Saturday, June 24, 2006

Saturday, June 24




I can't believe it's the end of June already! Amazing!
I "survived" Talent on Parade Nationals...dancers danced well, brought home 2 Top 2nds and 3 1sts, so all is okay. I knitted 3 hats and started a Woolease boot sock for a friend during the 5 days in Des Moines, Iowa. Friend Terri is an awesome navigator...we found several shopping centers and used bookstores (her passion)...I didn't even look for yarn stores, as I'm still on self-imposed embargo until my birthday July 30th. We ate some very nice dinners, a delicious soup and salad bar at "Crystal Tree", split a nice reuban so we could each have PIE at Perkins, split a chicken/avacado salad sandwhich so we could each have CHEESECAKE at Cheesecake factory, and several very late night breakfasts at Perkins when comp didn't get out until 11pm and there was nothing else around. On the way home we stopped at the Mad Greeks in Lawrence (no, I didn't even go down the block to Yarn Barn), where I had spinach pie and tiramisu...yum....trying to be very sensible about what I eat this week!

Limping around with a strained medial ligament on my left knee..boy oh boy does that hurt! I am planning to do some cleaning and a little non kneeling yard work this am, then sit and ice it while knitting on the 2nd sock. After working with all wool, the woolease doesn't feel quite so nice.

I bought some colored pencils and am going to print out knitting graph paper and color out the pattern for the pink hat...I'm quite proud of that one...my own "design" .

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

AGGREVATIONS

Aggrevation doesn't begin to describe it.
1)I have to put about $1500 into my 1993 van because a/c blew out and took some stuff with it. I have road trips to make or I'd just let it be, don't really need air going from house to studio or house to wal-mart. Has to be done in time for me to leave for nationals.
2) my studio credit card got hacked, account has been blocked, can't get me a new card in time for me to leave for nationals.....grrr
3) bogus charge on my phone bill... a $5.52 charge for directory assistance from ILD Services, got it taken off but still....
4) too much to do, to little time to do it...
5) computer locks up every blasted chance it gets! We have paid for the windows "upgrade" to "genuine" ... it was genuine, but it's a long story...anyhow, we've paid but haven't had time to do it, and until we get it done, I'm basically handicapped.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Rainy Day Monday

It's pouring down rain this am, good for plants, bad for plans!
Festival is over, we did our jobs, had fun, I bought a piece of art for the studio, a little glass fused piece that says dance that artist is making for me...she had bliss and serentity and stuff like that but said she'd make me a dance one. Only $36 which was well under my self-imposed $50 art budget. First year I bought a heart and stars hanging, 2nd year a drawing of a ballerina, and now this....each a different style..fun. When daughter returns camera and I get the item I'll post a photo of it.

Working on my Rock and Weave STR club sock...not sure I like it at all, but it's a learning experience for sure..learned linen stitch and picot bind off. Also learned an i-cord bind off through helping a friend, quite sure that's much more trouble than it's worth!

Working on a little girl hat in a "design" of my own...doing it on the fly without drawing or color ing on charts so not sure how it will turn out..the hearts band is pretty, we'll see about the flower band...again...no camera!

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Hot hot hot

Festival was soo hot yesterday! I drank tons of water, 1 diet doctor pepper, 32 oz of powerade.
For brunch I ate an apple dumpling (yum) whjich was an apple baked in a piecrust wrapping with cinnomon etc in side, kind of a one person apple pie!, for lunch a "European Stuffed Seafood Sandwich"...what I would call a calzone with shrimp, onions, peppers etc ... it was very good, a roasted ear of corn with lime pepper for snack, for dinner I had a chicken and artichoke gyro which was also good and for late night I had a chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick! ooo so good! ( know you are wondering how I have had time to knit or look for lost youn'uns. ) I have spilled something on myself each day so far. Our shirts are "safety green" which is kind of a floresecent glo yellow...Friday it was the salsa my Indian Taco was swimming in, and a mystery black spot, yesterday some of the cranberry drink Carol had....those little packets of flavoring that go in your water...well, Carol found "sparks" a caffenatied cranberry flavor..good but too strong for both of our tastes, we kept drinking a little and adding more water, and a mystery spot that may have been chocolate! Shout took out all but yesterdays mystery spot..fortunately it's little and on the pocket. We have 2 shirts each, but hubby has been dropping both in washer and dryer when we come home each evening, and I've decided since this one already has a stain that didn't come out, I'd just keep wearing it as I'm sure I'll spill something else today!

Finished a childs sized checks and charms hat, and STILL have wool left over so will make another but change up the colors, I think I'll start with the pink this time. I am ready for the 8 rows of leg then heel of the STR club socks...it's an interesting technique, one that I'm not sure I'll repeat again,but I have learned how to do the linen stitch, which I'm thinking would make a great strap! or dense fabric for a little phone or ipod case. have a phone...no ipod.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Festival!

Yesterday was the 1st day of River Festival. I work the Lost and Found booth with my husband's Ham radio club. The core of the L&F is hubby, me and 2 friends from Great Bend. Carol and I both sit and knit most of the festival. I'm working on hat for great niece and the STR Club sock and she's working her way through her MIL's stash of redheart making charity scarves. Other than knitting, we listen to the music, and look for lost youn'uns and parents. Yesterday we had 3 cell phones and a wallet turned in, all claimed by end of evening and 6 kids. The last was a 9 yr old girl who had been dropped off in park with instructions to look for family friend! There were 9,700 people in the park last night! Finally had to involve police to track down phone numbers for a grandfather who came to get her! She was so panicky she wanted to walk to grandparents home. Like we could let this pretty little child walk anywhere at 9:30 at night. Honestly, you have to pass a test to get a DL but anyone can have kids!

Back today for a long day of sittin' and knittin' in 100+ heat...whew....

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Checks and Charms finished




Checks and Charms set is finally finished....some really bad thumb holes that I had to "take care of" by weaving and snugging. I told hubby that these were absolutely never to go in the washer and dryer, that they would shrink down to doll clothing! Started a child sized hat with the left overs, didn't bother to look at the pattern and already made a "creative choice" regarding color work...ha! we don't need no stinkin' charts!

Interviewing another teacher candidate for the studio today, yesterdays girl was so sweet, but her skills were not as advanced as I needed them to be.

I'm excited to start working on new dances, it's like working endlessly on a sweater, finally finishing it, and picking up new yarn for a new project, you like the old, you are glad you did it, but new...what fun!

Made tortelli for dinner to serve with the left over pork roast and my fingers are so swollen today that I can hardly bend them to type...wow! should have looked at the sodium content closer! oh well, lots of water will help flush the salt out.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

chugging along

Yesterday was the studio party day. About half the students showed up to get their trophies and photos. We had a good time watching the dvd, except that I thought we had only gotten cd's 1 and 3, and that we hadn't gotten #2, well...when I went to throw away the fed ex packaging, I realised that cd #2 was stuck into the bottom! oh welll....

Worked on mitten #2 of the checks and charms mitten. Finished sock #1 of FNLaurens purple socks...so not happy with the work on the leg, looks worse than 1st pair of socks...so tempted to rip out and start over but bday is June 12th!

Summer reg at studio tonight, going over in 20 minutes to work in peace and quiet on the forms I have.