We Take Them Where We Find Them

Don't ask me what I've been doing today cuz I don't know. I remember making myself get up - I went to bed before midnight, which on my planet, means getting out of bed nine hours later. That's right. The earlier I go to bed the later I wake up. I cannot explain this myself.

I know I went to the store. I purchased my breakfast, lunch and snack meals for the week having run out of all of the same. (I had a very good week diet wise. So much so I was in the bathroom every couple of hours the past few days. No, the blood sugar levels are fine and I actually have been eating more roughage and protein, less of the simple carbs and processed stuff. I need to drink more water - odd given how close the bathroom and I have become this week.)

I've hardly watched the t and v and I've knit just a couple of rows of the next strip in the homespun afghan and yet here it is in the early evening and I have no idea where I've been.

I did, however, while watching Loving Leah, fringe the poncho:
I said I would like it better once I put the fringe on it and this has turned out to be the case. So I will accept this feel good moment.
Let me just give a shout out to the Joann people. They have redone some of their fiber. This one is called Sumptuous and it is a knock off of Lion Brand Thick and Quick. It costs the same as the national brand but you get 1.5 times more yarn and it's rather nice to work with. I'm saying if they get a worsted weight yarn that can give I Love This Yarn a run for the money, they will have something. ILTY is truly great but Hobby Lobby keeps raising the price. They need some competition! Joann could give it to them.

Tonight is date night (Ruby Tuesday) and then I will come back and hopefully get some knitting in while watching shows recorded to the DVR and a movie before going to bed. I'm sure this has been a good day - if only I could remember it!

Leave Your Lights On

My drool of the day is this necklace by Amber Nicole Designs. Love the color. Love the design. Sigh. I need to be rich.

Mr. Honey has been on a go out to breakfast tear this week. We went out for breakfast twice. I remember my mother-in-law telling me something a long time ago. She was married twice (and engaged in her eighties!) and she used to be a homebody. She didn't want to go out or do things but in her second marriage that all changed and she said to me, "If your husband wants to go somewhere; go."

So, I went out to breakfast twice this week with my husband. During the second breakfast outing he wanted to know what I was going to do now that all the shows were over. First, I am waiting for the check to arrive from the last show so I can close out the folks who participated.

Second, I told him of my thoughts, idea, plans for 2011 and getting ready for January, February and March. I am working on a poncho for a kid: I am thinking towards outings with the little one (female) and thought a cute poncho might be a nice item. I am thinking I should embellish it with some sort of motif but I don't know what would go on the front of a poncho: puppy? heart? Then again, there's nothing wrong with something simple, elegant and plain. I know I will be pulling out the pom-pom maker and adding at least two of those. It should be a relatively quick knit. I started this one last night and I should be able to kick it out by tomorrow - it's for a two year old after all, how big can they be? I am thinking of making a version for Valentine's and St. Patrick's Days.

I started fleshing out the notes for the sermon on Sunday. Believe it or not, I am pretty shy so delivering a sermon is a difficult feat for me. I really love doing it but I love it more when it's done.

I hope this weekend before Christmas finds you ready for the holiday. Christmas Eve is one week from today. It will mark the 9th year of my father's passing. I have a portraits of my father and mother on the top of our china cabinet. They are young and they are beautiful and they are watching. They were beautiful even as they aged and they watched us as well. I do not believe that has ended. But I am saddened. I know next Friday will be a bustle of activity as we prepare for the Christmas Eve service so it's this moment in time I think of my dad and miss him.

I am going to work on the kiddie poncho and hopefully put the finishing touches on the sermon and kick out another page of the book. That will round out the day and begin the weekend quite nicely. This month is messing with my mind - it's the 17th but it's also the third Friday of the month - isn't that weird?

Superstar!

I thought I would drop over to my pal, Susie's blog to see what she was up to and she's on a sock run. Looking in her blog list, I picked a new blog to go read and clicked on Thru the Back Loop. The blog belongs to Allyson who is also on a sock run - it appears October is Socktoberfest. And who was the person that turned Allyson on to Socktoberfest...Susie...the sock pusher.

I can imagine how it went. Allyson, all innocent and non-sock obsessed, was going her merry way when she passed by the alley and heard: "Pssst, pssst, hey, you there...wanna knit a sock? C'mon feel my fiber." Just kidding, Sus; you know I love ya baby!

Many have tried to explain to me the lure of sock knitting and how one can become filled with the drunkenness of knitting them. But I cannot drink the Kool-Aid. I just don't get it. Other than learning Kitchener stitch, I can't find much need to even look at a sock pattern. Now, having said that, when Loopy Yarns was giving away patterns during the yarn crawl, I took scored obtained a couple of sock patterns because they were slouch socks and I love slouch socks and cannot find them ready made too easily anymore. So, if the urge hits me and I need to feel some slouch socks on the feet, I can make them. And I can make them out of a little thicker yarn than sock yarn. So, while I haven't completely ruled out the possibility of making socks, it's no where near a top priority and after having made socks before, I don't get the allure of them.

In other news, I was at Mosaic Yarn studio and fell in love with a poncho pattern I saw in a book on how to use your stash. That poncho has been calling my name for the past few weeks so I went back and got the book (50% off) and I am going to use my stash to make it. It's the poncho on the cover. I don't know why, but it wants me to make it and I think I must comply.
It will definitely use a lot of my stash as I can make it in a variety of colors using different weights of yarn. I'm looking forward to it.

I repeat that I have not forgotten about the ugly afghan I said I was going to crochet and it is actually waiting for me to get back to it. I have worked out, in theory, the part that is giving me trouble and if it works, the outcome won't look much like the picture but that's OK cuz the picture is ugly. I am not going to sabotage my own goal. That would be crazy. Besides, I still have a swatch of it that I started and I love the colors together so working out how to make the center pretty will ultimately get me something lovely. And who doesn't need something lovely?

In the meantime, I have the latest granny square afghan (which once I complete, I will go on to the ugly beautiful afghan) and the lace scarf made with the Misti Alpaca. It's 25 days before the Guerin Prep show and I still have lots to do in order to feel secure in what I have to offer. Maybe someone will have socks. Someone. Not me.

Do You See What I See?

Believe it or not, it's the same poncho. One is the backside and one is the front. 'Officially' the front is the black, gray and white squares. But you can actually wear it either way. You can even remove the tie and make the green, orange and burgundy side the v neck side.

I don't know how my brain works but it took me a long time to figure out how the two strips were supposed to go together. The pattern didn't help - it just said look at the photo and then showed just the front.
I finished the fringe this morning and I noticed how the color blocks lined up to give the two different looks - I didn't do it on purpose but you can go mono or colorful with the same piece. I will do a review of Feza Opera Yarn in a later post.
All in all, I'm pretty OK with how this turned out. I would like to make another one in just two colors or in one color and would also like to throw in some cable. Don't know when I'm going to get to that...the twelfth of Never looks free. I'm really like that color side. Pretty nifty. Let's see what happens when it goes into the shop!

Ode to Billie Joe

I'm convinced if someone had shown this poncho to Billie Joe he never would have jumped off that bridge. Of course, I think the reason he jumped because his mama made him spell his name with Billie instead of Billy. Boy probably was teased something fierce.

(For those of you young folk, read here about Ode to Billie Joe. It's a great read)

This is a cute poncho, but you have to be a little adult to wear it. It's made for a littler woman so I can't wear it and doesn't even look good on Joe. But Kenya here can wear it just fine.

This is Hobby Lobby's Angel Fleece and it is a really soft polyester/acrylic blend. This wasn't the yarn I intended to use for this poncho but you know what they say about intentions...so I finished it anyway.

Thanks to everyone who sent me folks to interview. I just got word I need to have some of my interviews done by tomorrow! (gasp) So Susie - I'll be contacting your friend today to interview her for the magazine. Thank you for the intro!

Well, back to work!

The Bon- Bon Cape from 'After Dark'

Because there is more to life than the latest scandal (and trust me, there is more to say on that) I have actually finished a project!

Here's the cape from After Knits by Jil Eaton. I tried it on my nephew's daughter who proudly told me she was too and it was a little too big. So, I'm guessing this will fit a 3 year old nicely.

Megan's mom asked me to make one in her size and I just might do that. This was a pretty quick knit. I think I worked on it for two knitting sessions which means if it were the only thing I was working on, it could have been done in a day. I blocked the heck out of the hemline and still it rolls, but I learned how to bobbles!

It was made with Red Heart Super Saver in Watercolor. It's a little rough, but should soften up. I believe I used number 9 needles, though it could have been 8. I added the pom-pom because I just like making them and will use them on anything I can. This will go right over to the last few days of the sale at Pleasant Home. (We didn't sell anything yesterday, but I believe we have already made what was my goal!) We're also doing the Sing-Along Messiah this afternoon, so I have to get a move on back to church!