That's my BOY

I just had to share this. My boy is ALL boy--and seems happiest when he's scraped and dirty. This all happened within about 24 hours, and I had to stop him from going outside and doing it all again!!

Be sure to click on it so you can see him in his full glory.
And yes, that's my Kiri shawl he's holding. I'm going to dye it when it's done, so I'm not too worried about it getting a little dirty....

He loves to steal my point protectors, and he's notorious for reaching out and grabbing my knitting needle as I'm knitting (thus undoing entire rows of work....) which produces a bit of an uproar on my part. Then he gives me this innocent look while madly waving said needle in my face. Grinning, of course.

Moebius pictures at last

Well, I've finally managed to get some decent pictures of my Moebius Neck Rings. My Mom is the wonderful model, and we're at 11,000 feet elevation in the photos. We had a quick family reunion in Colorado (see post below), and on the way back to the airport we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park. I realized that one of my goals during the reunion was to get a picture of my Mom in the scarf and it hadn't happened yet--and we weren't going to see them again until Christmas at that point. Anyway, this is the picture we came out with.

The yarn is Lion Brand Wool Ease in worsted weight, although I've also done some in Caron Simply Soft. I'd love to get my hands on some Knit Picks' Elegance yarn, which is a dk weight alpaca/silk blend. Yummy!!

Well, once again my web site is down.
The morons who sent my web site domain registration renewal notice to my old address, from which we've been gone for TWO YEARS (yet they've managed to send the monthly payment notices to the right place!). Now they've taken it down again, I assume because I haven't paid the registration fee. Huh. Am I just supposed to spontaneously send them money and ASSUME that they know what it's for? Not likely after the way they've handled this so far.

So, if you're trying to look at my web site, please be patient until the people at South Central Internet remove their heads from where ever they like to keep them put my web site back up.

Rant over.

Web Site back up!!

My web site is back up, so I'm doing a happy dance.
Now I have the graphics back on my blog, hooray!

Now I think I'm going to go lie down since I feel like crap. The second week of school seems to produce a wave of illness...two weeks being about the incubation time for a lot of things. On that happy note, I wish everyone a good day.

My Web Site Is Down :-(

Well, I checked my blog last night and saw a bunch of little red Xs. Not good. So after some (incoherent) fumbling around, I realized that MY WEB PAGE WAS DOWN. NOT good. Turns out the internet provider (South Central Internet in Southern Utah--they bought out the ISP I liked, AccessWest in Cedar City, who were nice and very helpful and had a good grasp of the English language) was totally out to lunch and had MAILED my registration renewal to the address we moved away from TWO YEARS AGO.

Can you tell I'm a little peeved???? Needless to say, I'll be moving to another hosting provider. Of course they were totally willing to continue to charge me to HOST my web site, despite it not being up. So until they get their acts together, we'll all be looking at little red Xs on my blog and everyone will think I've gone out of business when they can't pull up my page and the emails bounce.

Of course, South Central Internet's slogan is "Your Clear Choice To Cellular." HELLO, "to" cellular???? This has always bugged me and is the main reason I didn't do business with them in the first place. "To" is very different than "for," which is what it SHOULD be.

From the dictionary.com web site, here are the first two meanings:
To
preposition;
1.) a. In a direction toward so as to reach: went to the city.
b. Towards: turned to me.
2.) a. Reaching as far as: The ocean water was clear all the way to the bottom. b. To the extent or degree of: loved him to distraction.
c. With the resultant condition of: nursed her back to health.

Now let's contrast that with "for:"
For
preposition;
1.) a. Used to indicate the object, aim, or purpose of an action or activity: trained for the ministry; put the house up for sale; plans to run for senator.
b. Used to indicate a destination: headed off for town.
c. Used to indicate the object of a desire, intention, or perception: had a nose for news; eager for success.

NOT HAPPY.
I'd tell you to go check out my website at http://www.piecefulstitches.com, but well, you CAN'T right now.

Progress

Well, I've actually been fairly productive lately--knitting-wise, anyway!

I made a big batch of markers, since I gave some away (waving to Karen and Louise), and I'll need a LOT for the Kiri shawl. I bought some 2" head pins and a package of 35 crackle beads and away I went! I think I came out with 32 markers (since I didn't feel like opening another package of head pins). Not too fancy, but they'll certainly work! Sorry about the blurry picture, but you can get the idea.

Speaking of Kiri, I started it last week and I think I've made good progress on it. I'm using KnitPick's Alpaca Cloud in Sunlight (and I'll probably dye the finished shawl) with US 5 needles.

I've gotten through three repeats of the second chart. I'm really happy with the way it's going! I've been practicing "knitting back" instead of turning the work and purling. It's quite interesting, and I think I like it.

I don't know if you can see the lifelines or not, but they're definitely good things. Luckily I haven't had to use them. Yet. I'm sure I'll be making visits to the frog pond, but so far I've just been able to drop stitches and rearrange them.


I'm very pleased with it so far. If you click on the picture of the shawl, you should be able to see the lifelines. If you want to. You probably don't. :-)

more time wasted

I've been looking at other's blogs, and I clicked on this site that has all these fun things. This being one:

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

More on playing knitting later....

Avoiding productivity--and succeeding beautifully!

I just can't get my act together today. We got back last night from a wonderful, if way-too-brief, family reunion in Snow Mountain Ranch, Colorado. Now I just can't get the kids' suitcase unpacked. I think I'm a little depressed because we had such a good time and now it's over. I'll just have to cheer myself up with some knitting. :-)


Here's one of the things I've been doing while not being productive:

Your Brain is 66.67% Female, 33.33% Male

Your brain leans female You think with your heart, not your head Sweet and considerate, you are a giver But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!

What Gender Is Your Brain?

Theresa is done with a Moebius!

Another of my testers has finished her Moebius Neck Ring! Theresa did a fabulous job. You can see hers here: http://tweezle.blogspot.com/

I'm so proud!

Off to the reunion

We're heading out to Colorado for a family reunion tomorrow after DD Gillian gets out of school.

We'll have missed the first day, but that's O.K.--we just feel fortunate to be able to go at all! I'm looking forward to seeing my sister who lives in Illinois and my aunt who lives in Germany--we don't get to see her very often.

This will be the first time most of the family will see DS Ryan, who is 19 months old (and cute!).

I hope to be able to talk about knitting a LOT, especially since my Great Aunt is an incredible knitter and has won numerous prizes at the Del Mar Fair (now the San Diego County Fair and the third largest in the country).

My sister procured some KnitPicks yarn for me that I'm eager to get my hands on, so that'll be fun, too. Now to just decide what to take with....

Branching Out scarf

Well, I managed to get a few more repeats done on my Branching Out scarf!

I'm pleased to say that I haven't had to visit the frog pond for three repeats now! (I got two more done than are in this picture.) Some wonderful person on one of the knitting lists I belong to (sorry--don't know who or what list) suggested marking each stitch type with a different color of marker, and that's made a HUGE difference. I also re-did the chart so that I have it five different times, each with all but one row grayed out so that I can follow along more easily. I need all the help I can get, and I'm just overjoyed that I haven't had to tink for a while.

The blue and white lines are lifelines that I need to take out. Crochet cotton out and it works much better as a lifeline than shiny thread, by the way. ;-)

New pictures of old projects

I finally got around to taking pictures of two doilies I made. They're both crocheted, and I really enjoyed making them.

Now I want to start doing knit doilies, but I have other projects I want to do first....

I think I made these last year.

August K.N.I.T. Meeting

I just got back from the August meeting of the K.N.I.T. guild, or Knitting Needles In Tulsa.

What a neat group!! There were two young teens working on scarves, which was really neat. And the older ladies are so inspiring!! The amount of talent in that room is just amazing.

I started a new scarf at the meeting, Branching Out from Knitty.com (http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/PATTbranchingout.html).
I'm pleased with it so far. I've only got one repeat done, but it's looking really beautiful! I'm using the Kid Mohair from Feza that I showed in a previous post. I didn't think it was quite substantial enough single, so I'm using it doubled. I'll get an in-progress picture tomorrow, I hope.

I'm getting way into lace, and hopefully it's something I won't have to wait until the kids are in school to do (the youngest is 18 months...). I just got my hands on a copy of Stahman's Shawls and Scarves (through our wonderful library system), which is an INCREDIBLE book. I'm trying to get my hands on a copy to purchase. I'm thinking that one of the Faroese shawls from that book will be my next project. We'll see, since I have SO many things I want to do! I also joined the Mystery Shawl along on Yahoo Groups, although I haven't started it. Haven't even gotten yarn for it. I'm really enjoying reading about everyone's progress and seeing what all the others are using for it.

Better get the kiddos to bed....

Yummy yarn

I went to JoAnn tonight for two spools of thread. Yeah, right, like I'd come out of there with just two spools of thread.

I found this neat yarn, Sensations (the JoAnn brand) Thick N Thin yarn. The scan really doesn't do it justice. It's warmer and more tactile in person.

So now I'm thinking that I must do a sweater for myself out of this yarn. Hmm, how the heck do you figure out the gauge??? Yeah, it says 8 sts and 11 rows is a 4" x 4" swatch, but I'm not sure I'm even close to that. Where exactly does one count the stitches? I think I might just knit up the whole skein, then measure it to figure out the square inches, then divide that by the 85 yards per skein and maybe get an approximate idea about how many skeins I'll need....

I also bought the coordinating Angel Hair, which is 12 sts an 16 rows for a 4" x 4" swatch. It'd be neat to combine them, and originally (in the store) I was thinking about a capelet with a band of the Thick N Thin and the remainder of the Angel Hair. But then reality set in and I thought "when do I EVER wear something like THAT??" So now I'm thinking just the Thick N Thin for a sweater. Maybe with the Angel Hair as the collar and cuffs or something. Who knows...

Home alone again

Well, not really "alone"--not with two little ones! But the in-laws have returned home after a very nice two-week visit. It was so neat to have them here, although I didn't get any blogging done (any excuse sometimes!!). The computer is in the guest room, which means a bit of a change for me since I can easily spend ALL DAY on the computer. I shouldn't, of course, but I still manage to do it with amazing regularity. It's been a good change, and I need to get motivated to do other things than look at wonderful things on the internet.

I've gotten a bunch more (I'm up to four completed) Moebius neck rings, and I've had wonderful responses from my testers. I've revised the cast-on instructions a few times now, and I'm hoping to run them by a few of the testers who haven't started yet. I've been very fortunate with the people who are testing my pattern. Anyway, I hope to take some pictures and post them in the next day or two. It's so hard to get pictures of myself in it!! Maybe I'll just resort to draping them on hangers or something.