Sunday 2/26/02

Another Sunday rolls around, another week done and gone...how fast they go!

I can't figure out how to put a photo on my profile because it wants the photo's url but here is a photo of me if you want to see what I look like. (all 3 of you that read my blog! ha!)
This week I finished my purple socks, finished the back of Karim's sweater and cast on for the front...I'm realizeing that because of the self-striping yarn I'm going to have to do quite a bit of rolling off of unwanted colors to get to the right place in the colorway. Had to for the neck/ shoulders of the back, for the cast on of front, and will have to for the neck/ shoulders of front, and of course for the sleeves. Used less than 1 skein for back, but beginning to wonder if I'll have enough yarn, as I bought the 3 skeins pattern required, oh well, just have to wait and see!

Got some bargain yarn in pinks marked down to $1.00 a skein at WM, not sure what to do with it, but hats or scarfs are always a possiblity. At $1.00 don't feel bad about donating or gifting at all!

Treated myself to the STR club .. a whole year! Also went shopping at Dillards 50% of marked down prices yesterday. Got a beautiful purple "formal" long sheath dress with matching jacket $118.00 for only $11.75, (yeah that's right $11.75!), a cream 3 piece beaded jacket, shell, pants for $13.00 (pants fit a little funny, too high waisted, but could always get a different skirt to wear at that price!) .... I should save that for a real "mother of the bride" moment, but not sure if L and Tony are even thinking in that direction. Valentines day he gave her a gold heart necklace that might have a tiny pinprick diamond in it.
Also got a chiffon bias cut skirt in black for $24.00 (my big purchase) that will go with the black beaded chiffon top I got on sale last spring. And a black sweater for about $17 that I can wear on lots of occaisons, like teaching at school or todays bridal shower.

I'll probably wear the purple for recital, as I always dress up, I think it adds class to the occaison for the dancers.

Great monday

Yesterday was great! I worked like a dog on statements, newsletters, senior notes, etc etc etc. Then went to studio and all classes went great! Killer choreography for Jr's, sr's, (no more chloroform choreography!) 90% of dancers in atttendance, costumes to pass out, one too small, one too big, (but big can be taken in and fortunately this particular mom sews like a dream), came home to find out more costumes had come in, crazy this year. Knit just a little on the baby sweater, so won't post a photo as not much to see. I am wasting a great deal of time this morning, just procrastinating like crazy...got to get my tutu in gear and get going or I won't be able to say great tuesday tomorrow.

Busy Weekend!

Back of Karim's sweater, 1st bind offs done.
Twinkle scarf and Adora yarn. You can also see the Patternworks catalog I was drooling over!



What a busy weekend! Hardly any time to knit (boo hoo). Friday night worked on checking in costumes, my living room is such a mess!

Saturday, rehearsals, then a performance at Bethany College that went well, then the Cyrcle's annual dress up party and overnight at Peggy's loft. Got into my pretty red dress (yeah!), we ate some tasty junk food, danced, drank a little, chatted and celebrated Rose's birthday, we were laughing at ourselves for how sedate we have become over the years. Sunday a SDA (Salina Dance Association) meeting at Red Lobster (Caesar salad, grilled grouper, vegs, baked potato) good conversation, business decisions made. Then onto a baby shower for Rose's daughter Cary, which I got to only a half hour late!. Lots of baby boy clothes, and stuff, silly game of scooping cotton balls from one bowl to another while blindfolded, good cake, good punch, a good time.

Came home, napped on sofa, made simple dinner of grilled brats and baked potato and then sat of sofa watching tv and knitting. Desperate Housewives (baby sweater) Grey's Anatomy (chunky cable purse, which I am now re-doing with the yarn doubled as it should have been but designer neglected to state that in the pattern!) news and weather (Twinkle scarf). The scarf yarn is something I found at Big Lots for $1.00/ skein. Only had 2 skeins of this yarn in the pinky color, but also got 3 skeins of this pink Adora yarn. I decided I needed a pink scarf for me!

LL 2nd sock gussett done, working on foot, a new pair for me soon!
Too much work to do today for me to be wasting much more time this way.... 3rd week of month means statements, newsletters, calendar updates, etc.

Felicity's outfit

Here's the outfit I made for my daughters old American Girl doll Felicity. I think I'll give the outfit to my FN Lauren for her "Kit". Woolease white with sparkle with trim of fun fur.

I was happy to get to the 4.5 inch mark on the baby sweater when I looked at pattern again and realized I needed to knit 6" for the size I'm making! "Last minute Baby Sweater" I don't think so!

WIPS and FO

The pink chunky Cable Bag from Knitpicks, that I knit with only 1 ball of the yarn, because NOWHERE in the pattern did it say to use 2 strands. Help reply says "designer assumed you would know to use 2 strands". well... you know what they say about assume...


The socks are my Lorna's Laces Amythyst stripes that have been in stash for quite a while. I'm tying to knit in chronolgical order. 60 stitches, size 1 needles, doing an anatomical toe, decreasing more on little toe side than the big toe side to match my feet. It's an expirement.

This is Karims baby sweater in Simple Stripes from Knitpicks, pattern from knitpicks too. 79 stitches on size 1 addi turbo. Lisa's shawl finished except for finishing in the ends. 3 skeins of Homespun. Lisa gave me the yarn for my 50th birthday in 2002...finally found a use for it! I like the idea of giving back gift yarn as a FO.

Just another Thursday

Working on 2nd sock of the Lorna's Laces Amythest Stripes. Working on baby sweater in Knitpicks Simple Stripes. Going to rip out and re-knit the Knitpicks Chunky Cable Handbag as I got the notice that the yarn was supposed to be worked doubled. Darn! Lisa's shawl is finished though except for weaving ends. It's LB Homespun, so don't think it'll block out. Guess I could try it though.

Little bit of a lazy day today, not too much studio stuff that can be done, as I can't do the 2A and 2B classes practice cds as I don't have their jazz and tap music from that teacher yet. Annoying. Just realized that I only have 9 blank cd's left so couldn't do those groups any how.
I feel guilty sitting and knitting during the day as I have the mind-set that I should be "working" and not "playing" but maybe I'll just rip out the handbag..and watch last nights "Invasion" on videotape.

No middle school work today as it's teachers conferences, and it's cold today and much as I'd like to go get my photo's from Wal-mart, might just stay inside until 3:00 when I HAVE to leave the warmth of my house. This weekend is going to be a busy one with rehearsals on Sat am, a basketball performance Sat at 5:00 , a party and sleepover at 7:00, a lunch meeting at 1:00 on Sunday and a baby shower at 2:30 on Sunday! Dang!

I'm back!

I'm back from vacation in Cancun...tan and rested...Office manager said that if it gave me this relaxed and attitude she'd pay to send me back next year. I loved it...it was the most beautiful and relaxing week. We stayed at VCI www.royalrestorts.com click on club international. I'll be posting photo's when I get them back. This lovely resort must be sold next July (end of it's 30 year time span and by Mexican law must be sold) and the fear is that new owner will bulldoze it and build another huge monolithic gazzillion villa structure without the charm of VCI.

I've been knitting ... finished SIL's shawl exept for a few ends, and started on GS Karim's baby sweater yesterday. Had to buy new needles as Mexican inspector took mine when leaving...sigh... Also on kneedles the Chunky Cable Handbag from www.knitpicks.com and plain no pattern socks of Lorna's Laces Amethyst Stripe.

On Vacation

I'm on vacation in Cancun (a birthday gift from my mom!) until Feb. 5 - will post big time when I get back.

Got 3 books, 3 knitting projects, 3 swimsuits....what more do I need!

Tiger Socks

Well, I wanted to post a photo of the socks I made from my skein of Opal Tiger. Socks for me, socks for FN Lauren and a tiny pair for her American Girl Doll Kit...but Blogger is bogging down on the photo upload for some reason. One more try....

All right! photo uploaded.

Doll socks: sent socks away, didn't write down pattern but...

American Girl Socks

Opal yarn, a marble of tiger, split into 2 balls, Ivory

1.5 needles, 30 stitches, 1x1 rib 10 rows in ivory, Changed to Tiger Knit 10 rows, put in waste yarn (2 rows) for afterthought heel on 15 stitches, Knit until I ran out of Tiger, 6 rows, changed to ivory,

decrease row, plain row 3x, 9 stitches left, grafted.

cut out waste yarn, picked up stitches, knit 1 row plain, decreased as for a toe 3x I think, grafted. I'm not fond of afterthought heels but wanted all of the tiger as the sock, not on a heel flap so did it this way.

New Stove

I have a new stove and new pots and pans. We thought the old pots and pans would work on the flat top, even though the skillets wouldn't, but they danced all around the stove trying to boil water for spaghetti so Sunday afternoon Sid and I went to Wal-mart and chose a new set of pots and pans. Wearever brand, non-stick surface in black. I kind of liked the red ones, but this set was a better deal and the color of the pans certainly wasn't a big deal! The black ones match the top of the stove.

We are going to deal with the walls and floors this summer, and repaint the drawer fronts that are getting scratched up, so it will almost look like a new kitchen! We're going to put a laminate floor down that will look nice with the wood look counter top.

Off to a not so good start

Well, 2006 is off to not such a good start....had to buy a new stove on Monday! Realized Sunday night when a 1lb pork roast that should have taken 25 minutes to cook, still wasn't quite "done" after a hour (!) that my 30 yr old stove's oven had "hit the wall"...poor thing was huffing and puffing trying to get the job done. Got a smooth top Kenmore at Sears for a reasonable price of $550.00. Some of the stoves went up past $1000! I could have gotten a regular burner top one for around $300, but I decided that if this stove was going to last the 30 yrs the old one did it would be my last stove and I might as well get the smooth top that I wanted!

Classes went well with about half of my dancers showing up, seems "holiday" is firmly engrained in my students minds as a day with out dance, but... those that were there had fun and we started a couple of new dances for recital.

However, just as I got home from work and hat put the water in the microwave for my hot toddy (tea, rum, sugar)... phone rang .. bad news from DD that I don't think I want to put into print today...sigh...she keeps making bad choices as a young adult that are going to affect the rest of her life and as a parent, there is little I can do.

Didn't knit a stitch last night.

I love Sunny Days

It's a sunny Day and I love those. I missed all of yesterday because I was working on placing costume orders for the studio and kept saying, I'll take a walk after I do "this"... by the time I got done at 5:30pm it was dark and I missed my chance. Gonna go do it now, even just a walk around the block before going to the dentist (gold crown... gettin' some bling for Christmas after all!)

Photo is of the hat series I ended up making for Kathy T who gifted me with a treadmill. What a gift! Cabled hat was 1st, turned out to small and too frilly for her hubby. So, 2nd hat which I think will fit unless he has a huge head, and then using leftovers for a hat for 18 month old Austin, I'm thinking I'll have enough yarn, hoping so, as I was going to put in a contrast stripe but none of my woolease really co-ordinates. The yarn isn't photographing well, but it's a pretty slighty varieagated blues/deep greens called "Pines" in Woolease Worsted.

If I could figure out how to do the side board link section on this blog I'd post the pattern for the cabled hat. oh well.
Kim in KCK I appreciate your comments, I thinkyou are one of my 3 or 4 readers but I can't figure out how to reply.
I knit better than I techno.

Family Portrait and Christmas Scarfs

Here we are on Christmas Morning. Not the best photo of me, but what's new? Other photo is of Michaela, Stephanie, Lauren, Irene, and Alex wearing the Scarves I made them. Alex has kidnapped Michaela's Dora Slippers AND has a death grip on his own green bear.

Christmas Scarfs

Well, this was supposed to be a photo of my nieces wearing their Christmas Scarfs, and instead it's Bitty wearing one of them.! Q'uelle surprise!

Christmas

I had a wonderful Christmas, time spent with my husband and daughter turned out to be the best gifts of all.

Got the stocking finished. Used it. Will enter it in the fair in summer, as it turned out pretty good, don't like the Red Heart nearly as well as the wool from Elann.com, but it's indescructible and that's good for a stocking I guess. Will publish a photo later.

Being lazy this morning, surfing the net aimlessly. Will work on costume orders, Lauren's sock, Todd's hat etc this afternoon and evening.

A beautiful sunny day. I know others complain about the weather not being seasonal, but any sunny day is a gift to me.

Snow day

Brrr it's cold! We got between 8 and 11 inches of snow yesterday (depending on who you listen to) so had to cancel all studio activities including rehearsals, NH show and Starfeet party. Had Sid take me to studio to do the computer back up so I could print statements at home and drag home the 100 lb bag of costume books to work on that some more! Dec. 31 deadline is looming!

Knitted, picked back and reknitted on hat for Kathy T's hubby Todd. I could have made 2 hats in the time I've been working on it if I'd just pay attention to the damn cables and which way they are going! A little afraid it's too small, but if it is, I'll just make another one. Got 2 big skeins of the Woolease worsted so have lots of yarn.

Photo is of the Ballet hat I made for niece Lauren. Hard to reach but bottom row says Ballet, top row says Hip Hop. I want to use same idea to make headbands to sell at studio.

Trying to feel Christmasy

I'm trying to feel Christmasy. Bought a tree at K-mart, Hubby set it up while I was gone, lights were defective, took it back for exchange (after all the whole point of a pre-light tree is to not have to mess around with lights!) . It's still in back of my van. I brought up the tub of my Christmas clothing, and I 'm wearing a Christmas print sweatshirt ... it's kind of seen better days, but it's comfy, and I traded my daily dishes for my Christmas set. Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle the mantle mess and put up my village houses. I always enjoy looking at those. Normally, I don't put up the tree until I close the dance studio, but I'm teaching until Dec 22 this year and with Lisette not living at home anymore,...there is no "normally"....have to find new ways to do stuff. sigh... not sure I like this.

Started a hat for niece Lauren just because. Pink Plymouth encore. I'm planning on working in the words dance, ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop with black. I've graphed it, and think it will work. Most patterns for encore called for size 8 needles, but that just seemed flimsy to me (yes, I actually swatched!) so I'm using 6's.

Monday, Monday

Well, it's Monday. The Thanksgiving visit went well, I was sad to leave Salina without my daughter, but all was fine. Had a very nice visit with family, no one got upset, food was great, and it was all really fun.
Came home to some dissappointment as daughter had permission to use my kitchen to have a little celebration with some of her friends who also had to work/no family/ etc. Kitchen was a mess, glasses littering living room, and they had drunk all the tequila, opened a bottle of wine, and later in the evening I discovered they had drunk all my kaluha also. I guess she's not as mature as I thought she was. Oh well, I'll know better next time.
We had to put 2 new tires on her car and this morning after doing this post I'm off to do an oil change on her car. Merry Christmas!

During the visit I started and finished my winter hat. I started off with the Koigu pattern, but after 2 inches of the moss stitch I decided that I did not like the way it looked with the striping yarn, so went back to plain knit leaving the moss stitch band as a "design" element. Finished hat in the car on the way home, just intime for cold weather to hit! Also finished a plain scarf in soft boucle for a gift, will get that box mailed off to Switzerland this week, and started a MD scarf in some Red Heart. Not liking it all that much, so it may go on the sale table.

Have lots to do today, so must get to it!

Karim's stocking

What can I say? I'm on the edge.

I'm so on the edge of losing it right now. I have been battling this depression for weeks now. I know it's trendy to be bi-polar or manic/depressive as I first was identified but I am. The highs are wonderful, the lows are not. On my roller coaster life, this is a definate low. I worry in my sleep. My daughter lost her job (got fired) and doesn't seem to be looking for a new one as actively as I would be, she's got less than $3.00 in her checking account and I don't know how she and Tony will cope. There are resources out there for them, but they have to chase them (unemployement, food stamps, medical cards) and seem to be too "lazy" to do it. This drives me crazy and worry's me.
I've lost several hundred dollars worth of students recently, none of them seem unhappy with studio, just "lazy" "stressed with school" "daughter has basketball" etc etc but I was barely making expenses before and this is a huge loss. I'm being really proactive in recruiting new students, starting new classes, trying to think "out of the box", but it's hard, so so so hard.
We're leaving for Omaha today if I can make myself get ready. Lisette can't come and that's killing me. She and buddies are planning a Thanksgiving here and that's killing me. (I gave her a "care package" with everything for Thanksgiving but the turkey) . Even thanksgiving in Omaha will be smaller as several brothers families will not be at moms. The only Thanksgiving I did not go home, my dad died in the spring and I have this irrational fear that Mom will die if I don't go...told you it was irrational.


Okay, enough whining and wallowing. I did finish Karims stocking, and all the little scarfs for nieces. Working on a scarf for Stefan, as I tossed the modular scarf in the box for Isa, so thought should have something for dad too. I'll work on that in Omaha because it's mindless.
Still working on Lisa's shawl, I think I made an error on row 15 of this repeat and was too stressed to look at it last night, so that will wait until I come home on Monday.
Started a 2nd stocking out of some Red Heart balls in stash, will probably enter that in the Fair. Bought some nice pink and black yarn at YARNS for a dancer hat for Lauren, that I have designed in my head.
Have the Parade hat to work on, since I ripped it out, and will start again. So, I guess I have enough to do in Omaha (Scarf, Parade Hat, Stocking) also taking a skein of Red Heart Variagated and the MD scarf directions for mom, I'll probably start it and then leave it for her.

Okay, got to kick my self in the butt and get going. Trash guys will be here soon and I haven't done litter boxes or trash.

Kim in KCK and any one else who reads this, have a Happy Thanksgiving!