She likes em....hey Mikey!

You super younguns wont get that one, but those of us over 30 understand. I'm not talking about Life cereal though, I am talking about Alex's socks. She loves them actually. I had to track her down to take a picture, because she didn't want to take them off.



Cute socks = Happy Alex!



That's a pic I took of her on the beach when we were camping last week. She's such a sweetie!

Last night we went over to my sweetheart of a mother-in-law's. I brought a little gift to her.



A couple of Mason Dixon dishcloths and a couple of potholders to match. I just tied em up with a tulle bow. She loved em! I love giving knitted gifts. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show you the finished baby sweater and hat! They are super cute, but I need to finish trimming them first.

PS - Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Awww....you guys are all so sweet!

The odds are against me!

The odds of me getting a post to publish with pictures today are slim to none I think. I have been trying for about 2 hours to upload photos! Grrrr....I am getting really crabby! Blogger you are ruining my birthday!!!!!!!!!!! (stomp, sniff, pound....hehe mini tantrum....I feel a little better now) Hopefully I will be back later with a real post!

Home again!

Home again! Jiggity Jig! (I hope my kids don't read that! They already think I am such a loser!)

We had a great time camping. I love being at Lake Michigan! The water was really warm and we had a great time swimming and stuff. However, I am really glad to be home and sleeping in a bed without sand in it! I also like my showers with enough water pressure to actually rinse off, and ahhhhh...the peace and quiet of home. I had up to ten teenagers in the camper at once a lot of the time. Let me tell ya, that gets old real quick! Lack of space and too many loud and obnoxious people do not mix! It is not fun stripping naked to change into your suit and just hoping some teenager won't walk in on you. Not fun at all! Or craving a Diet Coke so bad and opening the fridge to find out that those teenagers have finished off all 7 12-packs of your pop! Don't they know how addicted I am? And how crabby I get without it? Apparently not!

I also missed my knitting! I had very little time to knit. Talk about withdrawals! We were always doing something with our group and the knitting just didn't get done. I cannot wait to cast on for a pair of new socks. I wish I could decide on a pattern and yarn though...that is the hard part for me. Any suggestions? Any pattern that you just loved making?

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show you the 2 measly finished objects that I have. Right now I haven't the faintest idea where that camera could be......ahhh the joys of unpacking. Sigh....I hate this part of camping.

More great news!

My cousin had his brain surgery yesterday and the Dr. said it went great! It actually only took a couple of hours to get the tumor out and then another 1 1/2 hours to close. The tumor was actually bigger than they thought, more like softball size. HUGE! It was all contained with no "feelers" so they were able to get it all. The Dr. also said he is almost convinced it is not cancer. Needless to say, the family is rejoicing. He was sitting up talking, laughing, and joking with family members when he came out of recovery too. Praise the Lord!

I have a sleeve and a 1/2 to go on the baby sweater and I am about 1/2 way down the foot of Alex's socks. Between family stuff and packing for camping, my knitting time has been quite limited, so I am glad for any progress. I am taking several projects camping with me and hope to get some things done while I am gone.

The sweater and socks.


SOME of the camping projects!

We are going camping for a week. Usually we go for 2 weeks in a row but we decided not to this year. I'm a little bit glad. Sometimes 2 weeks can be a little too long. Plus, we won't be camping over my birthday this year. Believe me this is a good thing. Last year my friends um, "decorated" my trailer in honor of my birthday. It was not pretty!



There's me with my hideous, tacky, worse than a thrift store Christmas decorations all over my trailer. (and that is only part of it!) It took me like an hour to clean it all up. So yippee! I will celebrate my birthday at home this year with no embarassing stuff like this to deal with! Well off I go! We are leaving in a couple of hours. Back in a week! :)

Great news!

First of all, WE HAVE POWER AGAIN! Woo hoo! It finally came on about 12:30am this morning. We sure take things for granted until we don't have them anymore! I am so happy that life can get back to normal now.

Second, my cousin received good results from his body scan. They didn't detect anything suspicious anywhere else in his body. We were praying that this was the case, because it makes it much more likely that his tumor will not be cancerous. His surgery on Friday will still be very delicate and difficult to recover from, so we still need your prayers. I hope the surgeons are able to successfully remove it without damaging any part of his brain. Also, I hope that his brain does okay when it shifts back after removing such a large tumor. So many things can be affected, personality, motor function, speech, memory....yikes, none of which we would want to mess with. Thanks for all your emails, comments and prayers. I really appreciate every one!

I just received the Diamond Fantasy Shawl pattern as a gift from a friend. Wow is it gorgeous! I will be stash diving later to see if I have yarn for it. If you don't see me for a couple of days, will someone please come and pull me out?

Not a ton of knitting progress. Plugging away on Alex's socks (resisting casting on any others), and I restarted the baby sweater. It looks really cute so far. Pics tomorrow I hope!

No news

So far we haven't found out anything definite about my cousin. He had his body scan yesterday and the tech said she didn't see anything alarming, but we are still waiting for the doctor to confirm that. Keep praying for good news.

My aunts platelets are very low again and we are not sure why. She is also very stressed (no kidding right?), and seems a little confused and not herself. Again, keep praying.

I finished one of Alex's socks. They are super cute and she loves them so far. It shouldn't take me too long to finish the second one.



Happy colors, aren't they?! I think Bitsy might get a sock out of this yarn.

I may rip the baby sweater and start over. I am just not happy with it. Thankfully it is a small project and won't take too long to do over. I might even use a different pattern. I better hurry up though, or the baby will outgrow it before it is finished. I have to get some cleaning done today too, but that will be limited because we are without power. I am currently blogging on generator power. Hopefully full power will be back soon.

Maybe my goal for the day should be to NOT read any blogs. That way I would get a lot more done! :)

Apologies...again

Well my blogging self esteem is sagging, badly. Here I am apologizing again. I truly am sorry that the blog has been suffering. It is a combination of things really. It is summer for one thing and my schedule is all screwed up. I am not used to having kids home ruining my knitting concentration. Haha, I love my kids, and enjoy having them home, they are just not very good for the knitting. Our family is also going through some very rough times right now. I have mentioned that my aunt has cancer. She is starting to feel a little better after her heart attack scare and her numbers are looking good. However....we also just found out that her son, my cousin, (38 yrs old) has a very large brain tumor. Right now they are not sure what it is, but it is super scary anyway. They are confident that it is operable but will require a long, difficult recovery. We are praying that it is not cancer. There are even more things than this going on, but I won't go on. I don't want to have to rename my blog "A Little Bit of Whine".

The much awaited knitting content...(hehe, yeah right, like anyone was holding their breath for it)



I have been knitting believe it or not. I am still working on the Jaywalkers (although I am hating the yarn and I am not excited about them anymore because of it). I am positive my skein is a 2nd or mill end. There are just way too many frayed spots for it to be first quality. (I won it, so I have no idea for sure.) I have also started a baby sweater for a gift and a pair of cotton socks for my daughter. I hate it that I have no finished objects to prove it.

Maybe I have caught the knitting funk that seems to be spreading around blogland. I sure hope there is a cure! I would even willingly get a shot for it. (you don't even know how much I hate to get shots lol)

Happy stuff!

Here are the pics I promised. First the Petticoat socks:



I simply love them!

Second, my BEAUTIFUL gift socks from my friend Ann! What a sweetie she is. She cooked up the surprise with DD Alex. I love them and they fit perfectly! I am choosing to call them my early birthday present.

THANKS ANN!!!!

Hubby and I are off for a two day mini road trip. I smell yarn hehe. He always lets me buy souvenir yarn when we go off on a jaunt. Yippee! I wonder what I will find and where we will end up. Anyhoo, I know it will be fun!

Oh, before I go, have you seen that the new Magknits is up? More temptations! I think at some point I will definitely make this. (probably in pink too hehe, I just can't resist the PINK!)

Better!

I had a much better day today. Not a ton of progress to report, but still better. We were having the ducts in our house cleaned today which made it hard to knit. Talk about noisy! I also had my neice over, had to run some errands (including getting new needles for the stole), worked a little more on that laundry pile, and did some much needed cleaning. My aunt was in the hospital again, (they thought she had a mild heart attack) so I was on the phone a lot with family too. I did get a couple of inches done on my jaywalkers though. What an easy pattern! Only a 2 row repeat. Even I can remember 2 rows. I will have some pics tomorrow. My camera batteries are dead...even way dead, but I am charging them right now. I have a finished object and a very special gift I received to show you. Yes, a much better day!

!@#$$%^&*

Okay, now I am just MAD! I had the worst knitting day ever! (If you don't like the excessive use of exclamation points, run for your life right now!)

First off, I woke up with a headache. Not good. Then I decided to cast on for the mystery stole today. Yeah well, the needles I thought were 4's were really 5's, which resulted in a really sloppy looking inch or so. RIP IT! If that wasn't bad enough, I was looking for different needles to use, and do you think I can find one suitable circular needle? HECK NO! Well I am just ticked now. I look at my size 2 and 3 Addi's, and I am convinced they are the SAME SIZE!!! Now what? One says 2 and the other says 3 and according to my needle sizers, they are the same! Well you can bet I will be taking them to the LYS tomorrow to see what they have to say about it. Rant over? I don't think so....yeah, it gets worse!

Next on the rant list.....my Jaywalkers. I decided to use my new STR in Highway 30 to make a pair of Jaywalkers. I saw them on a blog and they were gorgeous. So I started some. ICK!!!!!! MAJOR POOLING!!!!!!!!! I HATE POOLING!!!!!! Waaah....the other blogger's pair didn't pool in that yarn. Not fair! (Yes I know I sound like I am 3 yrs old right now.) Rats. Start over. So I pick up a mystery color of CTH and start over with that. 2 rows in and there is a break in the yarn (except for one little strand). Oh my goodness! I am ready to cry.....boo and hoo and one more hoo. Now I'm going to have to rip again. (And you simply don't know how much I hate casting on and knitting that first row on a sock!) Want to come to my pity party? Haha, I forgot, you are already here. Sorry to have forced you to attend.

Sniff....I'll get over it. Pass me a tissue.

Come back tomorrow for better news. Really.

Back!

We got back from camping yesterday. I spent most of the day emptying the trailer and starting on the enormous mountain of laundry we managed to come home with. I think it will take me at least 3 days to catch up. My house is a disaster area thanks to bringing in all that stuff from the trailer. I love camping, but the first few days when we get home are nothing but a pain in my butt. Hopefully I will be able to knit and blog a little tomorrow. Thankfully we had a really good time, or I don't know if all this work would be worth it. Just thinking ahead two weeks (when we leave for another week of camping), makes me tired! Sigh.....

A camping we will go.....

YAY, today we leave for a week of camping on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. It should be a great time! (Don't worry, I definitely have not forgotten to pack some major yarn!!!!!!) Haha, I am even taking my ballwinder. Silly knitter me. I have at least 5 different projects packed, do you think that will be enough? I should be back in a week, probably a few pounds heavier, a little tanner (yikes, is that necessary!), and hopefully with a finished object or two. Have a great week everyone and a great 4th of July!