I'm Still Alive...

WARNING: Heavy with photos!

even if I am a little battered and bruised... Sorry I haven't blogged much this past month, my life has been rather hectic. It seems that when it comes to my life the rule of three seems to be a minimum number and not a max.

I'm trying very hard not to dwell on the curve balls that have been thrown my way, but when the ball shooter goes crazy and several balls are coming all at once it's really hard. I had some womanly issues so I made an appointment with the doc, as an ex-bf used to say "the below the belt doctor" because the word gynecologist made him queasy *yeah, that relationship didn't last very long* Anyhoo, issues were found and the first course of action this doctor recommended was a hysterectomy. Being that I have not had my kids yet and very much want to have some, completely lost it in the office when that news was delivered. After doing a little research on my own and talking with others, I've decided to see another gyno for a 2nd opinion. I requested a copy of all the test results. Of course I had to try and read through them all to see what I could understand, and of course had to look up all the medical terms that I didn't understand and that was just getting me more depressed. So I put it all away, took some deep breaths and just waiting to hear what the other highly recommended gyno will tell me. I have the appointment next week on the 22nd and I already feel my anxiety building up. I seriously need a chill pill.

Then I learned that my car needs a new transmission and of course I tried to get Honda to replace it since this is the 2nd time the transmission went bad on this car!! Needless to say, they will be doing nothing and this will probably be the last time I buy a Honda. One pays the extra money for certain things because of the reputation behind those names and I feel that Honda has not lived up to its reputation with me. Right now it's all too much to think about, so I continue to drive my car cautiously and check the transmission fluid at least twice a week!

I am interviewing around at middle school and high schools because I really need to get out of my school and away from a very bad boss. Talk about stressful!

In April there's was National Library Week and on Wednesday of that week is usually "Thank Your School Librarian Day." One of the parents in my community remember this and had her little girl deliver these!



Don't they look yummy!!



She gave a box to me and a box to my assistant! They tasted three times better then they looked! *licks her lips*

So, is it just my cat that loves to crawl into things?? Can you see him??





Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!!!!

I know I'm really behind the eight ball on this one. I had a blast!! On Saturday I met up with a bunch of the gals from my Wed. night S'nB group. We met at 6:30 AM at Dunkin Donuts, had breakfast, hit the ATM machine and then the festival! We were eager beavers that were parked and walking around by I think 7:45AM. We walked around, fondled and caressed yarn, laughed a whole lot, ate lunch, met other friends while meandering around, laughed some more and of course purchased a whole shit load of yarn!! I practically blew my wad at the first stop: Brooks Farm. OMG! Talk about some heavenly goods. I think Denise, Suzanne and I were ready to topple over the stand, get butt-nekked and roll around on their yarn! I don't know how I managed to miss their "orphans and widows" section last year, but I found it this year and man I cleaned up! I found enough yarn for TWO sweaters/cardigans and TWO shawls from the orphans rack! And I was the last one in our little group to search this rack! And the people running that booth were SO helpful!! I was very disappoint to hear that someone had stole a shawl from that booth. I mean, knitting is what we do! How could someone STEAL someone else's work and try to pass it off as their own?!?! It was really disheartening to read about all the mishaps that occurred at the festival, especially all the occurrence that happened over night with animals being let lose and barns being broken into!

Here is all the luscious yarn that I purchase over the two days of the festival. Denise is such a bad enabler! Don't even think about trying to save money while going yarn shopping with her! She could talk a worm into buying dirt!! But I still love you Denise!


row 1: Unique Sheep - Tinsel Toes, Spritely Goods - Sylph, Knitswithsticks - Sock, Tess' Designer Yarn - Super Socks and Baby
row 2: Tess-Super Socks and Baby, Prism Yarn - Cable, Brooks Farm - Acero, A Twist of Peruvian - Alpaca
row 3: A Twist of Peruvian - Alpaca, A Twist of Peruvian - Alpaca, Autum House Farm - Sagamore, Brooks Farm - Primero
row 4: Brooks Farm - Primero, Brooks Farm - Mas-Acero, Brooks Farm - Mas-Acero, Unique Sheep - Luxe

Sunday, I took my niece, Julianna to the festival. It was part of her birthday present. She's a real animal lover and I knew she would get a huge kick out of seeing all those animals. But this girl floored me when she said she really wanted to see the Alpacas! I had no idea of what an alpaca was till I started knitting! That doesn't seem like a common animal that a third grader would just know about! As you can see from the pictures, she just had a field day with the animals. She kept picking up the straw and trying to feed the animals. I think the funniest pictures are of her with the llama. Look at the llama pictures - one she's just reaching to touch it and the other she is actually touching the llama, tell me it doesn't look like that llama is smiling when she touches it! I laughed so hard when I saw that!



Man, I thought Denis was bad to go yarn shopping with, my niece is WORSE! We went to Tess' Yarns first and I told her to pick out a skein of sock yarn and I would make her a pair of socks. Temporary Insanity on my part - I don't think I've seen my niece wear socks except when my sister makes her wear them when they are going to the airport! But you think Julianna reminds me that she doesn't wear socks?? Nooooooooooooo.

After she picked out her first skein, it was all down hill from there! She was caressing skeins left and right and when she touched something she really liked, she found a color she liked and hand to me saying, "Here, buy this!" Can you guess what she hands me? Just take a wild guess! ...

A $60 skein of cashmere!! When I asked her what she wanted me to make... "a Poncho!" Sheeeeeeeeeeeet. That's one hell of an expensive poncho! So, being the nice Zia that I am, I tell her to look at some of the "fun" yarns for a poncho. What does she find?? A very nice skein of some really neat yarn that would make a great poncho! Go ahead, ask.

How much was the skein??

$140!!

I nearly fainted! Now, don't get me wrong, it would have made one hell of a neat poncho for the girl, but I was not spending that much on a girl who's been lovingly nicknamed Pigpen in the family! Need I say more? I then explained to her how you shouldn't just buy yarn. *HA! Can you believe these words were coming out of MY mouth??* That you really should know what you want to make so that you know just how many skeins you need to buy and what the WHOLE project will cost in the end! *Boy, I really should learn to take my own advice!!* After that, she was saying, "Here... oh never mind YOU won't buy it at that price!"

*LAUGH*

I have no idea where she got the idea that I was Rockafeller's daughter! Well, by the time we left the festival, she had picked out that brightly colored Tess yarn for socks, the Unique Sheep Luxe for some fingerless gloves, and the huge skein of Prism yarn for a poncho. She also had her first corn dog at the festival!! She was nice enough to bring home the cotton candy to share with her sister *with a little consumption control assistant from me* and a bag of Cinnamon roasted pecans for the rest of the family.

Well, I may not have been bloggin much lately, but I sure have been knitting!! Here's is the Shallowtail Shawl I made for my mother for Mother's Day. It wasn't done in time, but she will be back down here in two weeks for my aunt's 70th birthday party and I'll give it to her then so she can wear it to the party.


Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl
Yarn: Handmaiden Seasilk - Capri clorway
Needles: KnitPicks Options size 4, 5, 6, 8, 10
Modifications: I did not make the nubbs and instead added beads. I also slowly increased the size of the needles I was using as I work the shawl. When I got the section there I added the beads I went up to a size 5, then size 6 when I started the final chart and increased from there. I wanted to get nice pointy ends. I wish I had done an extra repeat of the section where I added the beads, because I think I had enough yarn left over to do that. And It would have been nice for the shawl to have been just a tad bigger. I love how it turned out!



Here's is a simple shrug that I made for my niece for her birthday. She wore it all day at the festival!


Pattern: 6 rows of garter stitch, ST st to desired length, 6 rows of garter stitch, bind off, seam sides
Yarn: Moda Dea Ticker Tape - Charade
Needles: size 19

Next up will be an experiment! I purchased this yarn online. I bought 3 skeins of this lace weight yarn (2 for myself for a lace shawl and 1 for a friend for her birthday). The picture that was one the website did not clearly show how bright the orange really is in this yarn. The picture on the website was much richer with more of a red tone to it. I was flabbergasted when this was in the package! I panicked a little because I am not an orange person by any stretch of the means, and it would have cost me more to ship the yarn back then what I originally paid for it! But I knew KozyKitty does wear orange (she's the birthday friend that I ordered the skein for). And when I gave it more thought, I knew my younger sister did wear orange as well, so I thought OK, I'll make my sister a shawl with the yarn. I pulled the yarn out of my stash over the weekend and decided to go ahead and cast on the Shetland Triangle for my sister. I wound up the skein and then re-wound it doubling the yarn by pull the yarn from both ends, thus cutting the skein from 990 yards of lace weight to 495 yards of doubled up lace weight. That color that looks grey in the photo is really a camel tan color! I'm really not liking this colorway. I'm sooooooo not an orange person! Now I'm second guessing whether my sister will like it. It might be a tad to bright of an orange for her. So what's my solution? I'm going to go ahead and finish the shawl. With the left over yarn I'm going to make a swatch and send it to my sister and get her opinion on the color without telling her what for. If she likes it, then I'm done and she will get the shawl as is. If she doesn't... I'm going to over dye the shawl, probably in a deep red or rich brown and then give it to her - depending on how the dyeing comes out!

I bought several skeins of yarn from 100purewool.com and this is the only colorway that I am disappointed in! Will I order from them again? Probably, because the yarn really is very soft and nice to work with and the other colors I got were just gorgeous! Of course, I will probably check around on Ravelry first though :)



What you opinion of that colorway?

Next up in the Luna Moth Shawl which is to be a birthday present for my older sister. You know, I have really got to start knitting things for myself!! I went on a yarn crawl back at the end of March, and I bought two skeins of Plymouth Yarn - Buckingham (80% Baby Alpaca 20% silk). OOoo la la! It's like knitting with Buttah! This yarn is so soft! Now the color in the first picture is not the true color of the yarn. Check out the picture under neither. That's the true color of the yarn!!



Below is the true color of the yarn.



And yes, I am adding beads to this one too! Kozykitty helped me find the perfect color to go with this yarn! These are Miyuki 6/0 Seed beads in Matte Met Patina Iris.



Last Wednesday, I got home from my S'nB group to find this:





He managed to dig into the center of the skein to fin the tail and then managed to pull it all over the living room! I shit you not, that is exactly where he was when I walked though the door! Silly me for thinking that if I tucked in all loose ends he wouldn't touch the yarn, and for several days, he didn't! I guess he was just biding his time!

Here's is my little ADHD Frisco again sleeping next to me while I knitting on the couch.