Did you miss me?

Well.....did you? Yeah, I took a bit of a hiatus from the blog for a bit, but I am determined to be back to normal, posting more. I just never thought about how hard it is to have a knitting blog, with no immediate camera access. Not to worry, though....over Thanksgiving, I plan to steal/borrow my parent's camera and take some shots. But in the meantime, I steal from other folks!!

One of the big knitting events that happened over the past month is that I got to go Kid-N-Ewe with some of my Chicks.

Thanks to Liz for allowing me to steal the pic!

That's me with my fellow Chicks, but by the end of the day we were known as Sheeple. The sheep ears are the official uniform for our SnB, but this was my first outing in them. We all had a great time and got to meet several Ravelers (...Raveleriers........I dunno....). I always find it cool to meet people in real life whom you only "know" on the internet.

Allright, I gotta say. This was my first big fiber festival. Ya'll there was so much fibery goodness!!! Even as I say that, words are not enough.

Brooks Farm goodness.......aka yarn pron exhibit

We were there an hour and Tasha had to sit me down with a Frito Pie so that I could come down from my "yarn high". Several of us, me included, believe we would never last at Rhinebeck. I think it would put me in a yarn coma. Talk about sensory overload!

I did get a bit of fiber (no yarn....fiber gets you more bang for you buck!) and plan on taking pictures this weekend, so I will have some fiber pron next week.

Sidenote: For the Non-fiber folk, I didn't make a typo above. I meant to type pron. Many fiber folks talk about it normally, in terms of really nice yarn/fiber/needles, etc. However, if you type it correctly on a blog, you get nasty spam. Therefore, we use pron. Thus endth the lesson.

I also had another first over the past few weeks. My mom, who is not a knitter or any other fibery person (aka a Muggle) went into a yarn shop, all by herself, and bought yarn! And came out with something appropriate to what she wanted! I think I finally convinced her that if you go into a yarn shop and tell them what you (or what you want your daughter) to make, they WILL be helpful and get you what you require. I have been to this shop only once and loved it and I am grateful that they were so nice and accommodating to my mother. If you are ever in Tulsa, OK, please take a stop by Loops on Utica Square.

And last, but not least, a big congratulations to my cousin and his new wife who got married this weekend. I was the "House Party", which meant I got to stand over the picture they were using as a guest book. Folks signed the mat surrounding the picture. Check me out at my post!Yep....my ride was going about 2 hours early, so....I brought a sock. Hey.....I didn't knit during the wedding, I promise! Not during the reception either, cause, well, let's just say knitting under the influence is ill advised, but knitting on a Potmatomus sock while under the influence is just asking for it.

They are currently in Hawaii, lounging by the ocean, drinking umbrella drinks....shopping for yarn for his cousin....

Decisions, decisions......

Alright, so.....(man, I start alot of sentences that way....) so I need help with a decision. I have a good sweaters worth of a nice, dark-ish brown Plymouth Encore Worsted (#1444). My original plan, many moons ago, was to do an adult Tomten for me. I got the Encore 'cause I wanted it to be a general, multi-purpose, hard-wearing cardi of some kind. I have since grown out of doing the Tomten, mainly 'cause doing that much garter stitch would probably kill me.

As any good knitter on Ravelry, I took a run through the ol' queue to see what kind of matching I got. Here's what I came up with:

- Dollar and a Half Cardi (I would symmetrize this, probably with the cable side)
- Cardi for Arwen
- Central Park Hoodie
- Mr. Greenjeans

What is everyone's opinion? I won't tell you my leanings right now, 'cause they are changing, depending on the level of my wine glass.....but I digress..... :-P My hesitation is that I am worried that these have design elements that I am afraid might get lost in how dark the yarn is. But then I look at the $1.50 cardi, and it helps to slightly alleviate that, but still....

I have decided that this is what I am casting on once I get my holiday knitting done. However, this year, none of it is for my Christmas presents. I have a baby blanket (baby due beginning of Dec.), Christmas stocking for future cousin-in-law of my cousin (to be done by mid-Nov. for said cousin's wedding) and 6 HP scarf bookmarks (commissioned by a co-worker).

The stocking is coming along - I am in the home stretch of the intarsia portion, so once that's done I will probably finish it quickly. I haven't touched the blanket in a few weeks, but we will see what happens. I just got asked for the book marks, so they aren't even started yet.

BTW, everyone needs to check out Jen's bag in the IK Winter '07. How freakin' awesome is that?!? Must....have.....it......

Brrr......

There is apparently a saying. Texas has the largest state fair in the US and it's quite a thing if you live the the DFW area. Apparently, once the fair closes, that is the time of year when it gets cold and stays cold. I don't remember about previous years, but let's just say this. The fair closed for the year yesterday, when it was a nice 80 degrees. Today, it was 50 degrees. Of course, all I was thinking was.....

Man, I need to knit a hat.....and maybe some fingerless gloves......

It would be nice if it stayed this way for a while. This summer in Texas has been VERY mild, maybe only a handful of over 100 degree days. That's saying something since I come from West Texas where we have six WEEKS of 100 degrees days.

But I am certainly jealous of some of ya'll who get these pretty color changing trees. We don't really get that....ours is more like the stuff that got burned up over the summer falls off. It's all very brown....

If you need to check out some pretty color changing, I hear Leigh's got some of that.....and some very tangled yarn.....

Random Post

Alright, so here are some of my random thoughts for the past few days:

But first, pardon me while I conduct some personal business:

HALEY!!! I don't have your email anymore. Please email me @ yarnknita@yahoo.com. Plus, your old, psycho, Republican boss is having a book signing at my B&N. Just FYI.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.

1. When you get large amounts of cash at the bank, don't get $100 bills - get $20s. The bank has them - take them. And, if you are forced to take the $100 bills, PLEASE do not go into a store and buy a $0.25 newspaper with it. It really pisses off the cashier.

2. When you go to check out at a store, please don't be on your cell phone....it's rude.

Can we tell someone had an annoying day at work, which is made even worse by the fact that she had to miss her SnB? Moving on....

3. I got my replacement Sox Sticks....3 of them actually...in the ROSEWOOD, even though I have blondewood. Trust me, I don't care. Anyone have any idea if the rosewood ones are stronger? They sure are prettier......

4. Leigh is a HUGE enabler.....beware......

And here is today's poll. Saturday we are having a "chili cookoff" potluck and this was brought up:

Beans or no beans

I am a firm believer in that beans have NO PLACE in chili.....unless you REALLY need to stretch the chili, but then I think it becomes something else entirely. Of course, I am probably a little wierd (HA.....little....he he he) in that I can not eat chili plain, in a bowl. I have to have it Frito pie-style (chili on top of Frito chips, for you Yankees). I think it is just that is how we always had it growing up and I have never really been able to eat it plain.

Again?

How is it that I post more when I don't have a camera? Yeah, I dunno either.

It's a shame it's not working too because I got my KnitFlix swap package last night. Our knitting group did a secret swap centered around a movie. I had quite a haul from Dawn. I got a Glow-Batt from Merlin the Cat's etsy shop (it freakin' glows in the dark!), a Sock Monkey nightshirt (I have a SERIOUS pj fetish), a lovely hand-beaded orifice hook for my spinning wheel, a set of dangle-free stitch markers, a yummy candy and soda stash, and one of my favorite movies on DVD - Galaxy Quest. Gotta love it. Thank you Dawn!

As an aside, I just wanna put something out there. Okay, I know Oprah is big and all....or at least I thought I did. I never really quite grasped the large expanse of her influence until I started working at B&N. Any book on her show instantly goes on the Best Seller list. Monday she had on Jessica Seinfeld, wife of Jerry Seinfeld, author of the new cookbook Deceptively Delicious. The book went on sale Tuesday. We had 30 copies. We sold out in 3 hours. When I went to work today, B&N in it's entirety was out, as in they are going to have to print more. This is just crazy....not good or bad, just crazy.

So, here is today's question: Hardback or Paperback?

If I have a choice, I like paperback, but I am also not one to wait for certain books. Therefore, my collection of my favorite books are a mixture of both.

Random, I know.

Create-a-meme

I think that I have discovered where memes are invented. They are written by people who are either desperate for blog fodder or who have a non-functioning camera. I therefore bring you the "Either or" Meme.

There are lots of instances where people can be separated into two categories. These are not ment to be exclusive by any means, but are just meant to be a generality. I am not really tagging anyone, but feel free to steal this if you feel the need for blog fodder.

Paper or plastic? Paper

Mac or PC? PC all the way baby

Straight or circular? Circular

Toe-up or Top-down? Top-down

Vogue or Interweave? Interweave

Coke or Pepsi? Coke

Dogs or Cats? Dogs

Pen or Pencil? Pen

Hamburger or Hotdog? Hamburger

Mayo or mustard? Mayo

Shaken or stirred? Stirred

Waffles or pancakes? Pancakes

Bacon or sausage? Sausage

Now, go forth and fodder your own blog!

Picture-less....

Alrighty, so I have been putting off blogging so that I could try to get some pictures, but that entails getting my camera to cooperate. It really needs a new battery and I haven't quite gotten around to looking for one yet. Cameras pretty old, as digital cameras go. Kinda like how people balk when I say my good ol' computer runs on Windows 2000. All I say is that it works about 10,000 times better than my new one that runs on Vista. So, just because I don't have pictures, doesn't mean we can't have some fun still, right??

So I had my first knitting angina the other day. I was knitting on my sock on my lovely new Blondewood Sock Stix.....

Who says we can't have quality pictures!

Yeah, so I know that I am a tight knitter, but still. Luckily, I talked with Lantern Moon and the are lovingly sending me a replacement. Luckily, my sock I am knitting is only on three needles, so there isn't any lull in the knitting.

Last weekend was the DFW Knit out and we all had a blast! Regina and I did a spinning demonstration and had some fun. I won me a lovely bag 'o Plymouth Dreambaby DK which will end up as a few Hats for Alex. The best part....well, one of the best, it was all good.....was that we went out for dinner and drinks and Mi Cocina and the folks next to us were having an interesting "love connection." Regina did a good recap here. Gotta love it.....

Am I being stalked?

Alright, so I officially joined the Knittyboard Blogstalking 2 'cause, you know, I'm I joiner.

So this weeks assignment is "Purse Guts" to which we reveal the deep dark contents of every guys worst nightmare.....seriously. I tend to fluctuate between the big purse and the small purse and I am currently in the big purse phase.Courtesy of Target, apparently a popular purse destination for other Stalkees. I have placed a 9" needle for reference 'cause, you know, that's what was handy. Let's check out the contents, but a warning....one of the rules of this assignment was that you were not allowed to clean it out first, so bare with me.From the top we have the address book, planner, B&N nametag, checkbook, wallet, excess card holder, sock pattern, wine list from Grapefest 2007, Purse knitting (currently a Pomatomus in Trekking XXL #100), Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, various coupons and receipts from the last grocery run, iPod, a bazillion pens and three tins of mints from the PKD walk goody bags, paystub and various business cards.

My wallet is my new favorite thing ever. I saw several customers that had them and finally asked someone where they got it. Of course, mine came from Target, but I have seen them other places, especially Hallmark. I like it cause if I need to slim down a bit, then I can just grab the wallet and go. I do use a little card holder for all of the other card that I have that I need but don't use every day, like the video card, grocery card, etc.

Alright, so how about some knitting. As you can see, I got the camera to work for a bit so here are the Flaming Monkeys!Pattern: Monkeys from Knitty.com
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Flames
Needle: US1
Mods: Increased pattern repeat to 18 sts and added a picot hem.

I have also begun a project for my cousin's future cousin-in-law. Everyone got that figured out? Okay, good. I am working on recreating a Christmas stocking for a newly arrived cousin.It's progressing nicely and quickly. Should be done in plenty of time for the wedding in November and for Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas, I got gifted some yummy yarn from Tasha.It is some Lorna's in Glenwood and quite yummy. I also got some new Inox and bamboo sock needles from Dawn, but that is when the camera cut out....one picture short.

Did you miss me?

Yeah, so I have been away from the Net for a bit...so much so that I missed my first blogiversary! Well, post #100 is around the corner, so maybe we'll have something special!

Something that tipped me off on my anniversary, was the PKD walk that occurred this past weekend. I remembered that last year I posted about the walk and so I went back to check when it was. Oh well....check out this year's crowd!Yep, our group grew a bit this year, which was great. What was even cooler was that we grew so much that Paul's Posse won the award for the largest team. I am excited to see how many we have next year! Even the lil'uns got in on the fun:That would be Miss Lizzie and my mom. She is the recipient of the lil' purple dress. Her and her brother are some of my littlest knitting recipients.

More to come...gotta get the camera to operate. Mine died after one picture. The above are complements of my Dad's camera.

Oh crap!

Yep, that's how it's been the past few days. I got called into work on my day off on Monday, but I didn't quite mind it as much since it was time-and-a-half. Things that didn't dawn on me until I got to work: (1) it's a holiday which means it will be crazy busy, and (2) I was closing Monday night (~10:45pm home time) and opening on Tuesday (be there by 7am).

Oh crap! #1

On said Tuesday, it was the first day after a three day weekend, the day new books come out (which is busy at B&N), and there was some kind of weird alignment of the planets and moon or something cause the crazys were out. Plus, we have determined we have some kind of house elf or something in the store that screws everything up just enough to be annoying.

Oh crap #2.

I then got some take-out and went to SnB last night, a little early, but had to save some seats! But then the take-out and my LONG few days caught up with me and barely lasted an hour.

Oh crap #3.....I really needed knit-night too.

Today got to be my day off so I got to catch up on errands and go get important things like food. I get back and have a lovely note from my apartment complex saying that I didn't pay my rent. BS to them I say!! I paid my rent on Sunday when I came to get my new parking pass. See? I can show you the carbon copy here in..my....checkbook......yeah....throughout the whole thing Sunday, I didn't actually GIVE them the check.

OH CRAP!!!!!

Luckily, I talked my way out of the $75 LATE FEE!!!! If I hadn't, this would have been a much longer post....

Plus, still haven't finished my Monkeys, which I find annoying. I have hit the point of "I just want them done," and they are getting longer. I have about 2 repeats and 5 plain rounds to go before I start the toe.