Summer is almost over

And it's been a busy/hectic/traumatic/wonderful summer at that. Lot's of news to catch up on here. I lost some pets this year, my dog Mandy, and 2 of my beloved feathered friends ZooZoo my blue and gold macaw, and my timneh african grey Zoey. That's all I can say about that, or the floodgates will open again....

I got to go back to Arizona to help my Mom move from her apartment into a house my Sister and Brother in law purchased for her to live in. I did get to help finish the house, laying tile, caulking new windows, and tearing down the pool filter and repairing that. And the tile around the top of the pool hadn't been cleaned in a long time, so I got to spend 3 days with a pumice stone and removed all the built up mineral deposits. I was there for about 2 days and she ended up in the hospital with what we thought was pneumonia, but turned out to be a COPD exacerbation, a build up of acid in her bloodstream, and a dangerous drop in both sodium and potassium levels. She was in the hospital for 9 days, so I extended my stay for another week to help finish the house for her. It's a beautiful place, that basically got gutted by my brother, and rebuilt by everyone and anyone that could help out!! Nice Job Guys!!! Mom was in the house 1 night and I had to call 911 when she woke me with chest pains... back in the hospital we go. She's fine now, doing well and LOVING the house!! Thank God for small miracles.

I packed my oldest off for her first year of college at Loyola. I did quite well until about 3 weeks before she left, I saw a Wal-Mart commercial that reduced me to tears.... would I have that "wal-mart moment"?? As it turns out, no. No run down the steps with one last hug for Mom... or Dad... or her sister who she finally bonded with this past year. She was off and running her own life in college.

Why do I feel like I offered her up on a silver platter to any dangerous thug in the world to do with what they want?!?!! Normal.. I keep telling myself this is normal... I should concentrate more on the feelings of pride and accomplishment!!! I have busied my self with painting any room in my house that does or doesn't need new paint to keep my head clear. She's a great kid, with a good head on her shoulders. She's smart, and beautiful and she's got great goals set out for herself. She's pre-med bio, going into the medical field somewhere.

My youngest has learned to drive... good God how do parents survive this stuff??!!! I know how I did it... margaritas before lessons!! It worked out pretty well, she is a good driver who knows her limits. She got her sisters car since she's away and won't need it now. She's signed up for 'early bird' at school, so she is up and out the door before anyone else in the house is even awake. Kudo's Kiddo!! You are on the right path in life too!!

On the knitting /fiber front, I am on my 3rd pair of Monkey Socks by Cookie A. I adore this pattern and can't wait to see how my yarns knit up!! I'm picking up my Lady E the 2nd to work on again, now that summer is almost over and it's cooling down a bit. I'll have to refresh my memory how to do entrelac, but thankfully I have my pattern in the bag (yes, my little laminated index cards) with my spot marked on where I left off.

I also went to my very first Fiberfest!! I better get my butt back on eBay and start selling off more crap so I can have more money for this hobby... I love my knitting, and I love my spinning, but it isn't cheap. My wonderful, crazy cousin came up just for this fiberfest, and we had a blast!! We got up at the crack of dawn (ok, it just felt like it..)and drove an hour and 20 min. in a freakish storm that followed us all the way up there. The wipers were going full force and I was secretly wondering if I should pull over for a bit to see if it would slow down. Once we passed the spun out corvette, the rain let up a bit and it pretty much stopped 10 min. outside the fest area. We spent about 6 hrs on our feet, walking, oogling, touching yarns and talking to some of the nicest people on the planet!!!

I thought I had everything I needed, until I saw the raw fleece.... OMG it's just what I have been looking for! I wanted to take a project from the very beginning to the very end, and now I can!!! Knitters/Crocheters are the best!!! I'm just sorry I won't be able to go down to Linda's place for SAFF (banging head on floor, crying, screaming,... ok whining!)
So that my friends is what I have been up to, work, play, spin, knit: repeat!! I'll try to edit with pictures, wish me luck ;)

Dieing, Dyeing, and Spinning out of control.

This is 'my Mandy', she was a great friend and constant companion for my new puppy... who am I kidding, she was a constant companion for ME!!! She passed away peacefully with me petting her, kissing her, and comforting her while they anesthetized her. She was 9 yrs. old, had both knees replaced, had degenerative disc disease, but still chased bunnies in my backyard! She was in heart failure and the vet said we can put her on meds that might work, but she'll be on them for the rest of her life. The decision was made to put her down April 23rd. The day after what would have been my Dad's 73rd Birthday had he lived that long. Dad, meet Mandy....... On Mothers Day, my family asked me what I wanted, and I said I wanted time to dye roving! So that's what I did! I dyed some roving to see what it would spin up like. I have yarn spun, but I figured if I screw it up, at least it's not a huge loss. I used the micro method, and Wilton's icing colorings and played with color to see how they blended. I felt like a kid that just discovered finger paints!! The only thing that kinda freaked me out a little was the popping sounds in the micro. I don't know if it was the wool, the icing/vinegar/water mix, or a combination of them all but something was popping in there! So I did less time (minute and a half) and more time cooling. And this is what I ended up with. Big bold bright colors!! I do like the copper color though. I may go up and see if they have a big honkin jar of that stuff. It has 'light skin tone' on the top of the jar, so it must be a big seller for cake decorators. Anyway, that's what I have been doing since 'My Mandy' passed away.Spinning, and knitting! This is my wheel, it's a Louet S10 older generation. I got her on eBay for $150.00 from a woman in Ohio who had listed it 27 minutes prior to me 'buying it now'! Woot! What a deal!! I have had to replace the treadle/footman connector, and also the leather over the flier brake. But it spins just fine and it was a great price to pay. So if I am not knitting, I am spinning..... out of control.

Hells Bells will it never end?

So my kids come home for spring break sick. Of course being the little germ spreaders they are ,I get sick. Not too bad, little scratchy throat for a couple days, some sinus pain and pressure for 2 days, mild cough, nothing productive or scary (bronchitits=scary) I wake up monday morning not being able to take a deep breath....I'm thinking it's sore muscles from all the coughing over Easter. Tuesday morning, I just can't breath unless they are shallow breaths... so I go off huffing and puffing to the dr. office. He takes one look at me and his eyes go kinda funny looking and he calls for his nurse to come in with the ekg machine, glances back at me and says "I just have to make sure you don't have something life threatning going on here" So I start huffing and puffing a little quicker.... think beginning lamaze :he he he who: he he he who! Too bad I won't end up with a newborn out of this!! :-/ Then it's off for a chest x-ray down the street, and a wait for a call from him. He takes my cell # and tells me he'll call me within 2 hrs. Well he called me back in about 45 min and tells me to head over to the ER to get a ct scan, there is something in my lower lobe of my left lung (and this is what I get for stopping smoking?!?!!) {41 days and counting} Thankfully I didn't have to be admitted, but it still took a little under 8 hrs to come up with a diagnosis of LLLP Left lower lobe pneumonia. Now I don't know about you, but I thought pneumonia comes with a cold... a big nasty sloppy cold, lots of snot, lots of congestion. And it's NOT painful! Wrongo bucko... it can be a slight case of the sniffles that just migrate into your lungs and it is so freaking painful!!! I have had numerous surgeries, spontanious pnumothorax (collapsed lung out of the blue) and I'll tell you I was beginning to think this was another lung collapse! FARK!!! Looking up at God..... Haven't I done enough of this crap already??......

Hey, I guess I am here for a reason.... I must not have knit enough.....

Where has the time gone??!!!!!

WOW! Jan. 16th was my last post to this blog! I can't believe it.... my, oh my, how time flies when you are knitting!! I just finished my Lady Eleanor, and with confirmation from Cory and Trisha at Nana's Knitting Shop that I didn't ruin it during blocking, I can relax and tie knots for the next day or so!
Let's see, what else have I been doing other than dreaming of what to knit next?? My husband and I, along with a co-worker of his drove to Starved Rock State Park a couple weekends ago. We had heard that there were American Bald Eagles that winter over at the park. Who woulda thunk it? Bald Eagles less than an hour and a half from my house!!! Joe gave my husband great advice on purchasing a camera for my last birthday, so we went to take some pictures of these "supposed eagles" that were rumored to be there. Holy crapola!! We weren't out of the car 2 minutes and we scared our first eagle out of the tree we parked under!! We watched as this magnificent bird swooped down and picked a fish right out of the water not 30 feet in front of us and flew off to the nest. Every single one of us was beaming from ear to ear!! I had goosebumps most of the day.... not from the cold, but seeing these birds. At the end of the day (trekking over the ice) we probably saw between 25-30 eagles. What a great adventure it was!! The very next day, just the hub and I took off for downtown Chicago to see the lake that we had heard was frozen solid. Mmmhhmm.... skeptics that we are we had to see it for ourselves before it warmed up. (yea, warm in feb. is like hell freezing over!) The pictures I got speak for themselves. The ice was on average 4 inches thick. The next day on the news there was a reporter standing in the exact place we were and the whole lake was shifting with the waves underneath, so I guess we have impeccable timing!

Bengali anyone???

My cousin is looking for some yarn from the Queensland collection called Bengali, color 01. I don't know what she's working on exactly, but now she's peaked my interest!! If anyone knows where this yarn is hiding please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you asap.

Thanks in advance!

Do you write patterns???

I saw this awesome cabled beret on a girl at a Loyola college visit. I didn't (woulda, coulda, SHOULDA!) ask if she knit it herself or bought it somewhere....

Anywho, it's available at a retail store, and I MUST knit it for myself!! Here's a photo, if anyone can get/write a pattern for it I would be forever grateful!!

I know it's a slouchy beret, she had it pulled over her ears and it still hung down in the back, almost past her coat collar.

Seriously knitters... I NEED this hat!

Yarn SALE!!!

So Nanas Knitting Shop has a sale today and tomorrow. I'm up early so I can go get my blood drawn, and a bone density test (I'm old ya' know!) When I get back home, I have just enough time to find all available cash, and a couple checks signed over to me. I hit the bank, cash the checks and I'm off to Nanas!!!
It's a dreary day in Chicago today, 33 with some kind of drizzly/sleet coming down. The drive takes me about 35 min. and my head is spinning before I get there! So much yarn..... and so little money!! I pick out 2 sock yarns (I hear they don't count as part of your stash!! ((SWEET!!)) Sockotta that forms a pattern as you knit. Perfect for new sock knitters, because it looks like you knit that awesome pattern, when all you did was knit!! I got 3 skeins of "recycled silk" yarn.... I don't know why it's called recycled, it looks pretty awesome just as it is!! I'm going to pick up the porcupine, and knit this in the round (pictures of my struggles will follow this project!) I also picked up the softest, slinkiest soft twist rayon that has a whopping 525 yrds in ONE SKEIN!! Yeah!! That will be my next sweater... as soon as I finish the kimono sweater. And while I was waiting in line to find out the total damages for this shopping spree... I spied a basket full of silk.... mmmmmmm silk!! So soft it feels like a cloud! I grabbed the last 4 skeins of a creamy yellow. I don't know what I'll do with that yet either, but I'm sure in my pattern library there is something screaming for silk!!!
There are some very nice ladies at this shop, if you are in the area (or out!) it's well worth a nice drive to go see them!! Even other customers are the most friendly people! On my way out the door, I stop to look at this yarn that had a beautiful shimmer woven in... and that tweed... aaahhhhh.... It will have to wait for another day, after I save up my spare change for a while.
Time to cast on... and on, and on, and on!!!
Thanks Tricia!!! I'll be back!

Happy Birthday??

So for my birthday last month, my hubby asks me what I want to do. I tell him, I found this awesome looking shop online that is local and I want to go see it and buy some cool sock yarn. So in a blizzard warning, we set off to see the shop. I walk in the door, and can barely breath.... there, upon the walls, is shelf after shelf of the most beautiful yarns I have ever seen.... (darn why did I have to have him with me!) I will have to summon the self control goddess and have her hold me back!! The shop is very nice, with the most helpful women that answer my questions and help me pick out yarn for a project I had seen on their site. Oh, but wait! I wanted to get sock yarn!! They gladly show me the sock yarns and I see it and want it all!!! Summoning the goddess once again, I pick out 2 skeins.. no wait, make that 3 skeins, that will be enough to get me 2 pairs of socks when I am ready to go for it. Dang it, the scarf I want to make isn't a tear off sheet (like the local craft stores) it's in a book! OOoohhhh BOOKS!!! I'll take Scarf style, and omg.. what is that wrap hanging there?? It's fantabulous!! Can I get the pattern and (sneaking a peek at the hubby...) I'll need yarn to make that too!! I walk out of the shop with bags of yarn and books to create the most beautiful things. On the drive home, I have my hands in the bags..... the yarn is so beautiful and soft... I can't wait to get my needles and cast on everything!!!
Exhausted from this trip to the wondrous yarn shop, I take a nap (post surgery does that) and when I wake up my yarn is MIA!!! "Where is my yarn at??!!!!" I ask.... And then the words come from my dh (dear/darn/da*#) hubby... oh, I wrapped it for Christmas.... it is your Christmas present right??

Happy Birthday to me.....

I am sooooo NORMAL!!

I'm relatively new to knitting (2.5 yrs) and absolutely new to blogging! After finding and reading knitters blogs, I can say, I am a NORMAL knitter!! I have to touch yarn. I have enough yarn to wrap the earth twice over, and enough patterns that my grandchildren will never knit them all. Yippee Skippy I am a normal knitter!!
Some lessons I have learned.... frog means to rip out your knitting and start over.... (do NOT put said sweater in the donations bag!!) Buy at least 2 skeins of yarn (preferably 3) when you find something you just have to have!! What can you knit with one skein?? Other than a skinny scarf to go along with the 36 others you have!!
I hope to finish my second sweater in the near future, it's knit in 3 pieces. The back and arms are done (it's a kimono sweater) and the left front piece is finished. The right front I just started adding stitches for the sleeve. So, after finishing (block, and sew) I have to pick up stitches all the way around all openings and knit a ribbed edge. Maybe by spring??
I'm looking for new knitters, especially ones struggling as I am with that little porcupine named "dpn"....