Another idea tossed to the acrylic pile...........

I ordered a couple new books the other day on Amazon and received them today. One of the books I ordered is called 'The Knitters Year' by Debbie Bliss. I had a grand idea. I thought to myself, I'm going to do a Julie and Julia thing and knit every project in this book in the 1 year allowed, well allowed, Debbie says they can all be done in a year, so as it has been said so it shall be done right? It was a great plan, full of inspiration and a year of witty blog entries with my trials and tribulations of cranking out these patterns all the while trying to ignore new yarns, new patterns that are constantly coming on the market begging for me to own/make them. Like I said, the plan was great until page 29, aka week six, the Easter Bunny Egg Cozies and I realized that my knitting project fixation would hit me like a scorned women on a bad date.  I had a vision of one day in week 12 opening my fridge only to see carton after carton of eggs dressed as bunnies because I don't soft boil eggs, I've never eaten a soft boiled egg, so they would have to be worn in the fridge............I think it's an act that would buy me a couple weeks in a 'restful' place...........I'd hope for the Betty only because if you're going to knit Easter Bunny Egg Cozies for weeks on end you would hopefully be heavy into the drink at the same time.........I know me, and I know after looking at those things that I would knit a gazillion of them and start decorating eggs everywhere......Can't you just see the unsuspecting weekend shopper at your local grocery store opening a carton of eggs to see it festooned with a dozen bunny hats? Actually.....................

One Monday in October.......

1. The Dogs decided that 4:00 a.m. was late enough and it was time to eat.
2. I forgot to put the clothes in the dryer so the dogs lucked out and I got up anyway to take care of that.
3. I didn't go to the store last night for coffee and said a bad word because of it this morning.
4. In the middle of my shower at 5:00 a.m. the power flicked on, off, on, off, on, and then off..............I was out of there lickety split, (scared of the dark in showers when I'm naked, probably too many horror movies during my spotty youth).
5. I'm wearing damp underwear........see #2
In order to brighten my day I am adding this wonderful picture of the dogs from Friday afternoon.........seeing blown up makes me believe that Quintus knew he was being watched just not from where.....hint; it's the knot hole in the fence.

and so then I thought..................

My mind is wandering today....more so than usual and the goods I usually use to rein it in aren't quite up to snuff.........so what does that mean for you? It means you get to read what I'm thinking for the next few minutes during lunch.....

1. My youngest brother was married this past Saturday to a woman who I adore, and after meeting her family, I adore all of them as well, plus there are more people to start randomly knitting for....

that is the shawl I made for Margie to wear, she loved it and it looked absolutely stunning on her!

2. It's October and that means pumpkin patch. Typically I prefer to go every single weekend in October but things have been a bit hectic and so I must settle for this coming Saturday with D as my only jaunt.

3. I've been in a bit of a snit lately and haven't quite pin pointed why as soon as I know, it's possible I'll let you know.

4. Chocolate Pudding is pretty much the best lunch ever especially when paired with a sock that I am working on, or not working on at the moment.

5. My nephew is turning 5 today, I can't believe it's been five years!!
Happy Birthday Bird :)

6. I have some Halloween parachuter toys that I found the other day, I might let them fly a bit later...........











on that note, I'm going to finish my pudding and turn that heel..........

tools of the trade and potential threats to safety........

These are cable needles.....well 3 of them are 'officially' cable needles the last two on the right are technically Double Point Needles (DPN's) for knitting bitty things in the round like socks, baby hats, and hamsters, etc.
As you can see there are a number of varieties to choose from all the way from the U shaped one, far left, the hook, and the straight ridged for knitterly pleasure and grip.

I tend to lean towards the DPN's though simply because I can usually find them faster than my tiny cable needles. I've never liked the hook and the U shape can twist around on me and get slinky. However, my preference is for a straight needle that when I'm not on a cable row can easily be tucked up into my hair for safe keeping......this is where the danger comes in....and sometimes slight embarassment....
1. if you knit in bed like I do, you can fall asleep with the cable needle in your hair which could quit possibly if you are having a restless nights sleep but a hole in your noggin. Or, worst case scenario and one that has happened to D, it can somehow jump from your head to your partners side of the bed for them to roll over onto in the middle of the night and give them a poke.
2. if you again, have tucked your needle into your hair and part is sticking out for easy reach you have to be careful especially if you enter public domain because well, you've got a freaking needle sticking out of your hair and it's clearly not holding it in place.......
3. You can lose them if they aren't in tightly
4. If you use the ridged for knitterly pleasure ones the ridges can sometimes grab your hair and make retrieval difficult typically resulting in messing up your do at the same time.
then there is a new one i discovered yesterday.....
5. You forget it's in your hair until you are pulling onto the freeway and try to find it because not only is it a really nice wooden one, you know it's expensive because you lifted it from your moms notion stash, only to disover that it has fallen down the back of your shirt, by-passed the first stronghold (bra) and made a direct entry right into your..........well I'm guessing that mom isn't going to want her needle back and I have a bandaid there today........

and then he says.......

Carmel: Look at that stitch definition!

D: Holy cow......my mouth is watering..........

This is going to be Jewels by Amy King
The yarn is Lambs Pride Bulky in Fuchsia

water water everywhere......

but not in this glass............

Visit Home.......

It's fall in the Midwest. My favorite time to be here, and I will be for a week, helping out around the house, playing with my nephews who now that they've been in school for a coupls seasons can carry on quite the conversations...........like where do your brains go when the doctor takes them out.....quite honestly I don't know but you know they're going to make me google it tomorrow right?

So tomorrow my 'to-do' list is Visit mom in the hospital, deliver a hat to her friend that I am making for him right now, try and find the dry cleaners on main street in hopkins to pick a sweater that she had fixed, the beauty of this errand is that I never knew Hopkins had a main street......so that'll be fun.....but best of all.......I get to enjoy the changing of the leaves and share them with you......mom is fine by the way........a not so minor surgery that went really well.....so all of us are ecstatic.............



this is my nephew dog, Rupert....he is very helpful in the kitchen......he loves to do the dishes......





my 'brother' Jake.......



the road home....

back and forth back and forth.......

I've been having a debate with myself the past week on what I want to make next.......it's not that I don't have a bunch of stuff waiting to be finished but it's fall and I'm in the mood to knit warm things for me especially since my Idlewood pullover was a smashing hit! I wore it to work yesterday and not only did I love it, so did everyone else, and I didn't look like a freak stuffed into a potato sack.....these are the things I worry about.
So now what? What project sits on my horizon? A cardigan or another pullover I wondered? Then BANG the new Deep Fall Issue of Knitty released and it smacked me like an ignored lover across my face........Cadence by Jordana Paige.

I'm also now on the hunt for the perfect yarn for the Effortless Cardigan, and lucky for me I'll be in Minnesota next week and know of a couple fantabulous yarn shops that will have just what I need.....

As for Cadence......I have six beautiful skeins of Dream in Color in a deep red wine color that I bought last year at So Much Yarns annual sale that will be absolutely perfect! In fact I'm going to raid the stash right now for it and I won't take any lip from it this time!
Anywhooo, I'm off to Minneapolis tomorrow for a week, back to Seattle for a couple days then back to Minneapolis for another few days......talk about back and forth. I'm off to wind up some yarn.

p.s. did you know that when Gabby is upset she whines like Chewbacca from StarWars?