Dedicated to the one I love

Today is the anniversary of when I met my husband. It was 20 years ago today that I fell in love with the man of my dreams. So today my blog is going to be about him…

***Soppy love crap ahead be warned***

I often tell people that he is the greatest man to walk the face of the Earth. He is not a powerful or rich man. In fact, he is a stay at home uncle. But he cooks for me and cleans the house and makes all those stupid phone calls for vet appointments and plumbers. Usually if people question his greatness, I point out that we spend many an evening with him reading to me while I knit. Does it get better than that? I do not think so!
We like a lot of the same movies and entertainment. While I veer more towards movies like “30 Days of Night” and he towards “My Dinner with Andre” we both love action films (all the Bourne films) and sarcastic comedies (Monty Python anyone) and of course all B-films (Bert I. Gordon is our hero). He taught me to like opera, and I taught him to appreciate heavy metal. We both like to go to live theater and discovered early on that small odd production were more our style. He introduced me to Philip K. Dick and H.P. Lovecraft. We both did (and still occasionally do) role playing; in fact we met at a role playing convention.
He makes me laugh and he always seems to know what to say when I am feeling bad. He has put up with me and my crazy family for 20 years without complaint.
He is my partner and my friend and I am thankful everyday we are together.

Mainly Movie review

Over the weekend I did something new and exciting. I dyed yarn with Kool-Aid. Oh Yeah! It turned out really nice. I was going to take pictures, but I could not get the lame digital camera to work at all. So no pics today. Sigh. We had enough points on our credit card to get a new one so I told the DH to get one so I can take pictures for my blog. It should be here in a couple of weeks. Yeah!

Monday night The Girl and I went to see “30 Days of Night”. We both enjoyed it and found it quite scary. Several reviews had complained about the gore, but I did not think it was any worse than most of the horror films made today. It was bloody, but then again it is about vampires. It sorts of goes hand and hand. It held my attention and the vampires were successfully creepy and not at all attractive, which I think is a breath of fresh air. My all time favorite vampire movie is “Near Dark” just because I think it is a more realistic portrayal of how someone who can not hold a job and kills for a living would actual live. How do vampires get all the money they always have in movies? It has always bothered me. The vampires in “30 Days” are basically a pack of animals, which is a reasonable portrayal of such creatures.

I also finished the hat I am making for my co-workers husband last night. Now I just need to do the neck warmer. I am going to make up my own based on some other patterns I have found. I want it to match the hat I made.
I have several UFOs that I need to finish. Plus Christmas presents. I really need to get working on those as well. I do not know which to do first. I would like to finish up stuff I started, but then I start to worry I will not get the presents done. Arrrgh.

Just a brief update

I did hit all the stores on the Shop Hop last Friday. There were 3 that I had never been in before. One of them was really nice and I will probably go back to it since it is not far from my work. The other two were okay, but not extraordinary and way too far away for me to go to regularly. I only spent about $100; very good for 7 yarn shops!
I finished the dreaded merino scarf. I handed it in last night at Guild. The gal who I made if for, could not make it to the meeting so I do not know if she will like it or not. The scarf I received was nice enough, but a little small. That is partially my fault since I said I wanted enough left over to make a head band. However, I think she used a smaller needle than I would have on the pattern so it is really dense. I am worried that it is too small and I will lose it. I will have to wear it a little and see what I think. My husband came with me to Guild last night. The Girl has been sick the last few days and was particularly crabby. He felt sitting with a bunch of knitting strangers was better than being at home with her. She was still crabby when we came home because she did not think it would take so long. I have been going to Guild one Tuesday a month for over a year and normally I do not get back until after 9. Last night we were home before 8:30. Arrrggh!
I finished up a duck last night for a Swap-bot partner. I think I will make another one so she will have a pair. It was really quick to make.
I other news, my co-worker has expanded her order to a hat and a neck warmer and upped the price to $50. So I picked up yarn on Friday and I am going to get that made up.
It is Wednesday, which means hubby has improve tonight. So hopefully I will be able to get a lot of knitting done.

Thursday notes

So, DH had Improv class last night and I was able to spend a quiet evening knitting and watching TV. The Girl was mad at me most of the evening because I did not want to drive my husband to class and thereby drive her around too. I am not sure why she wanted to go with, but I was already in my p.j.s and my husband wanted to drive himself. Any way, I watched “Pushing Daisies” which was okay, but a tad bit too quirky for my taste. The reason I bring it up though is that it was revealed that the P.I. in the show knits when he is stressed. Since the main guy had brought his childhood sweetheart back to life he had knit “a slip stitch vest and 2 gun cozies”. I just loved the idea of a gun cozy! It was the funniest thing in the show.
I was able to knit about 5 inches on the dreaded merino blend scarf. It is due at Guild next Tuesday, so the end is in site. Yeah!!
I need to knit a farm animal for a partner on swap-bot and I am also working on a novelty scarf for The Girl. She picked out what yarns she wanted and it is going well. I will get it done fairly quickly.
There is a gal here at work who has offered me $20 to knit her a hat. I know it is not really enough to pay for my time, but I really like to knit hats. I think I will take her up on the offer.
Then, I need to get cracking on Christmas presents. I know most of what I am going to make, so I think I will be okay. We will see.

Bad Norwegian

I can’t believe I missed Leif Erikson day yesterday. I am half Norwegian and I still missed it. Dang! Well, Happy Belated Leif Erikson day! Have some Rommegröt and be joyous.

I other news. I finished “The Chocolate War” last Friday. It was pretty good, not much character development, but that is probably because it is teen fiction. It was depressing in the end. I do not know how this made it on the top 10 list of banned books for 2006. Your average teen would be exposed to more sexual innuendos in an episode of “2 ½ Men”. My husband and discussed it and he thinks it is because it shows authority in a bad light. Perhaps, but really, most kids get that watching cereal commercials and anything by Disney.
This whole banned book week has reminded me of a discussion I had with a friend of my many years ago. He was totally against the Harry Potter books. I knew this and really never bought it up because I did not want to get the lecture about how they were evil. I always enjoyed them. Well, I mentioned we had went to the movie and he was pooh poohing that when he said that he was looking forward to “The Lord of the Rings” movie coming out. I was flabbergasted. He said he loved those books. I pointed out that the Harry Potter books were basically LotR lite and he got defensive. I think he was told by someone that the Harry Potter books were bad so rather than reading them and finding out for himself, he was spouting a party line. I do not think he went out and read them, buy I hope it made him think a little.

Over the weekend it was excessively hot here. It was 87 on Saturday. Yuck. I finished up a hat for DH. I will post it here as soon as I get the photo.
He used it yesterday because a cold front has come in and yesterday’s high was 47. A 40 degree swing in 3 days! Pretty cool, huh?
I am glad for the cool weather. It has been a long time coming.

I have taken this Friday off of work so I can participate in the 2nd Annual Shop Hop. I plan on hitting all 7 stores in one day. We will see if I am successful. I have it all mapped out so if I get too tired half way through, I can pick up the rest on Saturday. I think it is going to be a lot of fun.

Reading

Yesterday I decided to go to the library and check out some banned books. Oddly, there is no reference to banned books week at the public library. I would think they would want to celebrate diversity. It was odd. Anyway, I checked out “The Chocolate War” and “I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings”. I had never read either one of these books. I had never heard of “The Chocolate War” and I was reading it when I got home and my DH asked what I was reading. I told him that it was one of the top banned books of 2006. He was surprised since it was so old. I was shocked to see it had been written in 1974. I guess teenagers never really change all that much. It is a good book so far.
I was wondering why I had never even heard of it when I realized that I really did not spend much time reading “teen” fiction. I read a couple of Judy Blume books and then went right into Heinlein, Bradbury, Stephen King and Kurt Vonnegut. No time for teen books. Not really much time for anything reality based, because, well reality sucked. This does not include biographies and history books, which I love. I know this seems like a contradiction, but I consider the past not as real as the present. It is always under debate as to what happened. (I have a degree in history and I was reading history books on my own when I was in high school. Yes, I was THAT popular! :) )
I still gravitate towards the fantastic and the surreal. Perhaps this is not good, I am not sure. I know that life is far more complicated than most books can portray.
One reality based fiction book and movie I did love was “Mystic River” and that was mainly because it showed how angry someone who is bereaved can be. I find that death is often portrayed with sadness only, but I know that when my sister died, I was pissed off. And the whole custody battle was a nightmare. I remember reading some Anne Tyler book (“St. Maybe”?) in which some guy’s brother and sister in-law dies and he takes custody of the kids. Of course these kids were just little angels and had no ill effects from the loss of their parents! What a load of hogwash. It just really sort of ticked me off. Would it kill her to say go talk to some people who are raising someone else’s kid(s) and see what it might really be like?
Sorry, I didn’t mean to rant.

Blah

I am feeling a bit of ennui today. It rained over the weekend. It was the 8th rainest September on record here in MN. I can really tolerate only so much rain, I do much better with snow. And the Vikings lost to the Packers. Always a depressing ordeal. I could not find any US 7 – 6” DPNs anywhere I went. What is up with that?
I have a bad case of startitis. I just am having difficulty finishing any projects. The most important thing I have to do is the scarf for my swap partner at Guild (the merino blend one). I have been plugging away, but it has been difficult. If I knit to long, not only do my eyes itch, for some reason my face starts to go numb. I hate merino.
I am close to finishing a hat for my DH. However, I can not finish it until I get some size 7 DPNs. Blah.
I do have to get going on Christmas presents. I ordered some rainbow striped yarn for The Girl. She wants rainbow knee highs. That is going to be one of her presents.
I wanted to make a tank and some anklets for my mom. I am going to make Scrabble bags for the in-laws. I have not started any of these projects. Although I do have most of the yarn, so I guess that is a start!

Various topics

RIP IV
My last short story I read was (again) from Everything’s Eventual. It was “Riding the Bullet”. It was the most thought provoking story in the book. It is about a 21 year old college student who is hitching a ride home to see his mom who is in the hospital. He gets in a car with a dead man who makes him choose between himself and his mom who will get to live. He chooses his life and feels guilty when he gets to the hospital. His mom is still alive, in fact she lives another 7 years, but he knows he has signed her death warrant. However, he does spend the time he has left with her making every day count. Is it better that he knew she would go and spend quality time with her or to not know and live his own life? It made me think about these questions. It is the natural order of things that parents die first. I know that when my sister died, it was crushing to my mother. I know she felt she should have gone before any of us. But to live with the knowledge that some how you might have shortened your parent’s life would be very hard.


Read a Banned Book
Tomorrow is the beginning of Banned Books Week. Here is the ALA website. Go to the website and find a banned book to read. Down with censorship.
I was surprised to see how many I have read. I, of course, have always read whatever I damn well pleased and have never thought about whether or not it was approved by anyone else. So perhaps that is why. I also found the lists interesting. There are some books I could see why someone by be offended, but others are just baffling. The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999 has Stephen King’s “Cujo” on it, this book does not even deal with the supernatural; it is just a rabid dog. It is not a very good book, but offensive? What the? And all the Judy Blume, when I was in 5th grade our English teacher would read us these books in class. No one was permanently damaged by “Blubber”. So I urge you to visit the website and read something that will make you a rebel!

FOs
Yes, I do actually knit. Here is proof. These are some dishcloths I made for my mom. Pretty cool huh?

SO IT GOES

Yesterday I received a phone call from my DH. He found a kitten in The Girl’s room. She had snuck in with on Tuesday night. After much discussion, we decided we would keep said kitten, but that it would be The Girl’s responsibility. She needs to take it to the vet, feed it, clean up after it etc. If she ceases to do so, the kitten will have to go back to her friend’s house or to a rescue site. She agreed to this conditions, plus she lost her phone privilege for 2 days for sneaking it in. I do not know if this is the right solution, but I hope so.

Work has been crazy this week. I know I normally say nothing about my job, but it is affecting my knitting. Last night after our running around was completed, I was too tired to knit. It is a terrible situation. I did sort though some yarn. I was looking for some yarn. I would like to organize my stash better so I can find stuff easier. I did some minor adjustments, but not a huge one. I am not sure if it is better to organize by fiber or by yarn size or both.
How is everyone else’s stash organized? What seems to work the best? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

RIP II
I have been reading the stories in Stephen King’s Everthing’s Eventual. Some of the stories are quite good. One that I read was 1408, which the movie is based on. The movie has the same feeling as the story, but is very different. I enjoyed both for what they were. Hotel rooms can be very scary.

I forgot to mention that I am now on Ravelry. I am knittingchaos on there as well, so if you are on there, stop by and check me out. I do not have much on there yet, but who knows what will be coming up.

Here is a task list thing that I stole from theladywyvern.

Mark with bold the things you have knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Participate in an exchange
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch
Knitted flowers
Purses/bagsKnitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Free-form knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

RIP Week II

My short story this week was actually two from Stephen King’s “Everything’s Eventual”. I read “Autopsy in Room Four” and “The Man in the Black Suit”. They were both well crafted, but not really scary. I one thing I don’t like is that at the end of each story is an author’s note about the story which really takes the mystery out of the tales. I know I could just not read them, but I find if there are words on a page I must know what they say. I think I will continue reading the stories this book because I have it now and I have never read any of them before. I have read a lot of Stephen King in my life. I actually think my favorite of his short stories are in “Nightshift”, but I could not find my copy. My favorite King short story is “Strawberry Spring”. I find that he sometimes writes tales that are wondrous and other times they are just fair to middling.
I knit a baby hat for a co-workers new grandson. I do not know if it is going to fit as it seems really small. Of course, I do not know what size babies heads really are since I do not interact with them on a regular basis.
She did seem to like it though.
I need to start working on the scarf for the MKG scarf exchange. I am not very excited about it since the yarn I received to knit with is fingerling weight Cashsoft, which means merino. I am allergic to merino. When I knit with it, I can only knit for about 30 mins before my eyes start to itch like mad. Plus I have to make sure that I do not let it touch my forearms or it burns like crazy. It is the only wool I have found that I react so violently to. It really sucks since everyone else is the opposite and there is more and more merino blends out there.

RIP challenge I

I did actually read a short story for my RIP challenge on Sunday. It has just taken me a while to post.
For my 1st short story, I read H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls”. It is a tale about a man who buys his ancestral home in England only to discover a terrible family secret. Last summer we went to see a one man show of this story at the Fringe Festival. It was quite close to the story.
The story is told by the main character, Delapore (de la Poer) after the fact. He changes the Americanized spelling of his name back to the ancestral spelling when he moves to England.
I like reading Lovecraft because he describes the scenes in great detail. You feel like you are transported to the locations. You are in the horrifying twilight grotto. Yet, he does not explain everything to you. There are questions left in your mind when you finish reading the story. You have to piece together what it all means.
The rats – no one sees or hears them except de la Poer and the cats. Could it be the power of suggestion from the stories he has heard in the village? Is it the supernatural? It seems to be supernatural since he dreams of the grotto before he sees it. Of course, since the story is told after the events, so his memory could be defective. Are the rats a metaphor for the de la Poer family?
The location it self seems to evil. It seems like many immoral acts have occurred there throughout history. Have the de la Poers been there since before Roman times? If we go forward in time, would the site be subdivided and filled with suburban sprawl? Would this induce madness in those people as well? Or are only de la Poers affected? In which case, is it safe from evil since it seems most of the de la Poers are gone?
Where did all of the victims come from? Where the de la Poers breeding them? This is sort of implied, but how many people could they actually breed under ground. Were some kidnapped from the surrounding area? Were people invited to dinner and not allowed to leave?
So many questions… no real answers. Dear reader it is up to you to decide.

RIP II

I have decided to sign up for this RIP II challenge. I will be doing the Sunday Short Story Peril. Thanks Paula for having this on your blog!

State Fair Revue

We had a fabulous time at the State Fair on Friday. We got there a little before 7:00 am and got really good parking. We eat a fantastic breakfast at the Blue Moon Drive in Diner. Where we watched Laurel and Hardy’s “Sons of the Desert” while sitting on old car seats and eating a delicious meal. Then it was time to head over to the Creative Activities building to help set up the Minnesota Knitters Guild booth. We accomplished that in time for them to open the building. So my DH and I wandered around the building looking at all the beautiful hand crafts. I am going to get my stuff together so I can enter something in the Fair next year. I don’t expect to win, but it would be fun to try. Susan Rainey won the sweepstakes ribbon for a drop dead gorgeous sweater. You can check it out on theraineysisters.com. She has a bunch of stuff she won ribbons for on the site. She is a really awesome knitter. There were a lot of really beautiful works there. I also looked over the canning. I think I will can some salsa to enter for next year. I make excellent salsa. At least according to DH, because I myself to do not eat it.
After the Creative Activities building we hit the Education building and picked free stuff: bags, pencils, pens etc. I impressed a lady with my knowledge of Israel and got two mints instead of just one.
Then we wandered around for a while. Stopped by the Pet Center to look at dogs. Always a must. We wandered into the 4H building and discovered a new sport: Rabbit Agility. It was too much fun. The rabbits were jumping various jumps and going up and down an A-frame. It was a riot. There was a Flemish Giant participating. It was like a rabbit from “Night of the Lepus”. We had a malt at the Kiwanis booth. They sell malts that taste just like the ones my dad used to make, nice and malty. We stopped and bought a wild rice burger, which was very good. We stopped in the Agriculture building and checked out the Crop Art. We then wandered down by the Empire Commons so DH could stop by Al Franken’s booth. We went into the Empire Commons and I looked at some very nice yarn they had there and of course we looked at the butter sculptures. For those unfamiliar with this tradition, every year the Dairy Princess, Kay of the Milky Way, and her court are sculpted out of a 60 pound block of butter. The poor girls have to sit in a refrigerated glass booth while the sculptor creates a bust out of butter. Apparently, in the olden days they used to hand out crackers with the butter which was removed from the block, but at some point it was decided that this was a health issue.
We sat and rested for a bit and then went to the sheep & poultry barn and looked at sheep and rabbits. Which are in the same building, although I do not consider them either sheep or poultry. Then we stopped by the buffalo and the alpaca booths.
We had a couple of brats and of course a deep fat fried candy bar on a stick and headed home. We got home at about 4. So it was a long day.
There were quite a lot of things we did not hit: the cow barn, the biggest pig, the art building, the world bazaar, the all you can drink milk booth and a ton of other stuff. We were taking it easy. But it was a perfect day to be at the Fair, it was 75 and sunny with a little breeze. Maybe we will have to try to get over there again before it ends. Of course, there is always next year.

Rain… rain… rain…

Rain… rain… rain…rain… nothing but rain. It has been raining for about a week. I am so sick of rain. I finished one of my toe up socks. I will get a picture of it up soon. I promise. I am not very good about the whole picture thing just because I do not have a good digital camera. I have one that we bought at a garage sale for $15. It works, but it is kind of hinky.
Tomorrow I will be attending our State Fair. Yeah!!! I love the Fair. The Minnesota Knitter’s Guild is having a booth tomorrow and I volunteered to help set up. So I will get there early and have all the fun I can stand and leave before the huge hoards of people show up after work. Last year at the Fair there was an incredible and very bizarre sock monkey dress. One couple were looking at it and the woman said “Where would you wear that?” and the man responded with awe in his voice “ Where wouldn’t you wear it?” That is what makes the Fair so great. The diversity. I will give a little update after the Fair as to what I saw. Maybe over the weekend.

Movie reviews and other news

Sorry about the downer post last time. I was not in a good place. It has been raining here for days and I am sick of it. I did go see two movies over the weekend. On Friday, the DH and I went to see Superbad. Very funny, but very, very vulgar. On Saturday, The Girl, her beau, DH and I went to see Stardust. I highly recommend it. It is a sweet and funny movie. Not overly sappy. Overall, good for the family. I would not take little kids, because the witches are kind of scary and they have very bad intentions for the star. Plus, there is an awesome shawl towards the beginning of the movie. It is the scene in the grocery store. You will know when it comes up. Please go see it and let me know if you think it is as awesome as I do. I tried to find a picture of it, but no luck.
I have some photos I need to pick up and then I will post some FOs. I am currently working on my toe up sock. I am past the heel. It is going really well.
I found out today that one of the yarn shops that I frequent is going out of business. It has been for sale for some time, but apparently no one was interested. It is too bad, just because this LYS is very close to my house.

Reality sucks

***One time I had told a co-worker that I did not want children because as bad as my dog (I only had one at the time) might be at 10:00 at night, I knew where she was. I knew she was not out knocking over liquor stores. My co-worker had asked why I thought my child would be out knocking over liquor stores. I had replied how did she know they wouldn’t.***

Last night I had to leave work early because The Girl got picked up for shoplifting at the mall. Hubby and I spent the evening trying to decide on a suitable punishment.
I know that kids do not come with a guarantee that they will become doctors or even successful, but I feel like I am a complete failure at this parenting thing. I really do not know what I did wrong.
I do think she realizes how much trouble she is in, not that she would admit that, but last night she cleaned her room. When she is really stressed out she cleans. She is going to lose her cell phone privileges until she can show us that she is taking life a little more seriously. We do not yet know what the judge will decide as far as the charges go. We will get a letter. I have already told my husband that if they want to charge a fine, I am going to request community service. I am not going to pay the fine and I know she doesn’t have any money and she doesn’t have a job. I think community service will be a bigger punishment than a fine. She doesn’t really understand the consequences of spending money. She was also banned from the mall for 6 months. This totally sucks because this particular mall is the one we normally go see movies at because it is the best theater in our area.
I did not do any real knitting last night. I definitely want to get some done tonight. I think I really need to get out some of this stress. I really just wanted to vent.

I am still alive

Hello everyone. I have not abandon ship… I have been on vacation. I spent last week in beautiful sunny San Diego. The Girl and I were learning to surf. I really am not in any shape to do such strenuous activities. It was a good time, but exhausting. I never stood on the board, but I did come in on my knees a few times. The Girl was a natural, of course, all those years of skateboarding. I had thought I would have time to work on the mystery stole, but alas, I was far too tired to knit anything as complex as lace. I worked on dish cloths. I am still on clue 1 on the mystery stole …sigh. However, in my defense, this is the 1st project which I have tackled that uses actual lace weight yarn and it is far more complex than any other lace I have tried. Also, I did not knit on it while my hubby was reading Harry Potter to me. So it has been several weeks since I worked on it. In the mean time, I have made a pair of socks, low cut anklets made from Tofutsie. They only took me a week! I knit them while listening to the Deathly Hallows. They had short row heels and I loved making them. Next time, I will make the ribbing longer and have just regular length anklets. I might also make the top tighter. I am now working on the toe up socks that were in IK Summer ’07 magazine. We will see how those go.
I would like to make a couple of comments about the Tofutsie. On the upside, it is extremely soft and feels great against the feet. It is silky so you need to use wooden needles. On the downside, I found it a little splity, which I did not like. Also, the ribbing was kind of loose. I think it might be because the yarn is so slippery. I am not sure though. Also, I think it was supposed to stripe, but it didn’t. It was just sort of splotchy. I thought they were very pretty anyway, but The Girl wanted to know why I couldn’t wear normal socks when we got on the plane.
I am hoping to get caught up on some of my knitting. I will try to post some pictures of my new socks and the dishcloths I have been working on. I just wanted to post so people did not think I had left the country.
There have been a couple questions about the little critters I had posted a few weeks ago. They are knit, I only know how to knit. I can crochet a single crochet, but only as trim on my knitting etc. The bunny is a free pattern on Heartstring Fibers website. Here is the link: http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/bunny.shtm. I did not measure carefully and the head was a little smaller than the pattern so he looked really chubby. I still thought he was awful cute.
The lobster I bought on Esty from Crafty Alien: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=43812. She has a ton of other patterns too. I bought the Backyard Critters Vol I & III as well, but I have only managed to get the lobster done.

Black Sheep Review

I promised a review of Black Sheep. I did go see the 1st showing on Friday. I loved it. It was very funny and the sheep were lovely, except of course when they were mauling people. It is EXTREMELY gory. I took The Girl with because she said she wanted to go. I warned her it was going to be gory, but she pooh-poohed the idea. Had she not seen those Saw movies? (She saw them at her friends’ house; I had nothing to do with that decision.) Anyway, part way through she turned to me and asked to go home because she felt like she was going to barf. So if you have a queasy stomach, be warned, this movie may not be for you. That said, when the sheep attack people, they do not look very realistic. Although, there are real sheep eating what appears to be human entrails. I do not know how they got them to do it, but it is pretty funny, just because, well they’re SHEEP. The plot has to do with genetically altered sheep and a hero who is afraid of sheep. I must say, that sheep that is the “new” sheep breed, is a lovely sheep and I thought, oohh look at that lovely wool. Oh, and did I mention Weresheep?? Overall, if you like dark comedic horror movies and can appreciate sheep; this is a movie for you. Have fun and bring your knitting. I did.

Finished Objects

Here are the mini stuffies I made for a swap on Swap-Bot. It is a Lobster and a Chubby Bunny. I thought they turned out pretty good. I hope you enjoy them.

Just some random stuff

I was on my own earlier in the week. It was supposed to be all week, but The Girl called in tears and wanted to come home. So I gave in and went and picked her up at my brother’s. Last Friday DH and I picked 35 lbs of strawberries and I finally got them all cleaned yesterday. So tonight I intend to make some jam and finish freezing the rest. I know, you are all jealous.
Yesterday I went and saw “Live Free or Die Hard”. It was good. I could knit through the whole movie. There were some really good explosions. And, of course, it had that guy who plays the Mac on the Apple commercials. I think he is too cute! So it was a good movie, especially to go to on a hot fourth of July. I did not go see the fireworks because I have to work today.
I have some FOs, but I do not have the picture with me, so I will have to post it later.

I saw this Power of 4 Meme on http://knitorious.typepad.com/knitorious/ and I thought I would do it too.

4 Jobs I have had in my life (other than being a mother/aunt)
-- Nursing assistant
-- Learning Resource Clerk (at U of MN Library)
-- Legal Coder (basically data entry)
-- Buyer

4 films I can watch again and again
-- Jaws
-- The Godfather
-- The Godfather II
-- This is Spinal Tap

4 places I have lived
-- Kenyon, MN
-- Faribault, MN
-- Minneapolis, MN
-- Richfield, MN
I know the variety is stunning, but I hope to add another state someday.

4 TV series I watch
-- Lost
-- Supernatural
-- What not to Wear
-- House

4 places I have been on holiday
-- Ireland
-- New York City, NY
-- Aruba
-- Bonaire

4 things I do every time I go on the Net
-- Check my e-mail
-- Go to Swap-Bot
-- Read some knitting blogs
-- Check out the new headlines

4 things I would NOT eat for anything in the world
-- Haggis
-- Brains
-- Kidney pie
-- tongue (I do not want to eat anything that has been in someone’s mouth)

4 places I would love to be right now
-- Fondly yarn at a lovely LYS
-- Sitting on a beach, knitting
-- Scuba diving
-- At the movies

4 people to tag
- up for grabs, folks