk with her.  No matter that it's about 100 degrees and about 4,000% humidity out there.  And it's threatening to storm.  Oh well.  We could both use the walk.

Some Things Never Change

Some things never change, like my shirt.  Good grief!

So, today is my birthday.  It's one of those BIG birthdays, one of the ones where everyone sends black balloons & the number ends in a zero.  One of the ones where, as a special birthday gift from the government, you get to deal with DMV and renew your driver's license.  Thank God for on-line renewal!  Specially since I thought my old license expired on the 31st, not on my actual birthday.  Luckily, I've been working on my procrastination problem lately & I logged in to DMV this past Thursday.  Saturday, my new license arrived in the mail.  And since they used the same photo as the last license, I'm wearing the same shirt.  The same shirt I was oddly wearing for the license before that one!   This means my drivers license will show me wearing the exact same shirt for 15 years in a row!   Good grief!

Oh, & I thought the colored version of my driver's license photo was bad.  You should see the new black & white version.  It's down right scary!  Oh well, at least I am well past the age of being carded & rarely have to show ID anymore.

In knitting news, I've been making slow progress on the Bigger on the Inside shawl.  I finished the lace area & have started the Tardis section but I've only gotten a few rows into it.  It's my family's fault I'm not further along.  God bless them!  They gave me a new season of Supernatural for Mother's Day & quiet time to watch the DVDs.  It was a true gift!  But, I quickly realized that I can't watch new episodes & continuously count stitches.  I promptly tossed the shawl aside & cast on a new one in a much simpler pattern.

And, Friday night I was at the bowling alley waiting for Zack to bowl and trying to knit on the Bigger on the Inside shawl.  The dark bowling alley & the dark blue yarn I'm using weren't compatible with my aging eyes & I had to put down the shawl.  Luckily, I had some spare yarn & needles in my bag so I cast on a pair of mittens.

Obviously, the knitter's ADD continues.

Since today is my birthday, I'd like to take a moment to remember my parents & to thank them for birthing & raising me.  I know I didn't always make it an easy or enjoyable task.  Personally, I've always thought it was odd that the child receives the birthday gifts & acknowledgement, not the parents.  Don't get me wrong - I love gifts.  Bring 'em on!  But wouldn't it make more sense to celebrate the parents for bringing the child into the world & for raising him/her in a manner that allows the child to survive another year?  Anyway, thanks Mom & Dad for having me, and keeping me all those years!

Knitters ADD

I'm suffering from Knitters ADD.  I have way too many projects OTN.   Too many projects that I want to finish.  Projects that I want badly to finish.  So of course, I can't decide which one to work on.  I've spent the past few days rotating through them, knitting a row or two on one, putting it down & picking up the next.  I'm making no progress.  I need to just pick one & finish it.  But instead of doing that, I'm sitting here immobile, unable to choose.  I'm also sitting on my hands trying to ignore the impulse to go browse Ravelry instead.

One of those OTN projects is the mitered square "thing."

It turned out to be a lap robe.  It could easily have been an afghan - I had plenty of scrap yarn & I was enjoying working on it.  Wasn't getting bored in the least.  But I was super excited about the Dr. Who shawl & wanted to be done with the miters so I'd be free to start the Tardis's (Tardi?)  The miters are almost done, I just have to finish the border.  I'm struggling though because I know when I finish the border, I'll have to deal with all those loose ends on the back.

Oddly, the loose ends don't look all that dramatic in the photo.  Maybe I'll have to make that picture my screen saver until it's done.  Just a little something to remind me that weaving in the ends may not be as bad as I imagine.  Obviously, I'm not a big fan of weaving in ends.  Thus, the project languishes.

Next up is the Bigger on the Inside Dr. Who shawl for my daughter.  The yarn arrived on Friday & I promptly got busy knitting.

Wow!  Have you ever seen a dirtier computer screen?

Not a lot of progress has been made on this shawl but I keep reminding myself, it's bigger on the inside.

I also want to knit a Color Affection shawl but I can't decide on the colorway.  I may have to knit five or six of them.  I keep rearranging yarn & coming up with new colorways.

On Saturday, this appeared in my mailbox.  And it's so much prettier in real life!  Not sure exactly what it will end up being, obviously a lace shawl of some sort, but I don't have a specific pattern in mind.  Yet.

There's a pair (or two or three) of socks OTN, as well as five or six other projects I have absolutely no interest in finishing.  Maybe one day...

Luckily, I did finish the twin baby blanket set.

For a closer view of the detail...

I very much enjoyed knitting these baby blankets & I understand the twins' momma was happy to receive them.

Meanwhile, it's homeschool bowling league day.  I better log off Ravelry & go get dressed.

Twins & a Doctor

Just a quick update...  The twin set of baby blankets is finally finished.  No photos yet but as soon as they've been blocked I'll take some.  I'm quite happy with the way both blankets turned out and hope the customer will be as well.

Meanwhile, I've returned to the mitered square item.  I'm still calling it an item because I can't decide if it's going to turn out to be the intended afghan, a lap robe, or a table runner.  I'd really like it to be an afghan, but an afghan knit in fingering weight yarn on size 2 needles really will take a lifetime.  It will most likely end up being a lap robe because I think it's past table runner size.  Maybe a small table cloth or table topper.  We'll see how the patience level holds out.  So far, it hasn't gotten the least bit boring because I change colors so often.  If it wasn't for patterns I keep seeing on other blogs that I want to knit, I think I could probably be happy working on this one item for the rest of my life.

One such pattern that's recently caught my attention is a Dr. Who shawlette.  Actually, it's called the Bigger on the Inside Tardis shawl.   Sadly, I have to admit, I'm not a big Dr. Who fan.  I've only watched one episode & I was so confused I couldn't get into it at all.  One of these days I may try again.  But my daughter, my daughter is a HUGE fan.  And she's been asking me to knit her a shawl.  I am SO excited to have found this Tardis pattern.  Sarah will absolutely love the pattern & knitting it for her may even make me likeable to her teenaged brain.  I just hope I can contain my excitement and keep the knitting a secret.  Luckily, a knitting blog is the very last thing she would ever read so I don't have to worry about her finding out here.  It will be interesting to see if she notices that I'm knitting something in Tardis blue.  Meanwhile, I await delivery of the yarn.

For now, I'm off to bowling.  Counting today, only three more weeks of homeschool league bowling left.  Zack's Saturday morning youth league ended last week.  Which means I now have Saturday mornings free!!   Of course, summer leagues start up the day the homeschool league ends.  But that's okay.  The summer leagues Zack will be bowling in are all at night so I won't have to get up early.  Not getting up early is always a good thing.

Oooh!  The mail is here.  I wonder if the Tardis blue yarn magically arrived in one business day instead of the expected five to fourteen.  I better go check.

Operating Heavy Machinery

Please pardon my insanity today.  I started a new antibiotic for my rosacea last night and all I can say is, phew!  Last night, I took the first pill in the middle of drinking a pot of coffee (fully caffeinated of course) and within 5 minutes felt like I was stoned out of my mind.  I read the warning label & all it said was that I shouldn't operate heavy machinery until I knew how I'd react to the medication.   I couldn't imagine trying to operate heavy machinery - I wasn't even sure I knew my own name!  About 20 minutes after finishing the full pot of coffee and about 3 hours before my regular bedtime, I decided that I was not sleepy, but too stoned to function & I went to bed.  Fell asleep instantly & slept through the night.  In fact, I slept better than I have in years!

This morning, I took my pill and immediately felt like I'd had a shot or two of morphine.  Every sense is dulled & I'm not positive I can feel my fingers.  And then the manic thoughts kicked in.  Good Lord!  My brain is in manic overload with thoughts of what I should do, what I can do, what I'd like to do... whirring through my head while my body refuses to budge and doesn't even realize I have a brain.  I'm starting to worry that I may spontaneously combust due to the friction of the two.

So that's my condition today.  Please pardon me while I ramble madly and make thousands of typos with my non-working fingers and a brain that's struggling to read.

Yesterday's trip to the dermatologist was .... interesting, I guess you'd say.  The doctor has been hoping to get me off the antibiotics for quite awhile but the topical medications just don't work for me.  I wish my rosacea was just the red face people associate with rosacea, but it's not.  Nope, I'm special.  A few rosacea suffers get, on top of the redness, giant sized zit type things and their face swells and their eyelids swell closed and it's quite painful.  It stings/burns like a bee sting and you get the sensation of bugs crawling across your skin (always pleasant!) and your skin feels like there's ground glass imbedded in it when you touch it.  So, each time you try to swipe away one of those imaginary bugs....  Ouch!

So, I walked into the dermatologist's office yesterday after being off the antibiotics & on the topical for two weeks with my face exploding.  All I could think was that I was going to have the opportunity to show her a big, gigantic, "Told you so!"  But I didn't even have to say it.  She walked into the examining room, took one look at me & said, "Honey, you look awful.  Does that hurt?"  Then she proceeded to give me a prescription for a new antibiotic (they stopped making the old one I'd been taking,) a second prescription for another topical lotion and a coupon.  A coupon for $50 off the topical.  $50!  Fifty dollars off, not five.  Yeah, that was a fun trip to the pharmacy.

Meanwhile....

I started a mitered square blanket or table runner (depending on my patience level) last week.  I'm not sure what I was thinking but I'd decided it was time to use up some of the scrap & stashed sock yarn that was lurking all over the house.  So, sure.  A mitered blanket made out of fingering weight yarn on size US2 needles.  No problem!  I should be able to whip that out in a week, maybe two if I'm a slacker about working on it.  Right?  Sure.  No problem.  So far, after a week and a half of obsessively knitting without taking time out to even wash dishes, I have this:

It's looking much more like a table topper than a blanket.

I set the mitered square monstrosity aside yesterday to start on a new project.  Two baby blankets for twins. Twins that have already been born so the pressure is on to knit fast.  So far, all I've accomplished is

I'm blaming the lack of fabric on that new antibiotic.  Sure hope my body adjusts quickly & I can soon return to operating heavy machinery!

Snippets

Shame on me!  I can not believe how long it's been since I've shown the blog any love at all.  I've been pretty busy doing a variety of things, many of which were blog worthy, but I never seemed to be able to find the time &/or energy to write the posts.  I haven't even had the time to read other peoples' blog posts!

In knitting news,since I last posted I've knit three scarves and knit & frogged one skein of yarn over & over & over again.  That skein simply refuses to tell me what it wants to be.  I thought it wanted to be a Hitchhiker scarf but it said, "NO!" about half way through.  We both thought it might want to be a scarf of my own design which was a looooong thin triangle like the Hitchhiker but with ruffles, but once again, the yarn decided against that.  I tried making it into a shawl, two different shawls actually, but the yarn wasn't pleased with either of those choices either.  Finally, I spoke sternly to it & put the yarn in a time-out where it still sits.

Next, I knit a couple of dish clothes, but I was so disgusted by the other yarn's behavior I decided not to knit at all.

Gasp!

Instead of knitting, I'm making felt Christmas tree ornaments.  Because you know, everyone wants Christmas ornaments in March.  I'm telling myself I'm preparing for Etsy's  Christmas in July hoop-la.  Besides, the ornaments could be used for other things because honestly, there's nothing particularly Christmassy about them.  They are just round felt things.  They could hang around the neck of a wine bottle or over a drawer pull, or hang off a zipper pull, or a keychain or even a dog's collar.  So yeah, I'm not totally wasting my time making Christmas ornaments in March.

On the non-crafty side of life, we went to the zoo with a group of homeschoolers.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this zoo.  The animals are so much closer to the public than at any other zoo I've ever been to and, best of all, you can feed & pet the giraffes.

I won't take the time to load all the photos here, but if you're interested, you can go check out my Facebook page.  Most of them can be found there.   And if you are ever having a bad day or just feel the need for some stranger love, head to the Metro Richmond Zoo.  Those giraffes are just the coolest and will cheer you up in an instant.  Watch out for the big one though.  He's a bit of a bully and a food hog.

Another activity I'd like to mention is that after a year of sitting on the couch whining about how I miss running, I've finally started running again.  Well, running is not exactly correct.  It's more like I'm back to my original slow stumble.  But one day soon, I'll be running.  I've only been out for a few runs so far, but I'm rather impressed with my progress.  Seems like I'm progressing much quicker than I did when I first started out a few years ago.  My first trip out, I only traveled about 1.5 miles & "ran" in 20 second increments.  My legs were definitely feeling the recent inactivity and tired quickly.  The next day, okay, the next two days, I could barely walk.  The second trip out was 4 miles with 1 minute spurts of running and my legs didn't start to feel tired until the third mile.  That time, it was my breathing and the knowledge that I needed to be able to walk the next day that limited the time spent actually running.  Since then, each time out has been a little easier & my legs have felt tired the next day, but not sore.  Yay!

Sarah dragged me off to see Hunger Games the other day and I have to say, I'm so glad she did.  I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  I'd loved the book, but I could only imagine what Hollywood would do with all the violence.  I was not looking forward to watching a bunch of kids viciously kill each other.  I was amazed at how well it was handled though.  The violence was sort of blurred & the screen shots jumped around from one shot to the next so quickly that while you understood what was happening, you didn't really see it happen.  It was a very pleasant surprise!

Besides all that, I've been on a reading kick.  I read a few more books from the Black Dagger Brotherhood series,   The Happiness Project, and some other book who's title & subject matter escapes me.  Must not have been a very impressive book.  I'm also still slowly working my way through The Principles of Knitting.  I can't believe I'm reading that huge book like a novel.  What a geek!  I'm learning a lot though, so I'll keep reading.

Besides all that, there have been many, many trips to various bowling alleys (will my son ever get his drivers license??) and Hubby has kept me unusually busy running errands for him.   And now, since I finally posted here, I'm going to go celebrate with ice-cream.  Can't remember the name of it, but it has peanut butter & chocolate bunnies in it.  Yum!

The South will rise again!

The South will rise again!  Or did rise, actually.  I hope.  Remember the Civil War era shawl I was knitting for a friend back in the fall of 2011?  I don't think I ever showed pictures of it because it was an epic failure.  The Civil War era knitting terminology was slightly different from todays wording and I had no idea what I was actually supposed to be creating.  I only had the black & white picture taken from a Civil War era magazine or newspaper to go buy.  I thought it was supposed to cover your upper back & the front pieces crossed the chest & tucked into the woman's apron.  Shows how much I know about historical fashion.  It was supposed to cross the chest & wrap around to the back and tie.  Not to mention as written, the large would barely fit a Barbie doll much less someone of today's stature.  Anyway, the whole thing was a disaster and I've been feeling bad about it ever since.

I recently came across another pattern which was written slightly better, or at least in more understandable terms, and knowing a little bit more about what the final project was supposed to look like, I decided to try again.  This time, it worked.  I think.

Ok, so it's not knit with the requested colors, but from what I've seen, brown & pink was a fairly common color combination back then.  This one also had a bit of pattern in the knitting which made it much more enjoyable than the first attempt's simple garter stitch.

See how this one reaches around & ties in back?  Yay!  Although I'd think a button would be more comfortable.

I shipped this baby off to my friend late last week & she should be receiving it today or tomorrow.  Can't wait to hear if it looks anything like what it's supposed to.   I almost hope it doesn't because it was sort of fun to knit.  I wouldn't mind trying this one again.

Yee-haw!

Charity Knitting

I like to knit for charity, although I admit, I don't produce as much as I'd like to.  Over the years, I've knit more hats than I can count, teddy bear sweaters, baby clothes & blankets, socks, wash clothes and a few full sized afghans for charity.  This time, I've knit a shawl.

REACH, one of the homeschool support groups that we belong to, has a teen-led service project group, Teens Reaching Out or TRO for short.  One of TRO's service projects is raising money for cancer research.  Cancer research is near & dear to my heart since both my father & father-in-law died of the same form of lung cancer, I've lost a few aunts & uncles to various other cancers & my mom suffered from melanoma.  I offered to knit a shawl for TRO to sell or raffle off.

The photo is not great.  It was snapped quickly & in bad lighting, but hopefully you get the idea.

As you may or may not know, each type of cancer has a color associated with it as an awareness thing.  Think of all those pink breast cancer ribbons you've seen....   Lung cancer's color is clear, white, pearl or opal depending on which site you look the information up on.  When I was yarn shopping, there weren't any appropriate white yarns available so I chose this "Misty Taupe."  I'm pretending it looks pearlish or opaly.  The shawl has a beaded bind-off using "Gun Metal" beads.  Ok, so gun metal has nothing to do with lung cancer but I liked the color combination & the beads give the shawl a little weight & help it to hang well.  The bamboo/rayon/acrylic yarn knits up into such a light fabric that it almost needs the weight of the beads to drape properly.

My hopes are that TRO will be able to raise a bit of money from the sale of this shawl, that the moms will all want it for their nights out on the town and the teen girls will all want it to wear it with their prom dresses.  I know that I liked the shawl so much I knit a second one for the Etsy shop and now I'm thinking I might need one for myself.  I'm out of yarn though.  Pity.  I'll have to go yarn shopping.

On Being Thankful

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US of A and I'm counting my blessings.

First, there's my husband.  I know, I give him an awful lot of grief most of the time.  Today however, he's winning the Best Husband Ever! award.  He's doing the Thanksgiving grocery shopping.  Of course, I will have to do some serious sucking up when he gets home but serious sucking up is still way better than standing in a mile long grocery line.  And we may end up having steak, beer and ice cream for our Thanksgiving meal, but again, that's still better than me having to stand in a mile long grocery store line.

Believe it or not, I'm thankful for Walmart gym socks.  They always come with a very sticky label/band thing around them.  I always complain about the band because when you rip it off, half the sock fiber sticks to it and after I've thrown it away, the dogs always get the label thingy back out of the trash.  They leave it on the floor and I step on it, normally in the middle of the night, and then I'm left with a sticky foot.  But it gave me an idea of how to label the socks & gloves in my Etsy shop.  I created my own label bands.  Mine are not sticky however.

I'm thankful that I found four hats that I'd knit, stuffed in a drawer and promptly forgot about.

I'm thankful that my husband and I both realized that we seem to be outgrowing our clothes at the same time.  It makes it so much easier to try to eat properly when he's trying to eat properly.  And, he's buying us an early Christmas gift - a treadmill.  Running on a treadmill is unbelievably boring, but considering how out of shape I've become, it will be nice to use.  It's so much easier to get back into the habit of running when a treadmill is available.  I won't have to worry about the weather or the darkness.  I can run for 5 minutes 3 or 4 times a day if that's what it takes to build my stamina back up.  And I have to admit, I do enjoy watching the numbers click by.  And best of all, Mike will use it for walking.  We tend to get a bit competitive with our weight loss  So, if he walks, I'll make sure to run.

I think I'm thankful for this thread meant for cross stitching.

My plan is to knit with it.  Exactly how thankful I am remains to be seen.  But the colors sure are pretty.

And of course I'm thankful for all the normal stuff.  My family, our health, my friends, their health, a roof over my head...  I tend to take those things for granted and I know I shouldn't.  I have a friend who's spending Thanksgiving in the hospital with her child.  I have another friend, actually several, who have either recently lost their home or are fighting hard to keep their home.  I may bitch and moan, but I'm actually very thankful for the life I have.

I'm also pretty thankful for my four-legged children and the unconditional love they provide.  Not to mention their entertainment factor.  Today, I've been enjoying watching Minnie guard a paper bag full of empty notebooks that I keep forgetting to take to Good Will.

She's been sitting by that bag for over 5 hours now.  When Max comes to close, she barks her, "Get away from me!" bark.   I'd like to say that she won't let me come close enough to the bag to shut the file cabinet drawer or to put the vacuum away, but....

I'd also like to say that I'm thankful for the photos on this blog.  They show me over and over again what areas of my house need to be cleaned.

But mostly, I'm thankful for my husband for doing the holiday grocery shopping.

What are you thankful for?

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Birthdays & Fat Lips

We had a pretty busy weekend.  Saturday was Sarah's birthday.  I'm still struggling to believe that my little, bitty baby girl is 15.  Struggling even more with the fact that she can apply for her learner's permit this year.  Yikes!

As is tradition, to celebrate Sarah's birthday, we went out to eat.  The Chop House if anyone cares where.  While we waited for Sarah's aunt & uncle to join us, we played with the camera.  Here's Sarah, NOT happy to be photographed.  Or is that just her typical 15 year old face?

Here's the son we are so proud of.  He's wearing his serial killer face.

I'm very glad that glare wasn't directed at me!

I'm wearing my typical, "Hey - want to look up my nose?" picture taking face:

Somehow, Mike managed to avoid being photographed and Sarah provided one last pose before we settled down to the business of ordering our food.  She's doing her Twilight impression.

Sunday, Zack had another bowling tournament and I somehow managed to sweet talk Mike into taking him.  Zack's scores weren't so good, but on a positive note, I got about 4,593 loads of laundry done and quite a bit of knitting accomplished.

I finished a hat, treasure bag, wine bottle/gift bag, a pair of fingerless mitts and started another pair of mitts which didn't make it into the photo.  I love those mitts by the way.  It's going to be very hard to list them for sale.  I bought the yarn with a shawl in mind, but the yarn is way too stretchy.  Except stretchy is the wrong word.  More like, it's too scrunchy.  The yarn contains a lot more polyester than most sock yarns and I guess that's what gives it the scrunchy quality.  Whatever, it's like a rubber band.  Which means the ribbed tube looks like it would be tight on a toothpick and yet, it easily fits over my man-sized hand and returns to it's normal shape when I take the mitt back off.

As for the hat & treasure bag, I've been getting a lot of requests for Harry Potter color themed items.  Thus, a maroon & gold hat and a green & silver treasure bag.

The photoless mitts I'm currently working on are being knit with On-line Supersocke in the Winter colorway.  I LOVE On-line yarn and this is the last skein in my stash.  The knitting store where I used to buy it closed last year and the only other local shop doesn't carry it.  I hope I can still find it on line.  I love knitting with it.  It's self striping and rather thick as sock yarns go, which means, you can knit a pair of socks in a weekend.  Well, you can if you don't pause to do laundry or fix dinner.  But even better, the yarn wears well.  I've got a zillion pair of socks made from On-line and I wear them constantly.  Not a bare spot or hole in a single pair of them.

And just when I thought I was safe....

Every year, something goes wrong with my face at Thanksgiving.  I bump my head on an open kitchen cabinet and have a huge bruise, or the rosacea goes crazy and my face glows red.  One year it was so bad my eye swelled shut.  But this year, I've been really careful about closing the cabinet doors.  I've taken my medication and my face is actually doing fairly well.  I don't have pink eye.  Things were looking up.  I might actually be able to take a decent photo at Thanksgiving.

Nope!  Last night, I dished myself a bowl of ice cream and licked the ice cream scoop.  I could feel the scoop reach out & grab my lip and my unconscious response was to yank the scoop away from my mouth.  Now,  half my lip is laying in the kitchen sink stuck to the scoop.  The remainder of my lip looks like I've stuck a water mellon under it.  Sheesh.

Decisions, decisions

I call myself a runner, except I haven't run a single mile this month.  I didn't run a single mile last month.  In September, my mileage was in the single digits.  I'm not a runner.  I'm a poser!  Aack.

Yesterday, I went for a walk with my daughter.  It about killed me!  I could barely haul my butt up hills I used to run with no trouble.  Good grief.  I need to get back to exercising.  Regularly.  Regularly meaning at least every other day, not every other month.

And my diet.  Good grief.  My diet lately has consisted mostly of coffee and candy corn.  It's no wonder my jeans hurt.

I have to get back to leading a healthier lifestyle.  So, today I decided to go for another walk.  I think it was snowing.  Ok, I know it wasn't - it's in the low 50's.  Too warm for snow.  But it sure felt like snow.  And tonight, after dinner, I'll finish the candy corn and be done with it.  I know, I know.  If I was a better person, I'd throw it away.  But I'm not.  Besides, I can't waste it - all those starving children in Africa and what have you....

Ok, on to knitting.  That is, if you can get past this horrible photo.

What an awesome example of bad lighting.   The red is actually a much deeper red.  Sort of holly berry red.  Actually, I think it is named Hollyberry.  And the purple, well, in real life, the purple is actually a pretty purple, not that glaring, Walmart purple.  The problem I'm having is that I can't decide which to use next.  I plan to knit a small scarf/shawl type of thing and I just can't decide.  I want to use the red because Christmas is coming.  I want to use the purple because it's pretty and because it's sock weight instead of lace weight.  The purple will knit up faster.  But the red is pretty too.  Decisions, decisions.  I hate decisions.  Which would you pick?