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.

So This is New Year's

Happy New Year.
It is that time of year when we tend towards looking backwards and forwards. In ancient times, the new year was celebrated in the spring, when the world was renewed. This to me makes a great deal of sense. Why do I want to change in the middle of winter? Why would the darkness bring forth a renewal in my life? I have decided this year that I will follow the ancient calendar and come up with resolutions in the spring. For now, I will continue to exist. I will think about the future, but I will reserve the right to not change until March. This seems fair to me. Of course, it is probably just me procrastinating, but it is the course I am sticking with this year.
As far as looking back at the last year, I have never seen the point of it. In reality the last 12 months of your life is still too close to look at objectively and actually learn from it. Really, it is best to look at how your life was, say 5 years ago. Look how far you have come... I know that 5 years ago, I was not in as good a place as I am now. I hope to be even better off 5 years from now. That is not to say bad things haven’t happened, they have, some of the quite bad, but over all, things today are better now. I think I like to solve a problem when I occurs and revisit years later as to whether or not it was the correct solution. So there will be no yearly highlights here.
So, just a wish for a safe and happy new year. I hope 2008 brings peace to the world. And be careful out there.

Happy Boxing Day

It is snowing here today. I have to work, so no after Christmas sales for me. It is quiet at work, of course, because a lot of people took the rest of the week off.
I figured I would do a quick update.

1st off: FOs
Here is the elephant I made for my littlest niece for Christmas. It is from Debbie Bliss’ Knit Toys. I think it turned out pretty darn cute.


Here are some Angels
These are from my 2005 Knitting calendar. One is made from Sugar and Cream cotton and the other from crochet cotton. Note the size difference. I sent the little one to a former co-worker as a gift.


2nd order of business: Movie reviews
We went and saw 2 movies yesterday. It is our tradition to go to the movies on Christmas Day. We had planned on seeing only one, but decided we had plenty of time, so why not 2. We saw “Juno” & “Sweeny Todd”. Both were very good.

“Juno”: It is well written and very funny. Parts are sad as well, so you may cry. Not a complete tear jerker, but tears may occur. Don’t say I did warn you. If you do not know what it is about, in a nutshell: Juno, 16, gets pregnant after having sex with her best friend and she decides to give it up for adoption. It has potential for melodrama, but does not ever reach that point. It has a very good soundtrack as well. I give 3 ½ out of 4 knitting needles

“Sweeny Todd”: I have seen this in the play form so I knew the story and the music ahead of time. Not sure everyone in the audience did. Sweeny Todd is a barber who was wronged and has come back for revenge. He is helped by the meat pie maker, Mrs. Lovett. It is a musical. There is a lot of singing in it. I say this, because there were some people behind us who did not seem to know it was a musical. There is also a lot of blood. However, most of it occurs during a singing montage, so if it bothers you, you could just close your eyes and listen to the incredible score.
This movie is a stunning adaptation of the Sondheim musical. Everyone sings beautifully and the scenery is incredible. You do feel like you are in Victorian London. Johnny Depp does a magnificent job in the role of Sweeny. This is probably one of the best films I have seen this year. I give it 4 out of 4 knitting needles.

3rd order of business: Christmas
My mom did seem to like the tank top I made her and it fit. I was very relieved. She is going to wear it like a vest, which I think will be nice.
The Girl liked all of her gifts, I did not finish her socks, but I showed them to her and told her they should be done by her birthday. She said she had seen them already and knew I was working on them. She was very happy.
My DH gave me a set of Knitpicks Options and “A Gathering of Lace” so I scored big time. Overall a good Christmas.

another day, another dollar

I hate work
I hate work
I hate work
I hate work
I hate work

Today is a bad day at work. I actually like my job most days, but today not so much. I really don’t know that I like working in an office any more. It just seems to me that there must be more to life than worrying about shipments and deliveries of parts.

Yesterday I left work with no energy and so I did not take a picture of my elephant. I did almost no knitting. Well, I did teach myself to do mosaic knitting out of Barbara Walker’s book of the same name. So I guess technically I did knit. I watched the Vikings beat the Bears. It was not a pretty game, but they won and that is honestly all I care about.

I am supposed to go the Knitting Guild Holiday party tonight, but I can not remember if we are supposed to bring something or not. I do not want to show with out the proper food or drink so I think I might just skip it. I have a ton of other stuff I need to do tonight anyway. I have yet to actually attend a Guild party in the almost two years I have been a member. I am not good at going to social events. I never have been. I take after my father. I have been trying to get better, I attended the company holiday party last Saturday for example, but it is hard for me.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a brighter day.

Movie review and knitting news

The family went to see “I am Legend” on Saturday morning. It was very good, 3 out of 4 knitting needles. It was very psychological. Will Smith was fantastic and he is the main reason to see the film. I love him. There were no hand knits in the film, which oddly makes sense as he is the last living person in NYC; not like you can’t find clothes there. It is not very gory so if that sort of thing bothers you, you might still enjoy this film. There are some jumpy bits, like well, I am not sure what to call the infected people, but sometimes they jump out. You know, it is sort of a horror film, for lack of a better word. However, I think of it as a more thought provoking and questioning film, in the vein of “28 Days Later” and “The Mist”. It brings up the ever present question of what if we are messing with stuff that we really don’t know how to control? The premise of the movie is that a miracle cure for cancer mutates into something deadly to humans. Think of all the drug ads we are subject to every day. They all look alike, regardless of what they are “curing”. They all show people outside biking, gardening and crap. This is the case for almost everything from allergy medicine (which makes sense) to erectile dysfunction and herpes (which really doesn’t). I do not have either one of the last two listed, but I am pretty sure neither one impedes one’s ability to garden or ride bike. Could all of these drugs really be good for us as a nation or as a world? Could the cure be worse than the disease? I know sometimes I read or listen to the side effects of some prescription drugs and think that it really doesn’t seem that the drug is any better, like the drug for the toe fungus where one of the side affects can be liver damage. Maybe it’s just me, but I think I would rather have my liver intact than beautiful toes.
Just a few things that the movie made me think about. You can take it or leave, it matters not to me.

On to knitting news. I finished the elephant I was making for my littlest niece. I will take a picture tonight before I send it off. It was from Debbie Bliss’ Knit Toys book. I like the book. The patterns are fairly clear and straight forward. One complaint I do have, is that sometimes they say how many stitches are at the end of a decrease or increase row and sometime they don’t. I personally like to have them there, but I feel it is better to choose one way or the other.
I have been working on The Girl’s socks, they are going well, but I really do not think they will be done for X- mas. I think they will have to be for her birthday (it is in January). I will keep plugging away at them though. I also have to do a few more things for the in-laws. I think it will be fine.

FOs

Here it is. The infamous tank top…I hope my mom likes it.


Here is a close up of the collar. As you can see it is a little wonky. The other side is worse. I am not sure what happened.


Plus a bonus FO: the hat and neck warmer for my co-worker’s husband. I brought it in today and she is not even in the office, so no paycheck today.


Next up, I am going to finish up the elephant I have started. That should only take a couple of days since I have already started it.

Weekend update

The tank top is done. The collar is a little hinky, but it will have to do. If my mom does not like it, she can send it back and I will fix it. I have pictures in my camera. I forgot to download them so I will have to wait to post them.
I am almost done with the neck warmer for my co-worker’s husband. I should finish it up today. Tomorrow I should get my 1st payment for a knitted garment. Pretty exciting. I had hoped to finish it over the weekend, but I went shopping on Saturday and I fell asleep during the Vikings game yesterday. So that was valuable knitting time lost. The shopping was pretty fruitless. I really have not been in the buying mood. I picked up one thing for my husband, which I can not reveal here as he does actually read my blog. HI HONEY!
The Vikings are on their way to the play-offs. I just know it. I realize they will not probably win a playoff game, but a month ago I was getting worried they would not actually win any more regular season games. Skol Vikings!
The Girl was late coming home last night and we were getting ready to ground her when she finally arrived and told us she had lost her cell phone. She noticed it on her way home and went back to look for. She did not find it, of course, because it was 10 at night and dark out. She also was on her way to a nice case of frostbite when she finally did get home. She will be the death of me. DH went out to look for it this morning, but also no luck.
We have 30 days to get her a new phone or else the line will be cancelled and I will have to pay a cancellation fee. This is very disheartening. I think I will wait a little while and let her stew a bit.
Last night I watched the 1938 version of “A Christmas Carol”. I think I have mentioned before my strange obsession with Dickens’ tale. The 1938 version is fairly condensed as far as the story goes. It does not have Scrooge’s fiancée or going abroad on Christmas Ever. It does however have the sickliest looking Tiny Tim. I think sometimes the boy playing Tim must grow between the casting and the actual film and they really don’t look like they might die in less than a year, but this Tiny Tim does not disappoint. He looks very ill and he seems a bit addled in the brain. So I can recommend this “Christmas Carol” mainly for that. Reginald Owen does a fine job, but he is no Alistair Sim, who is hands down the best Scrooge ever. Normally, seeing “A Christmas Carol” puts me right in the Christmas mood, but not this year. I am not sure what is going on this year. I do feel stressed out or anything, in fact, sort of the opposite, I feel very lazy. I know I have a ton of stuff to do, mainly knitting and buying the DH some more stocking stuffers.

Mini Update

I have new tires! It took them forever and they called me on my cell phone while I was in their lobby to ask where the flat was. Very bizarre. They are Nokian Tyres. I was a bit leery about getting tyres that seem to be made a cell phone company, but it was all they had that would fit on our Passat.
I only have to knit the collar and weave in the stitches and I will be done with my mom’s tank. I was going to knit seed stitch around the arm holes, but I tried it twice and did not look right. So I just did a single crochet stitch around them. Hopefully tomorrow I will have photos. Then it is on to the next project.

Mini Update

I have new tires! It took them forever and they called me on my cell phone while I was in their lobby to ask where the flat was. Very bizarre. They are Nokian Tyres. I was a bit leery about getting tyres that seem to be made a cell phone company, but it was all they had that would fit on our Passat.
I only have to knit the collar and weave in the stitches and I will be done with my mom’s tank. I was going to knit seed stitch around the arm holes, but I tried it twice and did not look right. So I just did a single crochet stitch around them. Hopefully tomorrow I will have photos. Then it is on to the next project.

Tires are the bane of my existence

My beloved called the tire shop to make an appointment to get new tires on Monday. They said sure we have those tires, come on in; we’ll take care of it.
So we showed up a little after 5 and they looked over the tires and got all the numbers, blah, blah, blah and told us it would be about an hour. Now keep in mind, I had to stay late at work and did not have time to pick up my knitting before going to the tire shop. We sat through almost 3 sessions of news, local, national, more local. I was thinking it’s been more than an hour and I hear the clerk say bring the Volkswagen around. Hey, that’s us! Well, they brought the car around and told us that they did not have the tires after all. We sat around for 1 ½ hours and still no new tires! Arrrggghhh. Think of all the knitting I could have gotten done.
So they called yesterday to say they found some tires for us and we made an appointment for 5 pm again. Well, it snowed yesterday. All day. Rush hour was a nightmare. It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to get home. Normally it takes me about 20 minutes, 30 minutes if there is bad traffic. So we cancelled the appointment because I was not going to make it and even if I did, I would be really crabby. I hate traffic.
Tonight, is the night for new tires, I know it. The sun is shining and I should be able to get home on time, get my knitting and get to the shop by 5. Wish me luck.
I should be able to finish my mom’s tank top tonight. I will post a picture when I get it done. I promise.

Bad Weekend Blues

I didn’t finish my mom’s tank top…oooooo
And it needs to be mailed…ooooo
Nothing can stop the bad weekend blues

I blew a tire out on my car… ooooo
And missed my Yarnover meeting... oooo
Oh I got those lowdown bad weekend blues

Ah, Robert Johnson, eat your heart out.
Seriously, it was a bad weekend. I hate it when I am glad to see Monday come around. It snowed here on Saturday, which I love, but I was driving around in it and my windshield wipers decided that it was too much work to move snow off the windshield and just sort of went over it, leaving lovely smears.
Then on Sunday, I was heading over to my Yarnover meeting and my tire blew. It did not go flat, it actually came apart. I have never actually changed a tire and it took me over an hour to get it done. It would have been longer, but a very nice driver for the St. Paul Hotel stopped and helped out some. He loosened the lug nuts which I was not able to do. But then he had to get going as he was on the job. If you ever are in St. Paul, think of staying there since he was the only one on the busy highway to even stop. So I missed my meeting, even though I had left early. Plus I missed the Vikings whomp on the Lions to boot. And I hurt my back pulling the spare out the trunk. Sigh.
The worst part is that both of these problems are caused by me not taking care of just regular maintenance. Well, that is not totally true, the wipers were working fine until Saturday, but the tires should have been changed this summer. Enemy thy name is Procrastination.
I worked on my mom’s tank top and I had hoped to get it done by the end of the weekend, but alas I did not. I got past the arm hole bottom so I am working on the front. The end is in site so long as I have time to work on it. The other must do before Christmas is The Girl’s socks.
On a semi related note: in the USA Weekend dealy that comes in the Sunday paper, they had a list of gifts to give to your teen. Having a teen, I figured I could get some good idea’s. Well, not really and fresh ideas here, but there was one bullet that caught my eye. It said that teen like clothes for Christmas, just not the ones you have knit by the fire. They want them from Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, or American Eagle. Phooey I say. I read this paragraph to The Girl and she agreed that she would rather have something knitted than anything from one of those stores. She said she would be pissed off if she received clothes from any of those stores and so would a lot of her friends. Of course I know that my little punk rock girl does not shop at these preppy paradises, but what of people who might not. Plus, I think you can knit some pretty cool stuff for a teen that they would want even if they liked these store. So I must say do not take their advice for teen shopping as every teen is different. My advice is to ASK the teen what she or he wants. Trust me, they know.

The husband’s family is all coming up for his 40th birthday; they arrive on 1/3/08, so they will get their presents then. I have a couple of those done already so I think I will be okay, as the biggest thing I plan for this holiday was my mom’s tank.

Here is a picture of one of the Scrabble bags I have made for the in laws.

zazzle design

Normally I do not shameless promote my zazzle products, but I think this one is very nice. My husband and I designed a shirt for The Girl, she loves unicorns. You can check it out here.
Now back to the show!

The Girl

I forgot to talk about the conversation I had with The Girl while we were sitting in traffic in the wee hours of the morning on Friday. Apparently, the boy d’jour that she has been hanging around with asked her if it was weird to live with her aunt and uncle. She said she had lived with us a long time, since she was seven, so it really wasn’t that weird now. She also said that she liked to live with us because she has freedom and rules. Yeah! It felt good to know that in spite of all the troubles and tribulations that we must being doing something right.
I just wanted to share that as it was the highlight of my Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Update

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Mine was good. It was just the 3 of us and we had tempura. It was delicious.
We also went to the movies before dinner. The Girl and I saw “The Mist” and DH saw “Beowulf”. We enjoyed “The Mist” a lot. And it made me thankful that I was not stuck in a grocery store with people I did not like. Plus, Marcia Gay Harden wears a lovely green sweater that I think I could actually copy pretty easily. I give it 3 ½ needles out of 4.
The Girl and I decided that we would go to the Outlet Mall at midnight on Friday. Huge mistake. We sat in traffic for 45 minutes the last 3 miles of the trip and it was cut that short because we went around traffic and butted in front so The Girl get to a gas station and use the bathroom. By the time we got over to the actual mall, there was NO where to park. People were parking on the gravel curbs and in front of the dumpster. We then decided to go forget about any Outlet deals and went to Eden Prairie mall which had opened at 1:00 am. We got some good shopping done and then I dropped off The Girl at home about 4:30 or so and headed to the mall near us. (This is the mall that The Girl is banned from until February). By 6:00 I was so tired I knew I should not drive home, so I called my DH and he took the bus over so he could drive me home. Of course, I had a couple of more stops before I could go home, so he drove me around and I ended the day at the 3 Kittens where they opened early for people with the special 3 Kittens card. I spent more there than any where else. After that I came home and slept, it was about 10:30. I figured out I had only had 2 hours of sleep in a 30 hour period. It totally messed me up all weekend. Normally, I get quite a bit done on Thanksgiving weekend. Well, usually get my shopping done and the tree up. I did some shopping and that was about it.

I did get some knitting done. I worked on my mom’s tank top.

And I did this yarn holder for a swap partner.


The Vikings won!!! 41 – 17 over the Giants! It was so great to see them win again this weekend.
So overall it was a good weekend. This week we will need to get the tree up and I will start wrapping gifts. I love wrapping gifts. It is one of my favorite things to do.

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH
There, I feel much better. Work is driving me crazy. I took some silly strengths test for work last Friday and basically discovered I should not be doing my job. I have none of the strengths required for it. How’s them apples? I actually found the job I should have… working at the Reagan Presidential Library. Apparently stuff has been walking away there because they have not cataloged it well enough. AND my skills just happen to coincide with just that kind of work. There you go. I need to go work there and help out the country by preserve our history. I just do not know how to go about getting such a job. Sigh.

Over the weekend I went to the movies with the whole family. We were going to see Dan in Real Life, but at the last minute, we decided on Lars and The Real Girl. I can highly recommend it. It has many lovely knitted items, some of them hand knit. There is a hat I really liked and a cute pair of socks. There is also a scene with actual knitting in it. Oh yeah, it has a good story too. It is funny and sad, sometimes at the same time, which is pretty tricky to pull off. So I can recommend you go see it. I give it 3 knitting needles out of 4.
There is no blood or gore either, I know some of my previous movie reviews would indicate that I see only movies with guts gushing out of people, but that is not always true. However, it is rated PG-13 due to the adult nature of the story, so do not bring the little ones because they are not going to grasp the nature of the story. Plus you will need to explain why you can buy life size dolls that are anatomically correct on the internet to your kids. Are you ready for that discussion? You may be asking yourself why I would be bringing this up. Well, there were several kids in the audience who kept getting up and running around the theatre. Not as bad as when we went to see Matrix II and there was a toddler screaming through 2 hours of the movie, but irritating nonetheless.

I did not do much knitting over the weekend. I am not really even sure why, I just didn’t. I really did not do much of anything. I did go to the movies without my knitting, which I normally would not do, but we decided to go while we were having lunch. Plus, I did not do any knitting during the game on Sunday due to the brutal beating the Vikings were taking. I can not knit while crying. :)
I did some knitting last night while watching TV. I am making some little bird house ornaments for my MIL. They are really quick to knit up, but I need to felt it and then do needle felting, which I have never attempted, so we will see how it goes.