Sailing away.....

Yupp, that's me. Tomorrow morning we are leaving very early for a short cruise. Steve and I celebrated our 20th anniversary this week, yay, so now we are taking off for a little rest and relaxation. Bahamas and Grand Turk here we come!

I have a lot of knitting packed, so I don't get bored on the plane or at the airport. I started a pair of felted clogs (Fiber Trends pattern) for my sister. I have yarn along for a pair for my mom too. I thought they would be nice Christmas presents. I am also bringing the pink Trekking socks, and yarn for another pair, just in case. Wow not too ambitious am I?

Sorry I didn't get a chance to update more this week. I was catching up from musical, Thanksgiving was in there, and I spent the rest of the time doing laundry and packing. I promise I will be more faithful posting (and commenting on your blogs) when I get back. Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be back sometime on Thursday.

Hard for a talker to do!

One

Word

Meme

No

Exceptions

and

No

Cheating

(stolen from Jenn)
1. Yourself: Silly
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): Sweet
3. Your hair: Fine
4. Your mother: Loving
5. Your Father: Special
6. Your Favorite Item: Yarn
7. Your dream last night: Forgotten
8. Your Favorite drink: Diet Coke
9. Your Dream Car: Pilot
10. The room you are in: Office
11. Your Ex: Non-existent
12. Your fear: Heights
13. What you want to be in 10 years? Alive?
14. Who you hung out with last night? Family
15. What You're Not: Boring
16. Muffins: Poppyseed
17. One of Your Wish List Items: Laptop
18. Time: 9ish
19. The Last Thing You Did: Walked
20. What You Are Wearing: Jeans
21. Your Favorite Weather: Sunny
22. Your Favorite Book: Bible
23. The Last Thing You Ate: Cornbread
24. Your Life: Content
25. Your Mood: Happy
26. Your best friend: Sis
27. What are you thinking about right now? Tomorrow
28. Your car: Honda
29. What are you doing at the moment? Sipping
30. Your summer: Short
31. Your relationship status: Married
32. What is on your TV? House
33. What is the weather like? Cold
34. When is the last time you laughed? Tonight
35. Who do you tag? Anyone

P.S. I made a pair of slippers for my nephew. Today my sis tells me that all of a sudden his feet are huge. Crap. I may have to rip out the toes and lengthen them before felting.

Sorry, I will try to have a better post later this week. I am still doing laundry from the musical. I am also preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday. (thank goodness I don't have to do the turkey!) I need to pack too! We leave for vacation on Sat. Yikes, will the busyness never end?!

Oh What FUN!

I went to dress rehearsal last night. It was so much fun. They did so well. I think the costumes turned out wonderfully. For all of you who I promised, here are the pics!!!



That gives a pretty good idea of what the pirates looked like. The pirate king is on the far right. He looks spectacular in his costume. He also did very well on all his parts.



A daughter shot. The one with her arm up is mine. She was singing one of her solos here. She did a good job tonight. Hopefully it will go as well for the rest of the performances!



Another shot of the daughters, with the two of the leads on the left. The one in the center of the trio is L again.

I can't wait to go again tonight. They sound and look awesome. Our school has some major talent I think!

I haven't done a lot of knitting. I started on the next pair of slippers for my nephew. Hopefully I will get them done by the weekend.

Girly Girl and Duh!

I finished knitting some slippers for my neice. She is such a girly girl. She loves frou-frou, glitz, ruffles, well pretty much all things girly. I think she will like these.



I need to felt them yet, but don't they look cute already!

And, hehe, they will match perfectly with the little bag I made for her.



Double cute eh? When I catch up on my laundry I will felt them. Then I just need to sew a little button on the bag, and waalaa, one Christmas present done!

By the way, can ya all wish me some extra brain power? The musical seems to have eaten all of mine. Case in point: I received a note home from P's teacher asking for some corn muffins. Their class is having a Thanksgiving feast on Tues Nov 21. So last night I am thinking at musical....tomorrow is Tues...do I have to do anything tomorrow? Corn muffins popped into my head (the Tues thing is what got me). So I come home and bake corn muffins at 10pm. Yes 10pm. Um, duh, this morning it hits me that they are not due until next week. (Insert entire body blush due to extreme embarassment here.) Yeah, stupid, stupid, stupid! Please, someone out there, fess up that you once did something kind of flaky. At least I didn't send them to school......then I would have received the queen of stupid award. Grrrr!

Duh. Yupp, just duh.

P.S. I hope nobody snorted coffee out of their nose, while laughing at me.

A breather....

Today I am taking a breather from musical stuff. I was literally busy all day and all night every day this week with costumes. We had a minor crisis with the lead's dress, but it is fixed now and looks much better! We still have a few last minute things to do next week, but today and tomorrow I will try not to think about any of it. I need a break! By the way, thanks for all your encouraging comments! (and thanks for not leaving lol)

I have done very little knitting. I am still on the gusset decreases of the pink Trekking sock. I have only been able to sneak in a few rows (sigh). Oh well, only one week to go, and then I will have knitting time again. A few of the projects I won't be able to blog about (secret stuff), but I hope to start my Christmas knitting during Thanksgiving week. I'm getting a little nervous about getting it all done. I want to make about 5 pairs of felted slippers for family members. I know they don't take long, but 5 pairs, yikes! I have that secret stuff to do too. I will have to knit like crazy!

Well I am off to catch up on laundry. I'm sure I will be at it all day. I hope that pile doesn't swallow me alive lol. It is almost bigger than me! (not kidding...really!) I will try to get a few rows of knitting in too!

Only

This is the only thing I have been working on, but oh is it making me happy!

What happy yarn! It's Trekking color #05.

A sock is all I have had time to work on. I sneak in a few rows here and there, and I am making pretty good progress. I started it on the way to dinner Monday night and I am already on the heel flap. It is my on-the-go project.

I am so far behind on everything else. Last night I left for the musical at 3pm and didn't get home until after 8pm. Yikes! My house is a disaster! My laundry pile is multiplying like bunnies, and I have no hope of making a dent in it today...sigh. Later this morning we are fixing dresses, running to borrow some pirate boots from another school, and shopping the thrift stores for a few last minute props. Tonight we will be gone all night to practice again. Last night I fixed at least 5 fancy hats, pinned everything in sight, and so far we have only covered one of the outfits that the cast is wearing. There at least 2 more to go, OH MY!!!!!! (I can do this, I can do this, I can do this!)

I will not think about the fact that I have barely started my Christmas knitting. Oy!

A different focus

Because I haven't been working on socks (the toe-ups have still not been mastered lol), my other knitting projects have been growing.

I have been making good progress on the prayer shawl.



I have about 10 inches to go, which shouldn't take too long if I get any decent knitting time. A friend of mine finishes all her prayer shawls with an i-cord edging, and I think I may try it for this one. A nice finished edge would be a nice change from fringe, especially with Homespun yarn. This yarn frays very quickly, and I want this shawl to stay looking nice for a while for my friend. I would feel terrible if it started looking yucky right away. Let's just hope I don't hate knitting i-cord edging as much as I hate making i-cord hehe.

I also made some progress on my Swallowtail shawl. (yeah, I know, we haven't heard about this shawl for ages)



I pinned it out a little, but I think it will look much better when pinned out properly for blocking. I hope to get through this main part of the body soon, so I can move on to the next lace pattern. I wish working with laceweight yarn went faster for me. At least I am smart enough to use lifelines. If I hadn't, this would be a giant pile of frogged yarn. A couple of times I needed to rip out about 4-5 rows because I dropped a stitch and couldn't get it picked back up right. Whew, so thankful I didn't have to start over completely!!!!!!

I picked up this fun little surprise at the grocery store the other day.

No, I didn't need it, but I am a sucker for these shiny little booklets. Plus, who could resist those little booties? Awww....

Well wish me luck. I have a lot of costume stuff to do this week for the musical. Performances are next week, so right now we are putting the final finishing touches on all the costumes, making sure everything looks good together, and doing last minute repairs, changes, fittings, etc. Let's just hope nobody rips a sleeve off or something. I have to be at a few rehearsals too, so this week will be very busy! I may have to cast on a sock (cuff down maybe? snort). That way I will have a portable little project to carry along, just in case I can sneak in a few rows here and there. I will try to get some pictures too!

P.S. Thank you blogger for being so fast today, however, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't eat my first draft ever again.

Note to self

Toe-ups are not fun.

Me and the toe-ups......
we are not friends.

We may never become friends.

They don't like me.
I don't like them more.

My precious first skein ever of Koigu has been frogged at least 5 times. I have almost cursed way more times than that. I will only do these again if absolutely necessary. (as in only if it is life and death)

Currently I am trying the turkish cast on. It is going okay. Although if I were knitting a cuff down sock, I would have 1/2 a leg done by now. Just sayin. What do you toe-up people see in this method besides being able to use every bit of yarn? It is so fiddly. More than fiddly. Pain in my butt fiddly.

I am a cuff down girl. Period.

I will not let the toe-ups beat me. I will win. And then I will cackle with glee. And tell myself that they were only for a challenge, I mastered it, so now I don't have to do them again. It will be a lie. The truth is....
so far I just hate them.

Dang how I wish those Sodera knee socks were cuff down. Pout.

Pictures I hope!

Well we will see if Blogger is playing nice today. Nope. Of course not. That would be too much to ask. So I will continue to write this posts in shifts, and pray it actually lets me load all my pics. So far I have tried about 30 times (ok, now updated to at least 50, and 3 pics is all you get today. I have had enough!). I think my eye is twitching now grrr....

Anyhoo.....
The hat I told you about yesterday: (Haha this pic is so gumpy. I will try to get a better one later!)


Very simple. Two little gray stripes. He loves it. That's all that matters!

I am also working on a prayer shawl for a friend of mine. She requested one at Bible study one day, so I am going to surprise her with it.



I am using Homespun yarn (not my favorite by a long shot) because that is what she liked. I am using the standard prayer shawl pattern, nothing fancy. I hope she likes the color I chose for her.

I am also working on some socks out of Cherry Tree Hill sportweight yarn. I am still on the first sock....sigh.



Yeah, normally I would have had these done by now. Why, you ask, am I making like no progress? Because I simply hate hate hate this yarn. I normally love CTH yarn, but this sportweight is a whole different animal. It feels like you are knitting with the cruelest cotton imaginable. My hands kill after just a few minutes with it. It says it is still superwash merino, but you would never know it when knitting with it. I don't know if I can even bear to finish these. Maybe I should save it for a future baby hat and booties or something, just so I don't have to deal with it anymore right now. I do have that knee socks yarn waiting lol. (But I am so chicken to try toe-ups. Can ya all send me some bravery?!!!)