Knittin' and Lovin' It

Finally Have an FO

It's been awhile since I last posted. Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July (for those whole celebrate). We didn't go see the fireworks because they don't start here until 10:15pm and that's just way to late to be keeping the girls up. Their normal bedtime is 8:30pm so I doubt they would have made it that late anyway. Maybe Kaity would have. We told her that next year she could go if she took a small nap during the afternoon.

I need to rant about inconsiderate A**holes that decide it's funny to set off fireworks that they aren't suppose too. Honestly last night around 11:20pm we had a explosion that rattled our windows. It sounded like EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) set off one hell of a bomb. This wasn't a normal firecracker boom here it was a half stick of dynamite type boom. You mix stupid men*, beer, and fireworks and you get a recipe for destruction. I'm sure that I'll be hearing on the news that some moron blew his hand off. Guess what, I won't feel the least bit sorry for him! Thanks for allowing me to rant.

* No I do not think all men are stupid! There are some smart ones left in this world. If you want to see stupid men at their finest watch Jackass or Jackass Number Two. If you like crude humor and people doing ridiculously stupid things that cause them lots of pain or could get them killed then the Jackass movies are for you.

I finally have all my Country mp3s loaded into iTunes. I've been putting it off for months now because it takes forever to reload all of them since there is over 1100 songs. The stink part is that I've lost three complete albums and 7 single songs.....super sigh! Somewhere along the line iTunes deleted two different accounts that I had purchased music under. Without the account name (email address) and password the mp3 will not play. You need to unlock it. I don't share my mp3s so all the write protect crap makes my life more difficult. I think it's completely worthless when you can removed it for the price of a blank CD and about 10-15 minutes of your time.

Now on to knitting. Yes, I have been doing a little knitting.

I finished Kaity's Skirtsicle (Rav)(non Rav).

She loves it and I'm loving the fact that it's not on my needles anymore. I used a 16" US7 Knit Picks circ and Peaches & Creme, color Lemonade. It's a very simple pattern with just enough to keep it from becoming boring. I knit most of it in the car on days when we were out shopping.

I finished another hat for Kristy's Hat Quest.

There's a Ravelry group for this now. I used di.Ve Teseo and the pattern He Gives Me Butterflies (Rav)(non Rav). This is a super cute pattern that is knit flat and then seamed afterwards. I doubt it would be very difficult to knit this in the round.

I finally started a pair of socks for myself.....woot!

Their just a simple toe up 2x2 ribbed sock using my June shipment from the Art Walk sock club by Zen Yarn Garden. I used a Turkish cast on and will be doing a short row heel.

I picked up a couple of books.

Who can resist stitch pattern books? Not me! Closely Knit has some great patterns in it. If you're on Ravelry you can check out some of the patterns here.

I placed my 7th order a few weeks ago through Woolgirl and now I'm now officially part of the Wooly Woolgirl Club. You can go out to my Flickr page to see what I got.....don't want to spoil it for anyone who doesn't want to know what they might get. This box came as a complete surprise to me. I didn't realize the box had been mailed.

Bree has a new love....WALL-E!

We picked up a stuffed WALL-E from the Disney Store website. Bree loves WALL-E and has been hugging this plush since we gave it to her. Shawn and Kaity went to see WALL-E last night and really liked it. We've decided that Bree is just too young to go see it in the theater but we'll buy it when it comes out on DVD.

We just got a major smack in the wallet the other day. We found out that we can't keep our car registered in Idaho like we were originally told. The lady at the DMV that Shawn talked to gave him the wrong information. So we have to move our tags to Montana pronto because our tags expire at the end of the month. Now this would be super cheap for us if I wasn't on the title of the stupid car. Since I'm on the title we have to pay half the taxes and a bunch of other fees so instead of $4 fee they charge military to register our car. It's going to cost us almost $200. So gearing up for the possibility that we aren't going to be able to come up with all the money with this short of notice I'm selling some yarn out of my stash. If all goes well I won't need to use the money but I figured it's better safe then sorry.

Edit to add: That I've removed my destash page from Ravelry. Frankly it burns my butt to be called out on something that isn't even in the guidelines and that apparently some people are allowed to break. If you want it to be a rule put it in the guidelines and call everyone on it. Don't randomly pick people to reprimand. I listed my stuff on ebay and if it sells it sells. At least ebay's rules are clear cut and easy to follow. Needless to say I will not list stuff in the ISO/Destash group anymore.

Been Busy

To the jerk(s) who dumps their garbage in the recycle bins at the recycling center...

It is not funny when you throw your full bags of garbage into the recycling bins. When you do this, those of us who are actually recycling have no where to put our stuff. You can not use the excuse of "I didn't know it wasn't a dumpster!" All bins are well marked and the dumpsters are the humongous bins that you have to climb up the stairs for. So you are either extremely stupid or very lazy. I vote for very lazy with a touch of stupidity. Get off your lazy a** and climb up the stairs. If I can climb up the stairs then you can too!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system I can tell you all "sorry for the lack of blog posts." Things here have been busy and I've managed to come down with a head cold again. So I'm slogging through things here and haven't had much energy to do anything else.

I received these a few days ago.


Mrs. Superwash showed up on my door step with her two non superwash children in tow...Don't ask me how Mr. & Mrs. Superwash had two non superwash children....it boggles the mind. With the loss of Mr. Superwash, Mrs. Superwash was no longer able to support herself and the children so she came to me looking for shelter and support. The family has welcomed them with open arms.

Kaity and I will hopefully dye these three skeins this weekend or next weekend. It's going to depend on how cruddy I'm feeling. I bought her 1 skein of superwash worsted and 2 skeins of bulky Bare yarn.

I also got my 2nd TLE Sock Club shipment. If you want to see it click HERE. I love the yarn, pattern and goodies.

I started a headband for Kaity.


The pattern is The Woven Headband. I'm using Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, color Bittersweet. The yarn doesn't have much bounce in the skien but it does when it's knit up in the woven cable.

That's the extent of what I can show you. I ripped out my TLE Swap Pals project. I didn't like the pattern, I didn't like the yarn so it was frogged and I ordered new yarn. The USPS has not seen fit to give me my darn box so I'm still waiting. It should have been here yesterday so hopefully it shows up today.

I didn't finish the Everlasting Bagstopper. The handles are still about a foot shy of being done. I will save you from the boringness of that photo. I need to work on it this morning.

I'm just about done with the first section of the Bee Fields Shawl once again no photo because it doesn't look much different then it did the last time I posted a pic of it. I've knit another inch on Rogue. I'll post a photo of Rogue after the front and back parts have been knit and joined back together.

The IRS deposited our stimulus check. Since I still have a bunch of work that needs to be done on my teeth (and I'm trying to be responsible) there will be no shiny new iMac sitting on my desk, maybe next time *sniff, sniff*. So instead I bought the yarn for Shawn's sweater from WEBS sale. He originally picked out the Charcoal Grey Cascade 220 but there weren't enough skeins so he went with Sapphire (#9332) instead. It looks grey on WEBS site but after lots of searching I think Purlsoho has the best photo (just in case you want to see). I threw in a couple skeins of the Valley Yarns Huntington sock yarn to try. At $4.29 per 50g hank you can beat the price.

I'm not going to be able to show much from my either TLE order I've placed because most of it's for my swap pal. I did throw in a skein of Perchance to Knit Pamper Me sock yarn for myself. I got Gingerbread....yum!

I'm off to throw the dirty clothes down the stairs and finish the dishes. I know, I know, what a glamorous life I live. Everyone wants to be me!

New Project

**ETA: the pictures. I posted without the pictures. It's going to be a long day.

As if I really needed to start another project. I finished up my moms first sock yesterday so I celebrated by starting a new shawl.



The pattern I'm using is Show Your Colors Shawl. It's a very simple shawl pattern. I'm using to strands of Knit Picks Shimmer, color Grape Hyacinth.

Here's the first Penllyn Sock.



This one was a fast knit, three days for the first sock. Keep in mind that this is the socks I knit on all night long when Kaity was sick.

I've died and gone to....well you all can figure out what I was going to say. I just read out on the Ravelry forums that the yarn shops in Helena went out of business. The shop here in town is very limited...emphasis on very! So I guess Billings has my nearest yarn shop and Billings is like 4 hours away. Makes me almost want to cry.

I'm really kicking myself in the butt because there are like 3 shops located outside of the base there in Cheyenne, WY and that was our second pick. It was our second pick because it put us farther away from my family. Cheyenne is less then two hours away from Denver, CO. *sigh* Should have picked WY. Oh well, stuck here in Montana it is....guess I'll make the best of it. Internet buying here I come.

Time to stop feeling sorry for myself and get the kiddo out the door for school.

Yarn, Moving Rants and Socks

Wow, what a combo in that title. How mad would you all be if you opened a box and seen this:



Yup, the stuff was just thrown in. There was no paper stuffed in the box to prevent shifting or the box from crushing in. This box is full of software, video games, and movies. Most of the stuff isn't that big of a deal but the idiots put my Nintendo games in there without securing them. The games are cartridges and can easily be damaged if packed incorrectly. We haven't come across any broken stuff in boxes yet but we haven't unpacked everything yet.

We've found chunks of wood missing out of dressers and desks and the couch has a big cut in it from someones razer blade. This is the reason why I have crappy furniture. I long for the day of retirement so I can start replacing the beat up furniture with nice stuff. Unfortunately I'll have to do it one room at a time but I'm looking forward to it.

To top it all off my washer was messed up in shipment. The front panel was smacked and the circuit card was damaged. Thankfully I have the extended warranty through Sears so it's 100% covered, which is a good thing because between parts and labor it's going to cost over $400.....ouch!

To sooth over the madness of the poorly packed box...yarn!!

I got the boxes filled with Pink and Purple Cascade 220 wool. Kaity has already laid claim to the purple for a sweater. I'm thinking about making her this sweater.

Today we broke down and purchase Sirius satellite radio for our car. The radio stations in this area aren't all that great. I've found one country station I like but I have to have something to listen to besides country.

Here's a shot of the Butternut socks.

I think they are striping pretty close. They are off a little but hey what do you expect. I didn't write down where in the color repeat that I started the first sock so I had to guess. I only had to rip out the cuff once. I'm about 10 rows from starting the heel flap.

Montana, Here We Are!

**Warning: Long Post, No Knitting Content, No Pictures!

Yesterday is a day I'd probably rather forget.  We found out the kennel closed at 6pm so we had to basically drive as far as possible and stop as little as we could.  We still didn't make it.  Missed the kennel by about 40 minutes.  We did find someone who was willing to take them for the night.  They are being moved back over to the other kennel where they will have 24hr access to the outside, weather permitting and they are a lot closer to the base for easier visiting. 

So needless to say I have no pictures of my travels which really bummed me out.  I did get a starfish necklace with an opal in the middle when we stopped in Spencer, ID for lunch.  I'll take pics later for the next post.  It's cute.

Good News:
The house they have for us is a newer home and according to others who are in them, they are really nice and we are going to love it.  It's just a two story, no basement and it has a garage....yippy! 

Bad News:
The house isn't going to be available till like 10 Oct.  So we are staying in a 1 bedroom TLF until the house is available.

Kinda Good News:  They are going to try to move us to a 2 bedroom TLF after this weekend.

More Bad News:  Our dogs have to stay in the kennel until we get our house.  They can't come anywhere near TLF.  If they come inside they'll charge us $150 and kick us out, so they'll be staying in the kennel.  I miss the little pains already.

Even More Bad News:  All the stuff we brought with us has to go in storage.  Yup, my yarn too.  There is absolutely no room for storage in this place.  Talk about a super bummer.  My yarn is going to be in storage for the next month....sigh!  I may try to squeeze an order on payday from Knit Picks for some yarn for the baby blanket, sock yarn, and a few more 32" circ needles for sock knitting.

Kinda Good News: Since we rented our trailer from Uhaul we get 30 days free storage from them.  At least I don't have to worry about that.

Some More Bad News:  Most of our winter stuff is in storage with all our household goods so I'm going to have to go clothes shopping for all of us.  I quite sure that we are going to need warmer clothes before the end of the month.  This makes me want to smack my head against the wall.  I already planned on clothes for Kaity and Bree but not for Shawn and me.  We only need a few things to make it till our house is ready and our stuff is delivered but it's still an aggravation.

I keep wondering what else can go wrong.  Don't worry, I'm swaying with the punches and going with the flow.  I was really upset and on the verge of crying myself silly yesterday evening but today is much better.  Now Shawn and I are kinda laughing and trying to joke about it.  All that matters is that we have a place to stay, the dogs are in a good kennel where we can visit often and we have a house to look forward too.  Home is where your family is, not the house itself. 

On a bright note, I can sooooo see why Montana is called Big Sky Country.  I've never seen a sky go on forever.  The mountains and the blue sky are gorgeous.  The drive from Helena to Great Falls wasn't too bad.  I'm sure it will be much better when we make the trip without a trailer loaded with over 900 pounds worth of stuff.  We'll definitely head down to Helena to explore.

Dudes, I'm seriously in trouble, Great Falls has a Starbucks.....I squealed when we drove past it which made Shawn chuckle....he knows how much I love my coffee.  There was a double squeal when I seen the Barnes and Noble.  The base is fairly small, so I'm happy about that and it won't be long before I'm feeling totally at home here.

No Clever Title

Today's one of those days.  I'm rushing around trying to get the few things taken care of before the movers get here tomorrow and trying really hard not to cry over my cat being gone.

She's still alive and well but we had to find her a new home.  We aren't allowed more then two pets in housing up in Montana.  We tried and tried to get them to budge but they said no.  I'm not sure if I can even begin to explain how much my heart is breaking right now nor can I express how "mad" I am at the housing office up there in Montana. 

We couldn't find her a home and we decided that we really didn't want a military family to take her.  I've seen to many pets dumped off at the pound with no cares when a set of order comes down and the military member doesn't want to deal with it.  Unfortunately not everyone views pets as family members.  We took her up to Emmett to a no kill animal shelter.  The ladies up there are great, they have a good vet and all the cats are well taken care of and happy.  Even if she never gets adopted she will have a home for the rest of her life.

So the agenda today is to stay as busy as possible. 

Here's the progress on my Twisted Flower Socks:



I decided to work a slip stitch heel instead of the patterned one.  I made this decision mostly to maintain my sanity and partly because I think the heel would irritate me in a pair of shoes.

I also joined in on Secret of the Stole which starts 5 Oct.  If I remember correctly they will be taking new members until 4 Oct then the group closes.  So if you want to join in on the fun, go sign up now.

I was trying to keep busy looking for the yarn for the stole.  I decided that I want to use Malabrigo's lace weight yarn, which has caused me to run into a brick wall.  The colors I want, I couldn't find online and of course there are no retailers listed in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming that sell Malabrigo, let alone their lace weight.  I found two colors at Kaleidoscope Yarns that will work.  I'm thinking of going with Cognac or Applewood.  After I get the yarn I'll need to hunt down some beeds.

I'm Still Here

**Warning: This post mostly contains ranting!  Some knitting content located at the bottom.  I've marked the end of the rant!

I finally decided on a baby blanket pattern for my cousins baby.  Now she's having a girl but doesn't want anything girly girly or frilly.  OK, cool beans I can do that.  Will be a nice change from the soft yellow/green of Blake's blankie.  Not to mention all the friggin' pink and purple that Kaity always wants.  :~)

So here's the pattern.  It has some nice simple cables, all in all a simple pattern and will make a wonderful blankie. 
Next up, I needed to find a yarn to go with the pattern.  I decided on Knit Picks Swish superwash yarn.  Cool, they have heather colors now.  I'm tossing between the Marine Heather and Lemongrass Heather.  Now me being the smart knitter that I am, I say "Hey why leave anything to chance, I'll order the color card and go from there."   W.R.O.N.G!  Knit Picks is out of stock of the color cards for the Swish and aren't getting any in until 27 Sept.   So now I have to order one of each ball of yarn or wait until 27~friggin'~Sept.  Does anyone else see a problem with them having the bloody flippin' yarn but it's going to take them well over a month to get more color cards in or am I just getting my socks in a wad for no reason?  Ack!  Please hold on while I smack my head against the key board.   n n jdudrfdhsoijodfg

This isn't the first time I've had problems with Knit Picks.  You all remember my gripe with the shawl pattern, that they knew there was a problem with and hadn't fixed and of course they made up for that by giving me free super slow shipping.....woo~friggin~hoo they saved me a whole $2.79!  Wow wasn't that ever so nice of them.  I shrugged it off and said no biggie.  Which of course we all know turned out to be a problem too because once again 2 more skeins wasn't enough I needed more.  No biggie, Sue helped me out.  The still claim you only need 4 hanks to complete the shawl but everyone that I've talked to so far has needed one more making it a grand total of 5 hanks needed to complete the shawl. 
Then there was what I'm now starting to think of as "The Great Cotlin Debacle of 2007".   I finally gave up on that one.   I decided I didn't need the stuff that bad.  It's in stock now but I've already subbed it with other yarn.
Then I needed the US2 needle to finish my sisters tank.  When I went to order it, it was going to be out of stock for like a month.  Thankfully I was able to find a needle at TLE....Sheri to the rescue.
So now I either have to go with another yarn or I have to fork out $3.29 per ball for the yarn I just wanted a damn color card for.  So instead of it costing me $1.99 plus shipping it's going to cost $6.58 plus shipping.  I know it isn't much money but it's the point.

***End of Rant***

I've been working mostly on Blake's Blankie.  I have 3 squares and the border left and I'm done.  I'm aiming to have this completed by the end of the weekend.  I'm not going to bore anyone with another progress pic.  Trust me the pictures would be mega boring.  I'll take a pic when I have the blanket completed.
I put a few more rows on my sisters Trekking socks but once again that would be an extremely boring picture.  I'll post again when I have a little more done on them.

Bree is doing much better on her new meds.  The prevacid is doing what it's suppose to an no nasty side affects have reared their ugly heads. 
Kaity now has a spot reserved in one of the 1st grade classes in Great Falls.  Shawn contacted the school looking for a shopping list so we could get it done and out of the way.  The lady Shawn talked to also put Kaity into a class to ensure that she will have a spot when we get there.  The last thing I want is for her to get shipped off to a different school then the other kids on base that she's going to end up playing with.

I'll leave you with this:



And for all of you who have an interest, the top drawer in the background is part of my sock yarn stash. (click on picture to enlarge).  If it comes in a hank it's stored in that drawer.  The second drawer holds all the sock yarn that comes in balls like Trekking and Opal.    :~)

Idiot Moment!

Ack!  I'm an idiot.  I'll openly admit when I've done something completely stupid.  I was sitting here at the computer surfing the net, drinking my Cherry Coke Zero (mistake #1) and generally having a good afternoon.  I was avoiding the basket of clothing that needs to be ironed (mistake #2).

Some how I ended up spilling about 8 ounces of Coke into my poor Apple keyboard.  Ack!  So mistake #2 is what lead to mistake #1.  Guess I shouldn't have avoided the damn ironing. 

Now I have a a Dell keyboard hooked to my Mac computer....how weird is that?....at least it works....sorta.  There are some functions that aren't working but it's good enough until I get my Apple keyboard cleaned or replaced.  Thank god it wasn't the iBook.  I'd be in deep Doo.  I also have a sticky floor mat, a soda logged keyboard, a mess load of ironing to do after the girls are in bed and still no knitting done today. 

Yep, shouldn't have avoided the ironing!  Do you think I've learned my lesson!  Nope, probably not. 

Here's some cuteness to make up for my idiocy!

Good News/Bad News

I'll give you all the good news first:  baby Blake was born last night weighting in at 7lbs, 4oz and 19" long and full head of hair.  Of course he couldn't enter the world without a little drama.  He had the cord wrapped around his neck not once but twice.  But never fear both baby and mama are safe and healthy. 

Now on to the bad news.  The sirens and alarms played on all the speakers last night, all night long.  Lucky for me I was so exhausted that I slept through all but the last one that went off this morning around 6:30.  Both my girls slept through it too.  I think it helps that I have a radio that plays ocean waves in Bree's room.  I play it for background noise which helps because one of her bedroom walls is also one of the living room walls. 
This place we are in now is a modular home which is a mobile home with a damn foundation and slightly more solid walls.  I'm going to emphasize on slightly.  I long for a home of my own, one with real walls and better yet one that isn't attached to my neighbors house, which is what we had before we moved into this place.

So far, so good this afternoon has been quiet but I think that is attributed to the fact that SSgt "Stupid" and her sidekick Airman "Idiot" have went home for the day.  See it's women like those two that give the rest of use a bad name.  They are stupid, so there for that means that all women are stupid.  Sheesh!

Cute Card & Such

I got this b-day card in the mail this morning from my mom.  I loved it and wanted to share it with all of you.  :~)



On the inside it says "...But apparently, they don't know how to knit. Warmest Wishes"

Warning: Major Rant Content containing absolutely no knitting.  Skip to the bottom to get back to knitting if you don't want to read my rantings!  You can skip it, I don't mind.  The rant is mostly for my benefit!   :~)

This card made me crack up and I sorely needed it after the news Shawn gave me.  He was told that he needed to make sure his personal bag was packed and ready for the upcoming exercise.  So we went out and purchased all of the stuff he needed.....all $45 worth of stuff.  I'm pissed about wasting the money but I'm more pissed because this isn't the first time the little ass has done something like that.  I can't even begin to comprehend what is going through his pea brain. 
Shawn found this morning that he didn't need his personal bag because he's not deploying because we are PCSing (moving) before the next deployment.  Only the people who are deploying in Sept need to have their personal bags put together for this exercise.  Shawn's stupid little pin headed (insert a whole lot of creative cussing) weasel of a Lt (more cussing here) tells him "Oh yeah, I knew you didn't need to but I wanted you guys to show flight initiative".  WTF, does that mean Flight Initiative.  Did the idiot think he was going to gain brownie points for omitting information which in my opinion is lying!  Let me tell you what, I was ready to go in there and show that little (insert a lot more cussing) stupid moron just what flight initiative is.  He's a worthless waste of space and is sucking up valuable air that is needed for more worthy individuals.  I told Shawn to make sure the little (insert a lot of creative unladylike name calling here) turd stays away from me when I'm up there for Shawn promotion ceremony because I will not hold back my opinions.  What I'm saying here in blogland is what I'd tell that little waste of space if I ever see him.  This isn't the first time he's done something like this.  I have absolutely no problem looking someone in the eye and saying "Go away, I can't stand you".  I'm not one for politely smiling and making small talk with some one I don't like.  Life's to short to waste it on things like that.

Anyways, back to knitting content.

I've changed my mind and am now planning on using this for my SOS socks instead:

It's Scarlet Fleece It Tubular x2 sock yarn in the color Irish Eyes.  Wonder if I'll change my mind again?  I'm still planning on sticking with Elenore, a pattern by Momma Monkey.

Sorry for the rant everyone.....I just needed to get that out of my system so I can get through the rest of the day.

Happy Knitting!