Mini Mom

Ever go get your haircut and tell your stylist to do whatever she thinks would be most attractive and then you come out looking just like your mother????
Dave says it's okay as long as I don't look like HIS mother, ha ha!!

That being said, it wouldn't be so bad if I grew up to be my Mom. Check out some of her knitting. she got ahold of the Patons Street 'something' book and knit the hoodie for herself and the Must-Have Cardie for The Oldest Sister Who Gets Everything ;)

Photos are courtesy of afore-mentioned Lucky Sister - they are photos of the view from The Beach House, here-after called Please-Let-Me-Call-It-My-Summer-House!

Adopted!

After all the worrying and my panic that I was going to have to turn Moses, the little kitten found outside our wool shop, into the Humane Society just to keep him out of the freezing temps (don't laugh! It really does get cold her sometimes) Judie agreed to adopt him today!

Just keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes well at the vet's office tomorrow and he tests negative for all the icky stuff. Judie has a friendly full grown cat at home named Monty, so we have to get Moses all cleaned up before he meets his new fambly!

I'm so excited that this affectionate little guy is going to have four walls, a roof and wrapping paper to rip to shreds on Christmas Day :)

New Paint

David and Pat re-painted the living room this week and I got a photo of the progress. I said 'warm colors' thinking that he would be watering down the paint anyways, so there was no way it would come out dark.........

Catching Up

There's a lot going on these days. But I've just got a couple of quick updates and pictures.

The kittens are doing well. I got a picture from Pollyanna's new dad and she's getting along well with her new Yorkie friend, Mushu. And, she's now called Fiona.

White Sox and Snickerdoodle (sometimes called Mittens) are growing in leaps and bounds and already have appointments to be "fixed" before Thanksgiving.

Here are two long-lost summer pictures. One from an impromptu Stitch-n-Pitch at a Daytona Cubs game with Susan and Sandy.

and one I like to call : Sandy Stitches

I started and finished my first project from Fitted Knits last week: the u-neck Back to School vest.

Oh yeah, and I knit and published my Margarita socks. With beads at the top for a 'salted rim' LOL!!

Brush with Harlotism

It finally happened. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee came to Florida! Thanks to Knitwitz in Jacksonville for organizing her visit and hosting a great night out.

Susan came up from Orlando and we drove together, stopping in St. Augustine first to initiate a yarn crawl. Alas, the Knitting Boutique was closed for vacation (talk about yer bad timing!) and we were forced to comfort ourselves with my first visit to Hobby Lobby. For a large chain, they had a really great selection. I was surprised to see the copycat sock yarn jacquards priced at $12 for a pair - for that much, I'll save more pennies and support my LYS.

So...onto the Ramada Conference Center we went and found a room filled with nearly 100 knitters all sitting patiently (as there was still another 90 minutes until Stephanie was speaking), knitting, chatting, comparing yarns, patterns, techniques, longest-commute and everyone wore a knitted item. One girl even had her jeans rolled up above her knees so we didn't miss a single row of her cool, funky socks.

I cast-on my Margarita Sock's mate and made it past the heel by the end of the evening. The sock was excited to see Stephanie, but um, Stephanie had like actual things to do and blesh her! she said a kind word to nearly everyone who had a book signed.

After the signing, we noshed at Steak n Shake and met a couple more knitters - this time from Hollywood (that's a 5-hour drive!) and then cruised on over to check out the yarn shop that started it all. Knitwitz was open until midnight and they were super sweet as Susan and I oohed and aahed over yarns we've never seen before. They didn't even rush us out - which was pretty darn cool since we were the last to leave.

I found my first Malabrigo

and discovered Oldfield Creek sock yarn - cool colors!!

It was a great night all-round and I'm so glad Susan was game to make the drive. We had a very memorable time and met some great knitters!

Project: Koozie!

(Recently turned) Six year-old Bobby was watching the Notre Dame game with his Dad this weekend when he realized that Dad was enjoying a refreshing beverage with a koozie around it and Bobby had NO koozie!!

Here's Dad's koozie:

Here's the only koozie in the house that might possibly fit Bobby's cup:

Not only was it GIRL colors, but it was too tall and Bobby was afraid he would be drinking more yarn than rice milk. Enter clever knitter with her needles and boy-colored yarn. Given an evening and half a morning and she came up with this:

Very manly, well-fitting and just in time for next-weekend's football viewing. It made for one happy Bobby!

Snickerdoodle Needs a New Name

Gosh, she's cute! And Snickerdoodle is a great tag for a kitten, but what's a better-fitting ladycat name?

Any ideas?

p.s. Do you like my official Kitten Sleeping Pads? I never thought I'd be so excited to knit cotton, but I've endowed everyone I can get ahold of with knit dishclothes - looooove me some Peaches & Creme!

Feline Subterfuge

So much to catch up on!

2 months ago, I completed my first crochet project. With the help of my sister Helen, I made a blanket for Jennifer's first baby. She'll need a lot of help keeping warm in Canada.

3 Weeks ago, I rescued 5 gorgeous kittens. 3 have been adopted so far (2 to my niece and nephew - my brother-in-law is delighted! LOL)

2 weeks ago, I lost my job. Luckily, Dave was flying in that night for a 10-day visit. We had lots of time to make plans for the future and spent the week of Tropical Storm Fay decompressing and playing with kittens at my sisters house. My niece found interesting ways to torture Squeak (a boy!)

The last two kittens are still with me and Squeak is making his mark on my latest sock project. The first Undulating Rib Sock (from Favorite Socks book) went well and the stretchy cotton yarn is stretchy enough to fit His Royal Large-footednessThey've batted around at my knitting before, but I was shocked to see he'd chewed through the yarn in mere seconds. Kitten teeth are great! Who needs scissors?!

So, now I'm off to plan the future.....socks, husband in Germany, new home for two gorgeous ginger kittens and any other trouble I can find along the way!

Look, Ma! I'm Spiraling!

Busy, busy, busy!

Though I have forayed into the dark-side of crochet (pictures later!) I haven't given up knitting or blogging. Just an eensy hiatus on the blogging thing as I get my Ravelry account and, um... oh yeah....life in general up and running.

I'm working for a German company in Florida (rough assignment, I know) renting a house with a pool, visiting my family on the weekends and keeping my hands busy in-between the Irishman's visits (NOT what you're thinking, I'm keeping my hands busy with knitting!! sheesh)

I'll admit a big sigh of relief living within sprinting distance of a Target, Barnes and Noble and LYS - ah, retail...isn't that what life's all about. Things in Germany were super quaint and the cheese and beer were really, REALLY good. I miss some great people, but there's NO PLACE like home. I'll be back visiting this summer and hopefully scooching in a friend's wedding in Scotland.

Now, onto the good stuff....a photo of my current knitting project. I found three lovely colours of Lion Brand's Organic Cotton at A.C. Moore and started a Mason-Dixon log cabin blanket. Unbeknownst to my inner-nerd, when you log-cabin with three colours, it spirals!!! How cute is that??

Just A Little Favour

Hi Sweetie,
Not to bother you, but could you please wake up and check if I left my ball winder over with you in Germany? Yes, I know it's 3 am over there. It'll just take a second and then you can go back to sleep and forget this all happened.
But, talk about your brownie points! Just have a quick little look and then I can stop tearing my sister's house apart cupboard by cupboard. I could swear I just saw it a week or so ago, but now it's nowhere to be found and I'm not so sure and I really need to wind something and it has to be now, RIGHT NOW!!
Thanks darling, yes I love you , too and no, this won't ever happen again and yes, I do owe you big time and I know it's not fair to think that you would even know where to look in that big house and I don't blame you for not looking for even just a tiny little bit longer, possibly if it somehow landed in the kids room?? No, of course. Go back to sleep and I'll just knit something else. Sorry to bother, talk to you tomorrow.......

I needed a new one, anyway!

Turkey - Not just for Thanksgiving anymore.....

We had a brilliant visit to Turkey over the Christmas holidays! Below are some pictures of Pamukkale with it's white cliffs and Roman ruins during our 2-day excursion.

Our hotel room in Pamukkale was not without charm. We were given a room with two separate beds and the bedside table was bolted to the wall between them. I approached reception after 3 cocktails and explained that we had a boyfriend/girlfriend room and was it possible to have a husband/wife room??? She said, "oh! you want a french bed." It made me feel naughty and exotic all at the same time! This was the sign on the inside of our door:

Speaking of signs, here was the sign over the door to the dining room. We finally found her! I've been waiting to see "Mary" all my life ;)

On the trip back to the seaside, we stopped at a rug factory, where they demonstrated spinning and knotting the wool. I nearly choked at the sight of a real Turkish spindle spinning wool by a Turkish hand - cool!!! They were miffed at my enthusiasm for the spindle over any of their rugs(even though the picture is embarrassingly blurry, you can see the grin on the lady's face) and wanted so badly to sell me anything, that they offered me her spindle for 200 Euros -shah!)

Here is the room for spinning silk!

In the end, we bought some cool cushion covers and I was to remain empty handed on the yarnie/spinner side of things. Until, we visited the city of Antalya (here-after known as The Official Acrylic paradise!). I'm hunting up pictures of my shopping adventure. More soon.......

Guilt-Ridden Post

I have so much to update about, but so little time (living in Florida for work, looking for a decent used car (big laugh there!) staying with my sister in our New Combined Yarn Studio Where I Sleep, attending a family Thanksgiving for the first time in 4 years and all sorts of stuff). Until my brain functions enough to allow me some time to type, entertain yourself with pictures of Erika in her new Tofutsies Sockies that she got for Christmas from The Best Aunt in the World and a photo from my Mom (not OF my Mom, just from my Mom).

The Pre-Christmas Party Dance Night

I'm starting to like this new job :)

p.s. since the movie's ending drove me nuts, I went out and bought the Golden Compass trilogy and I have to recommend it whole-heartedly.