Who monitors this sort of thing?

To preface: some of you know that I am an avid World War I historian. I have 100's of WWI books, I've seen the movies, I love the poetry, I have the knitting patterns, I have trench art & uniforms, and my dog's name is Pershing. Nuff said.

So, I was reading the paper this morning and on Monday's our paper published the couples that have applied for a marriage license, those that have been granted a divorce, and the names of the new babies born in the past week or so. I tend to read the baby names just to marvel as some of the crazy names that people give thier kids. Honestly, it boggles the mind. American's have enough trouble with spelling as it is, to give you kid a name and then replace all the logical letters with z's and y's and etc just makes no f***ing sense. But I digress. I notice that a boy has been born and they named him Kaiser James. I think ok, odd, but he can be "King James" as Kaiser is the German version of king. Then I notice his parent's last name....... (are you ready for this).... Wilhelm. Yes, you read that right, this child is named Kaiser Wilhelm!!! I really hope he decides to use his middle name for the rest of his life. I can imagine him trying to get a passport and traveling to Europe and the scene at customs in Paris or Belgium ("Humm, this says your name is Kaiser Wilhelm. I'm sorry, but we really don't want you invading our country again. Please go home.") I am just shaking my head right now. Sigh.

And now for something completly different: I organized my yarn collection over the weekend. I acquired a new book case and thus had to do some rearranging. Everything is now organized by either type of yarn (sock, cotton, alpaca/llama) or by brand (Cascade, Brown Sheep, Encore, etc.). I did manage to fill 3 trash bags with yarn to donate - it is mostly red heart and lion brand yarn and some novelty yarn that I just will never use. Ick! The collection looks lovely now and I did discover some yarns that I had purchased for a specific project and re-disovered them. Exciting! I also discoverd some yarns that made me wonder why I have so much of it. There must have been a sale or I was inspired by something at the time. Who knows.

Finally Some Photos

I have been doing a lot of knitting lately and I finally remembered to bring the camera and the computer together to download the photos. You might notice I have a new profile pic - there are the two live dogs - Lucie and Pershing. In the middle is the dog I knit for my nephew's birthday. His older brother received a knit teddy bear for his 3rd Birthday so the doggie is the latest birthday gift. I have a feeling this will become a tradition.

Here are some other things off the needles recently:

A pair of slippers I knitted for myself. The pattern is from an issue of either Interweave Knits or Vogue Knitting (a mind is a terrible thing to waste). I used a bulky yarn for the foot and then Lamb's Pride for the cuff. Ron received a pair for Christmas as well - tho not in pink.

These are the Twilight Socks from the 2 At A Time sock book. I knit these for Marilyn in exchange for artwork (see previous post). The Casper Scrapalopes logo turned out awesome! I made t-shirts for everyone and they were a big hit at the World's Largest Crop last weekend. The shirts were lime green so we really stood out! Oh, and she loved the socks! She is a Calagary Flames fan so the bright red socks are perfect!

Here is a close up of the dog for the nephew. Isn't he cute?! I used a Bernat fun fur yarn and he turned out really soft. However, the pattern said it would be approx. 11" tall and he is slightly taller than that. That is ok tho, more of him to love and cuddle with.

As I was trying to get a photo of the three dogs together Lucie and Pershing decided that it was time to rough house. I managed to get several photos of the two silly dogs as they were tearing around the living room. (Yes, that is a dog bed/pad on the floor). They finally calmed down enough to get the photo you see as my profile pic. Good Dogs!!

That is about it for now. I have two pairs of socks currently on the needles, and am getting ready to start a sweater. I also signed up for a Mystery Knit A Long thru the Tempe Yarn and Fiber Shop and that will start in May. I am looking forward to that adventure.

I Ain't Dead Yet

Wow, it has been a couple of crazy months since I last posted. Phew! I caught a nasty cold that held on for a month or so - I still have a slight cough and voice is not at 100% yet. Between work, Girl Scouts, and the knitting class starting back up again I feel that I have not been home in ages. I did attend a scrapbooking retreat over the weekend and that was wonderful, but it was followed up by 2 days of jury duty. Not as much fun. Between everything going on I really need to do laundry, finally went to the store last night as we were out of milk and fruit and other such essentials, and feel like I need to reintroduce myself to the dogs and Ron.



I have had time to knit though during all of this. I am working on a pair of socks in exchange for some artwork for our scrapbooking group. I managed to get quite a lot of the socks done during the jury duty stint. I was not allowed to knit in court, but I spend the time in recess and during the selection process wisely. Everyone around me was fascinated with the socks - the size of the needles, the color of the yarn (a dark poppy red from Happy Feet), and the fact that I was knitting socks in general. I would take a photo of them but the camera is at home (I needed to make the purse lighter). I am turning the heel on the second sock so I am on the home stretch!

I did finished knitting my Central Park Hoodie!! The color in the photo is not quite true - it looks pepto pink in the photo but the actual sweater is a dark maroon. I am still learning my camera settings. But you get the jist here. The back has cables on it as well. The sleeves are a tad long, but all sleeves are a tad long on everything I knit. You think I would learn but there you go. I do love the sweater tho. I used the Cascade Heathers yarn - lovely. I love all of the Cascade yarns and have yet to encounter a bad yarn from them.

Hey Woodchuck Chuckers...

It's Groundhog Day! (yes, I do like that movie)

The groundhog saw it's shadow this morning so I guess that means 6 more weeks of winter. Oh joy. Winter around here has been pretty nasty of late - lots of snow, then lots of wind which means lots of drifting. It makes driving just that more much fun.

I finally got a new digital camera and have finally found the time to take some photos of my knitting. Here is a really cool project. I decided that I needed a felted bag to hold my spinning wheel accessories in - instead of the nasty cardboard box that has been gracing my living room the past 6 months. This will hold the extra bobbins, the spare flywheel, and bits and pieces along those lines.

Here is the before photo - with Lucie used for a size comparasion. Now, Lucie is a lab/beagle/wingnut mix and about 45 lbs or so.

This bag is HUGE!! I used Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride worsted yarn on 10.5 needles. I could fit Lucie into this bag. Every time I held it up it just made me laugh.

Oh, please ignore the background of the photo - I've been sick and haven't been keeping up with the cleaning and suchlike the past few weeks. Those of you that know me - the above sentance will make you laugh as I really don't clean that much when I am healthly. Life is too short - I'd much rather knit.

Anywho, I finally felted the bag on Sunday. I used the wonderful method of throwing the thing in my washing machine and felted it that way -much quicker and easier than doing it by hand. here is the final size:

Two different views - one with Lucie laying on the bag and one beside. She is chewing on her bone so she really could have cared less about what I was doing. Can you believe how much it shrunk down? Amazing!! Ron was really impressed by the felting process when he saw the "after" bag. It is really pretty too.

My current project is the Central Park Hoodie - a beautiful sweater with cables. I have finished the back and sides and started on the sleeves yesterday during the Super Bowl. I had to set it down during the last 5 minutes of the game tho. Boy, those Steelers really know how to make their fans sweat. But at least they finally won - whew!

It's All Mine

Well, I made my final car payment today! Woo Hoo!!! I bought my Buick Rendevouz 5 years ago and today I paid it off. Now, that extra money each month can go to pay off the yarn balance on the credit card. Ha Ha.

This photo was taken a few days after I bought the car in January 2004. I love my car! It fits the dogs (even though they both want to ride in the front seat at all times), my scrapbooking gear, my knitting gear, and the Girl Scouts. And it feels so great to have it paid off!!

Ready or Not

Well, I have the presents ready to mail (wrapped, in the car and I'm headed to the Post Office today). I have a few more rows to knit on the last knitted present and when I bind off and weave in the ends it means I am DONE with my Christmas presents. I just have a few stocking stuffers to buy and I have to wrap the presents for my family, but for all intents and purposes I am done!! Wow, and I thought I would be knitting right up until Christmas - but I have two whole weeks to spare. Of course, the presents I'm sending to the UK will probably arrive late (sorry Mel) but that is ok.

An artic cold front is arriving in Casper this weekend - temperatures in the single digits for the highs! Buuuurrrrr. I think my hand knit scarves, mittens and hats will be getting a workout next week. Woo Hoo!!

We have drifts of snow and ice on our back deck from the snowstorm we had on Monday. Pershing and Lucie love to much on snow and ice - in fact, they each beg for ice cubes when I am at the freezer. Odd. So anywho, everytime the dogs go out they munch on the ice. But when they come back in, they each pick up a chunk of ice from the deck and bring it in the house to chew on. So, slowly but surely my deck will be cleaned off - one piece at a time. Of course one day Lucie got a little over ambitious and tried to bring in a 2 foot icicle and I made her leave that outside. I do have my limits.

Still no photos as I still have not found my camera. I have a real mystery on my hands here. I really hope it turns up soon.

'Tis the Season

I'm only going slightly crazy this holiday season.

I had a huge list of things to do this weekend - which included a bunch of Christmas knitting to catch up on, baking, shopping, wrapping, etc. I managed to do everything expect the Christmas cards and wrapping.

I have an excuse for the wrapping tho - I normally wrap on the bed in the War Room but I had a knitted present blocking on the bed over the weekend. As it is now dry and blocked I can start wrapping tonight. I also needed to finish knitting some gifts before I could actually wrap them and send them off (novel idea I know.)

I have also misplaced my digital camera. I could have sworn it was in my car but lo and behold it is not there. Hummm. I took knitting photos yesterday using the "old fashioned" film camera. But I really need to find the digital camera as it has some other photos on it I need to work on scrapbooks. If anyone sees a silver digital camera (I don't know the brand - it's silver) with a broken lens cover (I dropped it at the the dog park on day - mittens and cameras don't mesh very well) please let me know. Maybe the dogs took it as they were tired of having their photo taken all the time. This also means that I don't have any photos to post at this time. The cable to connect the camera to my computer is sitting here ready to be used, but no camera.

My LYS (local yarn shop) is having a party tomorrow night and we have to bring in yarn from our stash for a gift exchange. I had a hard time trying to find some yarn to gift. We had a limit of $20 worth of yarn. I don't want to be mean and give out all of the little leftover balls of yarn from years of knitting projects, nor do I want to give the really crappy yarn. I managed to find some chenille yarn and some nubbly stuff purchased at a garage sale. I figure that they add up to about $20 of yarn. Who knows. I need to wrap the box still so I have the rest of the day to change my mind if I want.

My final scrapbooking retreat of the year is coming up this Saturday. Crop 'n Carols! I am still working on my European Invasion album (from my year abroad about 13 years ago). I also have a calendar to work on, I just need to find the photos. There is probably something else but it is not occuring to me right now.

I still have 1.5 presents to knit, and I need to buy some stocking stuffers for the family. Oh, and I need to make a gift to take to my Girl Scout meeting - under $8 and has to be hand made. Humm. Something knitted I'm guessing.