Major Award and other news

A couple of weeks ago I was sent an e-mail stating that I had won a contest. I was one of 101 people who won a skein a month contest hosted by Storey Publishing and WEBS. This week I received my January prize. It is a skein of Sheep 3 yarn and a new pattern (not yet released to the general public) from Sheep Shop Yarn. It is a wool / silk blend; it is too awesome: 325 yards of soft DK beauty. I love the tangerine color too. The pattern is for a scarf which is very nice, but I am not a huge scarf knitter so I do not know if I will make it or not. I probably will eventually because I think it would be a nice present, but I think it would look good in green or brown or maybe a golden brown, something leafy.
Here is a picture of my Major Award.

I have been very busy. Last Sunday, DH announced that he had lost his scarf and would like another one. Luckily, we were in the Needlework Unlimited Outlet store so he picked out some nice bulky yarn and I have been working on it this week because it has been colder than a mother in law’s kiss here I have put aside my other projects in order to finish it. I had him pick a pattern out of Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns volume 1 and have been plugging away. I hope to have it done by the end of the week. I will post a photo when I am done.

“Lost” is on tonight at the same time as “Supernatural”, which really sucks. “Supernatural” is what The Girl and I watch together to bond. The whole family watches “Lost” together. DH is going to see if we can tape, yes tape, Supernatural upstairs while we watch “Lost” downstairs. Perhaps it is time to invest in a DVR, sigh.

I thought I would include a picture of a moment of peace in our chaotic household. Here is The Girl’s kitten and our crazy dog sleeping on Sunday morning.

Movie Review 1-24-08

Last night we went to the movies. The Girl called and said she wanted to go see “Cloverfield” as a family. So my DH gave up going to improv and off we all went to the movies. On Wednesday nights at the AMC theaters here, you get a free small popcorn if you are a movie card member, so all we bought at the concession stand was a large pop for The Girl. Plus the tickets were only $6 a piece. So overall it was a cheap night at the movies. As I am want to do, I will now review the movie.
“Cloverfield” is a monster movie all shot with a hand held video camera. It is a good film over all. However, if your stomach is not feeling 100% or you suffer from motion sickness, it can make you ill. As you know from my previous blogs, I have not been feeling well AND I have suffered from motion sickness since I was a child, so there were parts in which I shut my eyes just to keep from throwing up. Since I still enjoyed the film with these problems, I must recommend it. There are NO good knits though and that of course reduces it score. I am giving it 2 ½ knitting needles.
Just another note... you will want to stay until the very end of the credits as there is a thing at the end. We did not stay for it, but my husband went on-line after and said we missed this thing. Also, there is a ton of background stuff about the movie on-line if you are interested in that kind of thing. I am not, but DH is, so I know about it anyway.

Where have all the spoons gone?

Why don’t restaurants have spoons any more? I like to partake of an iced tea when I dine out and no longer do I get a spoon with it. They give me a straw and then put so much ice in the glass that I can not actually stir the sugar in to the liquid. Instead, there is a layer of sugar sediment at the bottom waiting to form into limestone. I hate it. However, if my husband orders coffee, they will bring him a spoon, even though he ALWAYS orders it black. So spoons do exist in the restaurant, I just do not get one. If I ask for one, they look at me like I just ask if they could go out and wash my car while I dine. I want the freaking spoons back! I realize that some study was done and some restaurateur discovered he could save a couple of bucks by not just handing out spoons, but I don’t care. I want a spoon at my place setting when I sit down. I want to stir sugar in my tea. I want to be able to pick up saucy foods without drips falling from my utensil. Is that asking too much?

Sorry for the rant. I have been ill. Again. On Friday night I was violently ill. I have never been that sick ever. So I am not sure what ails me, but I have narrowed it down to food poisoning, e coli, colon cancer or those aliens from Stephen King’s “Dreamcatcher”. I am feeling better today, but still just eating bland food.
The Girl is sick too, she puked in her bed in the middle of the night. And it is her 16th birthday. Poor little tot.
My knitting has suffered from all this illness. So I do not know how much more I can take.

Winter of my discontent

January has been very cruel. I have had in-laws visit, I was sick and an old friend (who I have discovered is crazy) has contacted me and The Girl was sick for a week. And The Girl will be 16 next week. I am completely discombobulated.

It is going to be very cold here this weekend (highs below zero F), so I knitted my oldest dog the Cables & Bits Shrug from Knitty. It was very easy and quite quick, plus she actually likes it. Normally, when forced into a sweater or jacket, she simply freezes up and refuses to move, but in this little shrug, she walked around and even lay down and slept in it. Hooray! Here she is modeling it.


Yes, it is done in Vikings colors. The Girl thought I should have done it all in yellow, but I had the purple and I wanted to use up both. Which I didn’t, but now I have a more even amount.

I am not done with The Girl’s rainbow socks and as her birthday is on Tuesday, it seems very unlikely they will get done. I should have one done by then and she can try it on so I know it fits and she will actually wear them before I start on sock # 2.

I also have been working on a vest for myself. I need to put the back together and attach the back and front at the shoulder and then I can finish up the trim etc. I will post a picture when I get one.

Illness abounds

I have been sick, miserably sick, to sick to knit sick. I have felt like crap since Tuesday afternoon. I did not come in to work yesterday. I spent the day sleeping, reading and going to the bathroom. I did finish “The Ruins”. It is a good book, but not exactly an upbeat story. It is a horror book about tourist in Mexico. I will not say anymore since it would give away a major plot element. Hollywood has made a movie about it, I saw a preview for it. I must say, I can’t image that it is going to be good. Just from what I saw of the preview, I could tell they had changed it. Plus there is a lot of internalizing in the book which almost never come across well on the big screen. I would recommend the book. It is well written and very interesting.
Here is a picture of my cat Buttercup. Isn’t she regal?

Why I am not a movie critic …

I had recommend “Sweeny Todd” to some people here at work. Since I loved it, I figured others would too. Apparently not. They both declared it too bloody. I guess all the years of horror films have distorted my view of what is grim. Of course, I had seen it in play versions and perhaps that skewed my views since I knew when the bloody bits would be coming up. I still loved it. So if you are queasy at the sight of blood, do not go see it.


It has been a few days since I checked in because I had all the in-laws in town. It was exhausting. Hopefully I will be able to have a full blog entry tomorrow.