I'm such a bad Girl Scout Mommy. Look at what I let my husband play with:

Notice the three leaves, and the tell tale "thumbs" on the outside of the outer leaves. You may not see the hair on the vines. If we don't hire the gardener to take it out, it will turn into lovely red orange leaves in a few months.

Another mouse has sprung from the leftover Opal. It's telling me there is one more in there, but to tell the truth, the skein is losing it's power over me. Do you see another mouse here?


And the Wildfoote sock has begun. Maybe there will be one finished by Monday


My daughter woke up with a pimple right in the middle of her forehead, and spent the morining in a pre-adolescent funk. She's really getting good at it. I'm wondering if adolescence will be worse than six months of colic.

Have a nice weekend.

And now an unusual commercial break. Every once in a while a truly amazing product comes along. My husband has been suffering from a horrible poison ivy rash. A tree in our yard had come down in a storm, and he got out his chain saw, and took it out. What a manly man! We didn't have poison ivy in our previous neighborhood, and he wasn't looking for it. The tree must have been covered with the evil vine. Poor guy. He's been sporting a rash suitable for the worst of the worst Internet dermatology pages. No, no pictures. Ick. Poor me, having an uncomfortable, itchy, oozy, unhappy husband. He found this stuff while doing an internet search looking for relief, and it has changed our week:

That Opal is bossy yarn. It will not let me cast on the Wildfoot until it is all used up. So, we now have a tiny Bear Sweater:
for
Precious Pals.and
Something that ought to have happened already.....

The leftover sock yarn mouse:

With all the self striping sock knitters out there, I'm wondering why this has not happened before. Maybe because it takes all evening to knock one out instead of an hour or less. That's the down side. The up side is that here is a perfectly good use for all those sock yarn leftovers that peek at you when you work through your stash. Cast on 50 stiches and it comes out about right. Consider a cable with a larger number of stitches. This is a six stitch braid, and it is somewhat petite. The one on the needle now will have a nine stitch braid. The self striping shows nicely on stockenette instead of seed or garter stitch. I have no clue if cats may prefer the tooth feel of the denser gauge sock yarn. Not sure I care. This guy seems worthy of cat spit.

And another thing that was going to happen - has anyone noticed that "short rows" are hot? Like articles in Vogue and patterns in Kitters with unusual uses? Kind of like the big miter square craze of a few years ago. I even signed up for the short row stripe class at the fall TKGA conference. Well, here it is - the prototype SHORT ROW MOUSE:

The pattern is not ready for prime time - adjustments need to be made. Stay tuned. I think this guy, with his flaws, is also cat spit worthy. Don't be shy about letting me know if you disagree. The comment function works some of the time, and there is always e-mail.

Socks for Nanny are done.
Thanks for the yarn, Lisa

I think I have enough of the Opal to make a small teddy bear sweater for the Precious Pals program. The dressed bear will be donated at the TKGA convention that is coming in October.

I also dug out some ancient Wildefoot, and plan to get busy on some more socks. Dang socks, I've not made any for about seven years. Now, I'm fixed on them again. Anyway, SIL does a lot of RenFaire, and makes beautiful costumes. I've been wanting to do a sock in the Mrs. Montegue pattern for her. Don't think they will be worn to Faire, as the yarn is purple, and she is not the queen.

And look how I caught GingGong this weekend:

Not sure you are going to get that tummy tan girfriend, but keep trying.

Well, I've finished knitting the guild vest to wear at the TKGA Convention over Halloween weekend, so I ought to register for the event, don't you think? Still fussing over the button choice. The picture is dark; it's cloudy this morning.


The sock is ready for the second heel to turn. No picutre until it's done.

I'm in a funk because for the first time in my 21 years at this company, I have been re-organized to a new group without any notice or input. I was pretty aggravated about it, even though this is pretty routine, and it's quite amazing it has not happened to me by now. I'm coming around, in that my skills can really help this new team, and there may be some new territory to be had. In the mean time, the end of the sales year is soon, so the only people who are really working are the ones who have a sale that can close in the next two weeks. The rest are waiting for the big re-organization that will occur in September. So, I have time to catch up on the training I've missed. Listening to training provides ample opportunity for knitting.

Have a happy weekend.

My face is red.

I'm soooo cheap, I have all free accounts, and today, I went over my limit and lost all my pictures..
So, I've upgraded.

You all should be able to see the button choices now.

Getting busy with the template, and avoiding real life.
I added Blogrolling for my link list, and should also now show up as "updated" on blogs that use that service. So many fun tools out there to muck up one's appearance, and waste time, don't you think?

Now, please, check my button page and help me choose for my silly vest.

Thanks

Help me pick my button!
I'm spending way too much time looking for buttons for the dumb TKGA guild vest. Please look at the choices, and come back and leave your vote eithe in comments, or e-mail. Thanks.

Good Morning.
It's the first day of school for our school district. We have spent the last few weeks collecting appropriate dress code clothes, a new backback with wheels and matching lunchbox as well as attending orientation. Now, it begins. Middle school

I'm not in the mood for pictures today. Let it be said that both active projects are progressing.

I know who's in a mood this morning. Miss GingGong came in from her morning prowl and found no food in her dish. She STOMPED to the dog dish to get a snack. I don't know that I've ever seen a cat stomp quite that way before. She had her way with the dog food, and I fed them both after my jog.

Snakes
Last night I was bitten by a beautiful red and black snake in my dream. It really chewed on my finger before I shook it off. The dream doctor didn't have a chart of poisionous Texas snakes, so I couldn't point at the kind that bit me, but since my dream finger and dream body was not swelling we both figured that the snake bite was not venomous. It didn't hurt much either. I came across it because I was in some sort of bicycle race, and the gutters of the streets on the course had piles of live snakes that needed to be shooed off. There was a nice brown/tan one and a green and black one in the pile with the red and black one that evenutally bit me. I don't really understand why there were so many snakes hanging out on a road full of people on bicycles.

So what does this have to do with blog content? Well, I took some pictures, and could not find the cable for my camera on my desk. I looked and found all sorts of stuff that I should be doing, and eventually looked under my desk:

Arrrrgh. There it was, with the cell phone charger, and HEY! there are my shoes!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled knitting....
I belong to a knit guild, and I have not gone to meetings since February because of Girl Scouts, business trips and vacation. I finally got in this last Tuesday. The TKGA is having a conference in our neighborhood, and the members decided to knit a vest, all the same pattern, but whatever fiber you wanted. I originally didn't really care for the pattern, but a few finished onece came in, and they were pretty cute. But the pattern called for ribbon, and I'm not going to buy ribbon when I have a spare room full of perfectly good worsted. For some reason, the group thing took over, and I did the Goldielocks swatch thing with stash yarn:
"This gauge is too large"
"This gauge is too small"
"This gauge is close enough, and I'll fix the pattern to make it work damnit"
So far, so good:


But.... what about the sock. The sock that will be Nanny's birthday present?

Shiloh says the colorway should be called "blenham", but I disagree. He is quite white after his bath, and the light parts of this yarn are very cream. And he does not have any grey spots. Maybe the "blenham with burrs in his coat who needs a bath" colorway?

And a parting shot - look what's cooling in my oven.

Atkins cheesecake. MMMMMmmmmmmm
All the fat, and no sugar.

An unscheduled update to show off some finished items. The "fall color" baby sweater and a pastel baby sweater made from e-bay leftovers. Just in time, as the August branch baby was delivered yesterday. Now, dad will have a choice.
b

And oooo ouch. I'm trying to pull this old body back into a healthy condition, and it's hard. Shiloh and I jog/walked yesterday, and in the evening I did a yoga class. The jog/walk felt good for the first time since we started, but my calves were stiff in yoga. No pidgeon pose for me. Today I feel tired. Not sore, but as if I would have been sore if I had pushed just a little more. I got talked into a beginner tennis ladder, and I play my first match in about twenty five years after work today. Pass the ibuprophen please

Sockenbrunchen
A friend from out of state came by on Sunday, and I did brunch and knit. A lovely brunch, by the way. I'm doing low-carb ( Atkins ) to lose some weight, and cooking with all that butter is so much fun. We had salmon poached in lemon, dill and garlic, topped with sour cream again, with dill and garlic. I made steamed aspargus and from scratch hollandase sauce, as well as cantelope slices to go with. And for the finale, blackberries and vanilla cream. It was a sauce-a-rama.

We sat around and chatted until it was time for friend to go find the airport and go home. I had started a sock from the prize Opal from Lisa, and turned the heel and started up the cuff. Later in the evening, I simply did not feel like doing ends and buttons on the fall color baby sweater, so around and around I went.

I'm not much of a sock knitter, and have not gotten onto the Regia/Opal self striping wagon. So, I am amused as the stripes and spots appear on their own. I'm also working the Wendy generic sock pattern for the first time. I remember doing a short row heel before, but I've never done a toe quite this way. Very clever.

Most of the foot of the sock was done on Saturday in the car driving around on errands. Well, my husband was driving so I knit. We were all over the place and eventually relaxed at the movies. I knit in the ticket line, and while waiting for the flick to begin. We saw Freaky Friday, and it was really funny. Better than we had expected. People wonder where I get time to knit, and I wonder how they can sit around in passenger seats or in movie lines doing nothing.

Now, in the drama department, GingGong decided it was once again time to demonstrate her dominance of the animal domain by nibbling Shiloh's food while he watched. I think she ate four whole pieces of kibble, but it was quite a show.

Happy birthday was followed by a down day. My increase in excercise caused my body to bonk, and I just went to bed. I had expected to have finished the fall colors baby sweater, and gotten started on some socks, but looked at the back of my eyelids instead. I guess I'll just have to ease into fitness like the old(er) lady that I seem to be now. Yoga tonight, so I ought to be feeling much better. Yawn.

I noticed that the famous Wendy has added me to her link list. Thanks, Wendy! Like so many others I have coffee with you on most weekday mornings.

School starts for my daughter week after next. What happened to summer vacation? Time to gather up the Girl Scout stuff, and get started on that as well. My "to do" list just gets longer. Sigh.

Happy Birthday to me. Big day is tomorrow. Give me a present, by leaving a comment, or linking from your blog if you have one. I've increased my excercise to try to accelerate some weight loss. I'm not happy that my body is reminding me that I am ever so much closer to fifty than I am to twenty.

Beginner news from Friday. My ersatz student showed me a lovely swatch of 4rows stockenette/two rows reverse stockenette. Very lovely. No twists, and nice tension. We're both so proud. She ripped out her seed stitch swatch, as it was not right. She apparently still can reliably determine whether the stitch below is a K or a P. I told her that I thought seed stitch was one of the hardest k/p patterns to get right. I suggested that she do a K2P2 swatch, and to be sure to end with the P2, so that every row would start the same. After some rows when the ribs begin to work up, start looking at the stitches. I'm guessing that in another month she will have more success to show off.

Look ma, no arms:

Once this little one is done, I think I'll do some Xmas socks.

And a parting shot from GingGong, who is concentrating on keeping the Internet up and running