Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

So we are disappointed, disgusted, not surprised by another politician. Every step we take forward we go two steps back and because we want quick, simple answers people are looking for a quick solution there are folks saying to resign. Not every offense is a death penalty. He was stupid and piled the stupid on but it isn't a resignation offense. I don't think the congressman in NY should have resigned but that was his call...wait, what is it with NY Congressmen?

Never mind.

I've been really busy: I've been learning a new program for photo editing, knitting up a storm, studying other folks shops to gain some new insight to my shop, knitting some more. The first phase of the yarn sort is done - and the weather in Chicago has turned to stymie. This is a sample of the soap saver sacks I made. How many did I make? I think there are seven. They were quick and they were fun and I needed a variety of them. They are, of course, being sold in the shop.

I was busy making caps (hats, tams, lids, rasta, whatever you want to call them. There are a plethora of them around the living room. I made this one last night and because was a little afraid of running out of the skein I eliminated about three lines of the instruction and I like it better than if I followed the directions to the letter. (Let this be a lesson you - sometimes less is more.)
I've been putting things up in the shop as the first thing to do on my work list. The first thing used to be write a blog post and that has to, sadly, go down a peg because as much as I love writing to you - it's ain't a money maker and mama will eventually need new yarn. OK, Mama won't need new yarn for about a decade but you know how these things go, once there is a dent in the yarn stash it's going to disappear at an alarming rate - I hope.

There is also still an afghan being worked and some stuff that has yet to be photographed. Believe me when I say there is a lot. I am keeping track of what I have going on and I am almost at 100 items and June just started. This is also counting a set as one item. individually, way over 100. This is the first time I am not thinking I won't have enough for the craft sales starting in October.

There is still much to do and we have baseball games to go to! I have also been watching my Cubs tank feeling hopeless. Cubs fans have learned to find that silver lining but this year is really horrible.

I hope your spring is going well. Yes, with all this heat it's only spring. Summer doesn't get here for another month - looking forward to what that will be all about.

I am going to go enjoy some cool cantaloupe - I loves me the spring and summer fruits!!

Back To The Future

We had dinner at Ruby Tuesday last night and they have changed their menu and their atmosphere a little. They are going towards being just a tad more upscale while staying neighborhood and family.

That burger was really good. It was an Alpine Swiss Burger. They do a nice burger at this particular RT and I had green beans and onion rings as my sides - it is not my fault they covered the vegetable with a really good, crunchy, tasty covering. I ordered it because it was a veggie. There are some new desserts on the menu and I was salivating over the cupcakes but I did not have any. One day a week I can eat whatever I want and that day is Monday. I will not be returning to RT to get the cupcakes - I had to think about it before reaching that conclusion.

I did return home and did some knitting. I made some progress on strip 3 of the afghan. I think with this afghan there are usually six or seven strips and it is likely to go that way again though I am doing something a little different. I am not making the strips the same width. I thought I'd play around with that a little so I have attached the first two strips already and I will have to measure when this one gets attached.

While working on the afghan (and watching Prince Caspian) I felt the urge to have some crafting success so I turned to crack crochet and I came up with these little beauties:
I also made double thick scrubbies to go with them. I just tickled myself all to heck last night (this morning) making them. I actually had a smile on my face. I imagined placing them out for sale at the craft shows (that are coming up in just six months - I better get a move on!) and people gobbling them up. I happily returned to my afghan after working on them.

Today I am working on one of the squares afghan and I just happen to be doing a crochet square and while I am enjoying it, not the high I got from making the super scrubbies. I am actually looking forward to having both hands filled with a needle.

There will be things to do this weekend. I am attending a concert by a wonderful pianist - Chulei Wang at Concordia University and Sunday we are knitting in a bar - don't tell me tough girls don't knit! I am looking forward to going to a new place and knitting in public.

The weather is supposed to be all over the map this weekend. Despite the conditions of the sky, I hope your spirits are all sunny and warm today and over the weekend!

Decisions, Decisions

I spent the morning languishing in bed. i woke up at my usual time and I was still tired so I lay in bed and thought about stuff. Stuff I wasn't doing with my days that I could be and stuff I could be doing and just about stuff. I am not sure I reached any conclusions but I do know that while spending time with the core folks of my knitting group that I had a good time last night. Being with people who mutually enjoy each other is a great gift and it was during that conversation listening to the fabulous Melissa explain how she has a plan to get herself moving again that I found the inspiration to continue moving myself.

I would take a photo of the item on the blocking board but it's really quite nondescript. We are getting new members in our church and the pastor wanted to know if I would make some spa cloths to be part of a welcome gift. I put this before my knitting group on Sunday and they thought book covers and book marks would be a good idea. I put that option to the pastor and she wanted the spa cloths.

So I made the book cover. I already have spa cloths made. I thought it would be a fun thing for them to have both. They take only a few hours to make and it does help go through the stash so as far as I'm concerned they can have the spa cloths with the book cover and everyone can be happy. I can even attach a bookmark to the book and make a trifecta!

The next square in the afghan is something of a challenge. It is intarsia and has some detail in it. I admit to being somewhat scared of it but I am going to go through with it. The block with the cables and beads is about to come off the blocking board and it does look better blocked - but we knew it would.

So, just to be clear I am working on:

2 book covers - 1 already made (just needs seaming)
4 spa cloths - 3 already made
an intarsia square

I have no idea what I'm going to do Saturday.

Give In To Me

I have ended the little pity party I was throwing for myself yesterday. I was going through my books and out dropped two little ones that I forgot I had. They were both on slouch hats - one knit and one crochet. Instantly I felt better. I did. These two little gems were in my library and I put them at the end and their turn came.. I have this little beauty on the hook and I am looking forward to making a newsboy cap (not in the slouch books but an old favorite standby.) Just like that the mood has changed.

It looks big (well, it is a slouch hat) but I've tried it on and it fits fine so when someone with, you know, hair, puts it on the fit should be just right.

Let me completely change directions and tell you about the chicken piccata I made last night - it was my second attempt and it was delicious! Butter should have its own church! That sauce served over pasta is one of the Heaven's best dishes. OMG, that stuff is good. Ever since I ordered it at Maggiano's a few weeks ago, I've been wanting to recreate it - and I knocked it out the park last night. Now the trick is to not make it too much. That won't be a problem because Mr. Honey usually gets to pick what he wants me to make the three days of the week I cook - no, I don't tell him what I want on his three days - and he will bring home the chicken cutlets when he wants them next.

My cooking library is far more advanced than his. He does a couple of chicken dishes, a couple of pasta dishes, and a couple of pork dishes. I think he may have ten dishes in his repertoire. I, on the other hand, have thousands because I will visit http://www.allrecipes.com and l will pull out a new recipe a couple of times during the year and try them out. Just like knitting, I won't completely follow the pattern. There are very few duds on that site. I just love it and that's where I went to find a recipe for the chicken and I took the best of several and made the dish that has delighted us both. I have a little left over from last night and that will be my breakfast/lunch/snack this morning.

Are you going to watch the State of the Union? I always do and I listen to the response from the other party. This evening we will have two responses. I admit to being much more interested in Michelle Bachmann. I can't tell if she's Sarah Palin's Mini-Me or Eve Harrington to Palin's Margo Channing. She certainly seems to have jumped in the void left by Palin's fall from popularity. I will also be interested in seeing who the 'prom dates' are as Republicans and Democrats sit together and who will be sitting next to Joe Liberman. Grumpy Mitch McConnell has said he's going to sit in his usual seat. I think Barney Frank ought to sit next to him and hold his hand.

Sigh

This is now officially the new shawl that never ends. It is beautiful, it takes concentration and skill and I am so glad to be doing it - but it would be even better when it is finished.
There have been some miscounts but I've been able to track them down and most of them occur within the first three stitches of the row so in essence, they don't really affect much but are being fixed anyway.

I've needed to have another break from the work because my mind was turning into gravy and unless Mr. Honey's mind was turning into mashed potatoes, there doesn't seem to be any need to make brain gravy. So during that second break, I managed to make these petal baby bibs (there's only one shown but there's another done and another one on the needles) and the beret was also done.

I can't tell you when this shawl will be done. I work on it daily and I count the rows and I see the count increase every time but when I put it down and look away it's like a row disappears and just comes back when I do the count. It is supposed to be 72 inches across and I've only got half way through. I started it on the 3rd and had to start it again on the 5th so it's not like I've been working on it for the last 5 days. But, come on, you all know me, five days is forever when I'm not working on an afghan. So this is slowly wearing on my psyche. Of course, it's one of those things, you know, the guy got half way to his destination and decided he couldn't make it so he turned around and came back. I think I'm halfway home so I might as well keep going. I am rethinking this as a thing I want for a bridesmaid. Could you see me having to do five of them? Maybe better suited for just the mothers.
I am pleased to say when i went downstairs to do some stash shopping that three of the boxes were practically empty. I am certain if I took the time to combine them the contents would fit nicely in just one of the boxes. So it seems I was further along than I thought I was. Perhaps when we get to the May date the stash will be almost history. At least the stash in the basement.

A girl can dream.

The First of All Things

I made this hat and scarf last year and they both sold at either the holiday sale or on line. I'm feeling a bit reminiscent of the year that has swooshed by while I was alternately not looking, really busy or being inundated with political ads on my phone and t and v. But it is the first of November and since there is less of the year ahead than there is behind, I am already looking forward to 2011 - with a little stop on the way to Christmas and the Holiday show.

I already know I am going to find a new doctor and make an appointment to see him/her at the beginning of the new year. In light of that event, I am now pulling a health blitz so when he/she tells me I need to take better care of myself it won't be as bad as could have been. So, they won't say 'you REALLY need to take better care of yourself.'

I learned a few things from the somewhat successful craft show over the weekend. I learned I have to listen to the public when they tell me what it is they want to buy from me. It's not a great epiphany for me, all I had to do was look at what sells in the shop and at the holiday show every year to know there are three things that sell the most: hats, scarves and afghans. What I heard a lot of from the folks stopping by the table on Saturday was: Do you have this one in a different color? Do you have a scarf (hat) in this color? and while I had to say no to those questions, I could follow that with: 'What color would you like? Here's my card, look in the shop in a week and it will be there or do you want me to email you when it's done?"

This shawl, which I also made last year, is no longer with me. It didn't sell at all so I frogged it and it is now part of a granny square afghan and the sequins are in a box waiting to be used again. I have also learned there are times to let things go.

The big thing I learned over the weekend was how nice folks are in this business. This was the first year I did the Guerin Prep Craft Show. There were over 150 artists and I was greeted by the door by volunteers who asked if they could go to my car and help me carry in my gear. And there were other crafters who were going in and asked if they could carry something for me and offered to take it to my table. We chatted about the 'craft show' circuit and how business was and what shows they were doing later in the year. (There were some folks doing a show every weekend until the end of the year.) What that told me was that I either needed to take it more seriously or get out of it because these people are in it for the living and it isn't just some fun little thing they do. There might have been a time when that was the case but the economy has changed that. Crafting is no longer a hobbyist exercise. For some people it is the difference between staying in their home or not having to dip into the college fund. At the very least, I need to respect the craft for what it can mean even though I don't have a direct impact on what anyone else does.

I have to write down my patterns. I designed this hat and for the life of me, can't remember what I did and since the hat sold last year, can't look at it to remember all the details. Considering my pattern on Ravelry is selling, it behooves me to take advantage of this talent I didn't even know I had.

Overall, I made about $55 during the show but there were lessons I learned that will gain me more in both money and soul and you can't quantify that.

I have three things on the needles - a scarf, a hat and an afghan - don't tell me I don't listen. I will also continue to bust the stash and there's a big pile of yarn in the middle of the living room that is my cull pile. I will make stuff from that pile and hopefully by the time the show comes in December the pile will be gone and there will be wonderful items to take its place. In the meantime, I am off to the bank to deposit my riches!!

Jumbo Shrimp

The days in July and August were so hot and thick sitting outside was really uncomfortable but the last few days in this fast moving month of September have been quite pleasant and Duke and I have spending them outside. He's been lying in the sun occasionally barking at passersby and other creatures and I have been working on different projects.

I put a bunch of different yarns in one of my tote bags and decided to work on the granny square afghan. I took it over to my sister-in-law's house over the weekend and it was half way done - I decided to work on that the first day out. That afghan is now done. Turned out pretty nice. It is so soft, I cannot tell you. Hopefully someone will come along and want to love it. The background color is brown instead of black - do you see what I mean about how black would flatten it out but other colors warm it up? I think it's because black has every color in it so it absorbs a little of something from every color around it. But brown doesn't so colors reflect and bounce. Try it for yourself in a couple of small swatches and you'll see what I mean.

The second day I worked on the lace shawl (it turned out beautifully, I'll show you the final product once I take it off the blocking board.) For a moment, I was tempted to get some thinner yarn and try some real lace knitting. For a moment. I sat down until it went away. One, I don't possess that kind of patience. Two, I don't need to become obsessed with another fiber. So I will keep myself to this kind of lace knitting that holds smaller chances of frustration. As it is, I measured the shawl/scarf and thought I had enough inches before adding on the bottom trim but when I measured it after it was done, somehow I lost inches and won't get them back after blocking - though I will recover some. I don't know how it happened except I can probably blame the lateness of the hour. Yeah, that sounds good.

It looks really nice on the blocking board and I look forward to taking it off and wrapping it around one of the torsos and taking the photos. Then you'll see. it was worth the swear words I yelled uttered when the lace count wouldn't cooperate.

Yesterday, I worked on what may be the most stunning afghan I've ever made. Looking at the photo it reminds me of those little paints that come with the paint by numbers. In real dimensions, it is really pretty and the center of each square is done in a popcorn stitch so they stand out. some fibers puff up more than others and some of the colors of the same brand have more pop than others. They are crocheted together as i go so when I'm done with the very last square, the whole afghan will be done. All that will be left is the trim and I am thinking I will trim it in a dark color other than black because black will flatten it out. Perhaps a dark green or violet to make everything else pop.

I am set to start a new afghan today and it has hexagons instead of squares. A little intimidating but I'm not in the mood to be defeated. There was rain this morning but it has stopped and though it isn't exactly sunny outside, it is pleasant and Duke is already outside probably thinking what funny creatures humans are to want to stay indoors when there's a chance to be in nature.

Pooch has a point.

Adultery

There's no easy way for me to approach the subject. Some things are just better said out loud and then dealt with....

I am cheating on the Nanny square afghan....

again...

I know; I'm Tiger, I'm Bill, I'm the Governor of South Carolina.
I don't know what it is. The NSQ has been faithful. It waits for me to return from wherever I've gone be it the store or the bathroom. It is beautiful and looks well tended. I have no idea why I feel the need to step out for a younger, newer project. But that's just what I did two days ago and I haven't returned.

I was just sitting there working on it when I saw a book and I started looking through it. That alone wasn't enough to tempt me away from my beloved but one of the patterns in the book reminded me an afghan sitting on Mr. Honey's chair and this afghan was made by his mother and I had the urge to make my own version of her afghan that would use some of the technique in the book pattern and some technique I could glean from the afghan.

I could have just made notes and continued with being faithful to the one who had been with me for some time and I don't know how to explain my need to stray but I found myself pulling out the coffee colored yarn to use as the coordinating color and various other yarns to use in the middle - because though I am an unfaithful stitch, I still have to bust the stash.

The new afghan calls for 80 squares. I have already made 30 of them since Saturday - I suppose I could take comfort in knowing I won't leave my afghan for very long. At this pace the rest of the squares should be done in less than a week. Of course, if another floozy afghan wiggles its fibers under my nose, I could be lost.

As I look over my shoulder, I see the NSQ looking at me and I feel for it. I know I shall return and I shall ask for and hopefully be granted forgiveness.

I don't know why I do it. If it continues, I will have to check into fiber rehab and sit in a room and contemplate what I have done.

At least it won't cost me $100 million.

Yarndis - Redux

I was at a loss to explain it. Why I have WIPs up the wazoo now that I've cleaned up the living room. Why it couldn't stay uncluttered for a moment. Then just this morning as I was putting each project into it's own bag - Yarndis. The yarn goddess is playing with me. And not only does she have me working on 4 afghans - she has made each one of them hate me.

The first one - the 42 square afghan. I couldn't use the 12 inch squares because the measurements didn't add up but luckily I had more than enough of the other size squares. It just wasn't a good mix of crochet with knit squares but it all worked it self out and now I have just to add the last strip and then do an edging and it will be all done. It's trying to kill me because it was supposed to be easier than it's turning out to be. Don't ask me why I never learn the lesson that my imagination has much more energy than my dimensional self - but I never do. The last strip will be added in a few days when I get back around to the afghan. I know, I can just get it finished and over with but I am at the mercy of Yarndis who also wanted me to work on the crazy afghan.



This one really is trying to kill me. It's trying to suffocate me. It has grown since I started working on it and what started out as a cute little thing has morphed into a monster afghan. The pattern says to to until there are 85 shells across and since it's one increase per row, it should be 85 rows but that's not how it went but I couldn't bring myself to do one more increase so I am hoping it won't go wonky on me. I haven't even started the decreasing yet and the thing takes up the whole chair. I don't think this will be an afghan as much as it will be a bedspread. I went out to Hobby Lobby yesterday to purchase one more skein of each color just in case. The good thing is that I will be decreasing every row so it should so maybe the yarn will hold out. It took 6 skeins to get to this point but this one will definitely require an edge to it - I won't be surprised if it will need to eat another skein or two.

These last two you haven't seen yet but I have talked about them - the green crochet afghan and the knitted afghan that calls for duplicate stitch but I didn't want to duplicate stitch so I decided to do intarsia instead. Let me just say working with the bobbins are fun and the intarsia stitches are actually very textural. I expected them to lay flat in the piece and they are not. It's like they are being added on top - BONUS!!

The green afghan calls for front post stitching which makes for an interesting texture as well. While I was getting the yarn for the crazy afghan, I picked up three skeins of three different green colors (3 skeins total) just to supplement. I expect all the green I have will be used. These are trying to kill me by the sheer volume of it all.

Today I am working on the green afghan and I am tempting Yarndis by saying I am managing to keep the edges straight. I am grateful for that because it would just drive me bonkers - I am going to have to put an edge around this one, too, just to give it a nice finish so if it was a little off, edging could fix it but it would make me absolutely crazy and no one in the free world wants that.

Melissa noted Wednesday evening that I've picked up the crochet hook and I haven't put it down. Not quite true. Knitting remains my love but my world has opened up that much more and I have to admit I don't think of it as i did before - which is probably just the world correcting itself since I crocheted first.

The Real Thing

The stash bust continues though honesty must make me confess there are some new skeins in the fold and I can't even think of a way to blame Melissa for this cuz she wasn't even with me. I went downtown yesterday to Loopy Yarns to purchase the tickets for the Stitch and Pitch which will be in August at Cellular One Field (White Sox - South Side for those unschooled in Chicago baseball.)

Well, I never look at what they have on sale for the regular price cuz I ain't gonna buy what they have at the regular price. But downstairs, they have the 25% off wall of yarn and if you really want a thrill, they have some yarn at 50% off and I found some yarn made in Turkey (I love the way they make yarn in Turkey) and it was half off and the regular cost was $7.00. They had all kinds of colors but they had white, gray, black and a variegation of the three so I have 16 skeins to be turned into a geometric afghan and some hats and scarves. 70% acrylic and 30% wool.

On the other hand, as you can see, the crochet afghan I am working on takes a lot of colors. This is going to be one big ass afghan. I have to increase one shell every row until there are 85 shells in one row and then I crochet those 85 stitches for 12 inches before I start decreasing one shell a row. I already know I am going to need more white yarn and I gave away a lot of it. I know I bought some white at Loopy but it won't match up texture wise. This may require some Caron by the Pound but I won't worry about it until I have to open the last white skein. In the meantime, I will go yarn shopping in the stash to see if there's some white skeins hanging around just waiting for me to put them in an afghan.

We've picked up a new follower! Welcome and I hope you comment. In fact, I hope more of you comment.. I'd love to read them and post them for public edification. Give it some thought, will ya?

By Special Request

I'm feeling pretty darned popular! I have two special request afghans I am working on and the granny square one is moving along pretty well. (This is an old photo of the first one I made. The one I'm working on now looks just like it, except it's further along so I didn't see the point of taking another photo.
The blue afghan is also going well. I have 9 squares done - I'm pretty sure it's 9, if not then 7, maybe 10. I don't know how many squares total will be in the final project. I'm steam blocking two squares at a time and I'm getting a kick out of that, too.
Both projects will be making the trip with us - since we are traveling in the new vehicle, there's plenty of room for yarn projects so the huge bag of blue yarn and the huge bag of granny square yarn will both have room and I can happily go between projects. I'm thinking the squares will have to be shown the landmarks along the way - and as soon as I discover what landmarks there are along the way I'll be sure to point them out.

Poor Mr. Honey! He has sciatica and yesterday it decided to flair and he's been walking around like he's in a slow motion replay. Just the thing he needed before a vacation. Please send prayers for his recovery. He's really miserable when this happens because he can't do all he'd like. And an unhappy hubby is an unhappy me.

I Would Have Done It

Susie says she is certain Mr. Honey wakes up and feels the same way about me that I do about him. I can tell you Mr. Honey certainly does not think that. He loves me to pieces and he thinks I'm fun, but I am a drain on that man's sensibilities.

Case in point: y'all remember me saying that since I can drive the new vehicle that we are now a two car family: his car is my car, my car is his car we now have options when we leave the house. He is free to take the car when he feels that would be a better choice than taking the van and because of that, I had to clean out the car which could no longer be a storage area for my stuff.

I didn't say when I would clean out the car. Just that I would have to clean out the car. It wasn't that messed up to begin with. On Mr. Honey's planet, something shouldn't 'have to be cleaned' it should just 'be cleaned.' On my planet: something to do; on his planet: something that's done.

So I walked into the basement the other day and noticed my car mats were shampooed and hanging to dry. I did not do that. I'm pretty sure the dog didn't do that. That only leaves Mr. Honey or the guy who broke into my car and took the ashtray of change out and I don't think he would do it.

I was afraid to look in the car because I know he committed a cleaning. I had to take the car somewhere and when I walked out and looked in it I saw nothing. Not a scrap of paper, not my little basket of trinkets, not my music. Nothing. All of it gone. I'm going to assume it's in the trunk and not in the garbage but I'm too afraid to look and I don't want to ask.

I cannot tell whether or not I am complaining. I do know this, I left the house to ship off an order and stopped at Popeye's for some rice. It would not have been unusual for me to get a biscuit to nibble on. I couldn't do it. I have imposed a rule that I cannot eat in my car. I cannot eat in my car because it is no longer my car. It is now the car. Cannot eat in the car. Sure as heck cannot eat in the van.

This could actually be a good thing.

See? I'm not complaining. But I would have cleaned out the car - eventually. But since he's done it, I am obligated to maintain it. That man knows how work his woman. He knows me quite well.

Here are the two projects I am working on: one on the needles and the other on the hook: the one on the left is a strip from an afghan I am knitting. The colors are just a little faded but it is made from the same yarn I used to make the white granny afghan. It's very interesting how the same yarn can look so different when used in a different pattern. The one on the right is the new granny square afghan. This time granny's deep red and purple though in the photo she looks a little brown. I'm working them both every day and it's hard to tell which one is going faster. I started the strip one first just days before the granny. It's hard to tell but Mr. Honey took a look at the granny and said, "You're making fast progress on that one."

Neat and observant.

All Systems Go

Y'all know what this means. It means I'm going to try and logic away something that probably doesn't have a lot of logic behind it.

Like why it's July 17 and it friggin' freezing in the house and we don't have the air conditioner on. We do have some open windows to let in the fresh air - but it's supposed to be fresh summer air. You know Summer? Change the first vowel and that's what we're supposed to be doing - Simmer(ing). I cannot explain why global warming causes us to be cold.

I can't explain all the recent interest in Mr. Honey's Old Chevy. Did I ever tell you the story about his Old Chevy? It's so..male. When Mr. Honey and I started dating the subject of cars came up (I have no idea how - I was driving a Pontiac Sunbird - no one talks about that on purpose) but Mr. Honey mentioned he drove an Old Chevy when he wasn't driving the company car. (I could care less about what cars men drive which is why I'm not sure how this conversation came up.) Anyway, I was out with some friends who knew him and I mentioned I started dating him and said, "He mentioned the strangest thing. He wanted me to know he drove an Old Chevy. Like I care."

The two of them practically threw themselves on the floor laughing. (Yes, this has something to do with knitting; just wait.)

When they finally came back to their senses, they informed me the 'Old Chevy' was a 1965 Corvette convertible. Oh, yeah, that's funny.
When I asked Mr. Honey about it he said - with a straight face - "I didn't want you to like me for my car."

So now, of course, I hate the car. He has drained it of all fluids and taken off the tires and the car sits covered in the garage. He has not driven it in eleven of our thirteen years of marriage. I mention every year how he should get it back in driving condition and take it out for a spin or sell it. But he hasn't seemed interested in any of those three things.

But everyone else loves it and no matter what function we're at someone will slide up to me and ask me if I can get him to sell them the car. My usual answer is "If you have a buck 68 in your pocket right now, you can take it home.' Would you believe NO ONE has managed to have $1.68 in their pocket?

But two people have been seriously pressing Mr. Honey to buy the car and he asked me if I could sell it to either his brother or his best friend. Both of whom have cleared this pending purchase with their wives and they are ready for the bidding war to begin. And my answer?

Absolutely not.

I bet you're not as surprised as he was. Here's how the conversation went:
"WHY NOT?"
"Duh."
"What duh?"
"Do you want to sell the car?"
"I'd prefer to keep it but I haven't driven it."
"OK so you sell the car to your best friend or your brother both who we see on a pretty regular basis and how are you going to feel seeing your Corvette brought back to life and if you want to drive it - you will have to ask their permission?"
"That would be weird. I'd like to fix it - it just hasn't been a priority."
"You wouldn't be doing the work yourself. How bout this? Get the car fixed. Drive it yourself and if the thrill is gone, feel free to sell to whom you like. Until then you cannot sell this car to anyone you know."
So now, he's interested in getting the car repaired and driving it himself. I haven't been able to get him to consider that for eleven years. I can't explain it.

So what does that have to do with knitting?

I have to start yet another knitting project:
I can't explain that either.


020604

Two Down and More to Go

These pics don't do the projects justice. There are three colors in the afghan: orange, red and fire red and the shawl is a lilac color. I am considering retaking the pics with the items outside. I may do that sometime in the morning.
One of the things that happens when you have a bunch of wips on the needle and you alternate working them day by day - they tend to be completed in little sets or groups. These were done within a day of each other. I don't remember how the rest will shake out, but my guess is they will all be done within a week of each other. It's just how to goes. Yep, I will retake the pics. This is what I get from 3 in the morning.


I have no idea which one I will be working on next. I do know I got within a few cast off stitches before deciding there was a blanket I didn't like so it will be frogged and redone. Maybe I will start on that.

Well, it's late...and early. I need to get some sleep before getting up and doing some work. I'll get the new and improved pics up asap.

By the way - this is my 100th post!! I am going to use it to announce a yarn giveaway. I have to finish up the details and then I will do a formal announcement, but it's a chance to give away some yarn. (In case you don't have a problem receiving inexpensive yarn!)

Cuddle Up Baby Blanket - wip

So Cai is in the seam stage. I have already done one seam and strip 1 is connected to strip 2. I imagine I will do one seam a day and then get to working on the next project. Which is the Cuddle Up baby blanket.

This blanket is earmarked for a baby my nephew and his wife are expecting. The newest member of the family is only days away from his debut and then a few months to his baptism. Because my nephew belongs to my church, this blanket will be presented to the family during the baptism. (My craft group presents blankets to families at all baptisms taking place there.)

It's a pretty easy knit thus far (though I have altered some details of the pattern.) It won't be too long before this moves from wip to fo!

Cai - In Progress

It bugged me that I had nothing to show - boy, if I were in therapy that's a beginning of a session!

So, I took photos of Cai, my afghan that I have been working on since 8/8/08. This is 3 of the 5 strips that will go into the afghan. The fourth strip is done, but constructed in such a way that it cannot be added. So, I have to do the last one before I can add the next to the last one. What possessed me, you may ponder, to believe I could finish a 25 square afghan in a mere two weeks. Especially with squares like this one in the mix. I have no idea what I was thinking! So the final strip has begun and it will be finished some time soon and then the real fun begins of sewing them together. I am thinking of just doing a cross stitch in the darkest color or a simple mattress stitch. The sewing part is not my best event, but I will persevere. And I will post the final pics when all is said and done!

I Got Nuthin

Happy September!

I love firsts and I love first days of months that start on Monday. It's a quirk. Anyway, I have uploaded all the projects I've done. I've gone through all the photos and I got nuthin left. I do have some projects on my needles. Cai, my earthtone afghan is closer to the finished line. There are five strips in total and I am about to complete the 4th one. The baby blanket for the nephew arriving in a few weeks is on the needles. I have not touched it since the day I cast it on and worked on it because I will start a new project about every ten days or so (it's on my schedule) but I only work on one project at a time. So, when Cai is done, I will pick up the baby blanket and work on it. I have the second Travis Wrap to work on as well but that is still in my mind and I haven't even selected the yarn for it and according to my schedule, a new (as yet unknown) project, will come to life within about a week.

So, it's the start of a new month...and I got nuthin'. I am working on Cai to the tune of about a square a day so it should be done in about six days. That will depend upon the work schedule, of course, and the times of the Cubs games because time stands still for the Cubs. (Die hard since 1969!)

I need to stop blogging and go the store to get bathroom cleaning supplies - don't envy me my glamourous life-you, too can live this way if you choose!