Relief!

The other day I actually thought I was going crazy. I'm not making light of people with serious mental illness, but seriously - I thought I was one more thing away from being committed. I was going nuts over the house being a mess ... dust, mud, sand ... all built up from winter. Top it off with clutter, pets and just generally lazy practices from the two adults living here (yeah one is me) and my eye started twitching. Too many to do's - drop off taxes, car inspection sticker, dog vet, renew dog license, this and that and pay the bills and shopping, etc. It was all weighing very heavily on me ... and then one day, about mid morning, I got my period ... and it all made sense!

I really need to remember to mark it on the calendar ... actually hold on one minute ... ok done for this month. Oh, by the way, when I just did that I noticed that I DID mark it last month, but failed to look at it when I started going crazy this month. Usually if I see that its about that time, then I can stop myself when I start going a little bonkers, because I know it will soon pass ... helps if I actually investigate though.

I am also way behind on posting on my own blog and visiting other people's blogs, so I'll be visting you all in the next few days hopefully!

Anyway, I decided to take my own advice, and thanks to you who agreed. I put the In Dreams Shawl aside for now and started a Baby Surprise Jacket.



I'm using up some baby acrylic that I had in my stash. With this pattern you can change colors whenever and it looks great. I figured I would change when I got sick of the yellow, but to be honest I was sick of it after I cast on ... so we'll see how long I can stand it, LOL!! Usually I like to make these in fingering weight sock yarn, but a man at work requested one for someone who is due in May, so it needs to be a 6 month plus size. This yarn is sport/DK weight. The requester also demanded to pay me, so I figured I'd use $3 yarn instead of $20+ yarn for his sake.

You have got to be kidding!

So I've been working a lot and haven't had much time to knit. I decided today to knit back to the row I needed to in order to correct the In Dreams shawl where I noticed things started getting wonky. So I did that ... and found there's still a problem.



The right side has 9 stitches and the left has 7 stitches ... want to take a guess what it should be ... yeah, both sides should have 8 stitches! How on Earth did I end up with this?!?! Clearly this explains why everything after this was off by one stitch, but I'm not exactly sure how this came to be. I know at one point (but don't know what row) I was missing a stitch, and had thought that I dropped a yarn over, so I created a stitch where I thought it should be. Obviously I was incorrect in guessing where I was missing a stitch.

At this point I am seriously considering ripping the entire thing and starting over. I think it will take me longer to try and figure out where it went wrong than to knit the 28 rows again!

Urrgghhhh!!!

Someone at work asked for two baby sweaters ... might go start one of those and put this aside for a while!

All Foggy

The temperature is warming up, but there's still a lot of snow on the ground. Its been drizzling most of the day. Now its really, really foggy out there!

This weekend I worked on the In Dreams Mystery Shawl. I'm still way behind, but getting there. I'm not sure I'll ever get caught up. Clue #3 was released this past Friday and I am still only just a little through Clue #1. I think that the pattern is off by one stitch ... oh about 8 rows back. I thought something was wrong, but I thought I caught it - I was missing a stitch. Now that I've got more on there to look at, something doesn't look right. Things are not lining up. I checked the designer's site and her swatch ... and yeah, I think mine is off. So, I'm going to go crack open the Kraken and I'll be carefully ripping back 8 rows ... ouch!



I was catching up on some video and podcasts while knitting and I found that 90% Knitting had a link to Malabrigo March Madness. She also mentioned the color green for St. Patty's Day. My poor February Lady Sweater was not finished in February, but it is knit in Malabrigo and it is green ... so perhaps I can finish it for March!

Check out the Ravelry Group!

The geek in me found something super cool on the Knitty blog. Its a periodic chart of fibers! From Packbasket Designs blog.


Yesterday I was looking for the local branch of my bank, which is in the next city over. I looked it up online and had a general idea of where it was. There was an easy highway route to get there, but I wanted to become more familiar with the surroundings and see what's out there. We moved here a little over 2 years ago, and really don't know the area at all. Guess what I didn't find - any Yarn shops! I did see a Bead Shop and a local Candle Co. though that I plan to visit in the near future.

I also found an orchard and a lot of farmland ... yeah that wasn't in the city the bank was in, that was in the next town over from that, LOL! I like driving around and I have a good sense of direction so even if I get "lost" I don't panic and I always find a main road or route to get me back on track. So I found the bank, but from the complete opposite direction from where I started :0) I now know where a lot of stuff is though.

I mentioned before that one of my coworkers has chickens and he gives me eggs sometimes. I'm trying to come up with things to do with all these eggs - I will make a cake or cookies or something soon I think. This morning for breakfast I had eggs with salsa and cheddar cheese ... yum!!

Partially Sunny with a Chance of Spring

I missed last week's WIP posting ... but I didn't really have anything to show for it anyway. I was stuck at work late and I missed the Knitters' Guild meeting ... I was pretty mad ... OK actually I was raging, boiling mad and woke up three times that night I was so worked up. Without getting into it and this turning into a rant ... let's just say that my company has the philosophy that one that works there doesn't have a family, extracurricular activities or any life whatsoever outside of this place. They have scheduled the next inventory on a WEEKEND ... one which I had taken a floating holiday that Friday and had plans for Sunday ... guess not anymore ... uurrgghhh!!!

The sun finally showed itself this afternoon and the temp was around 50. I hope to see more of that in the following weeks and not more of this (picture taken last weekend):


This afternoon I made one of my favs, its pretty quick and easy. Probably not the healthiest dish, but yummy nonetheless!


Picante Pie

1 lb hamburger
1 jar Pace Picante Sauce
1 Ready made pie crust
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Brown hamburger and drain grease. Add picante sauce and simmer for about 15 minutes or until excess liquid is gone. Place one sheet of pie crust in a pie pan. Top with meat and cheese. Top with other pie crust. Cut vent holes in top of crust. Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 425 degrees.

I indulged in some of my vices recently. The first is Kraken ... a black spiced rum. When my friend and I were at British Beer Company the other week we were at the bar and saw the bartender with this bottle. Our curiosity piqued, we got his attention and asked him what it was, he replied that it was rum. I'm a big fan of rum, Capt. Morgan is a staple in my house. So I thought I would give this a whirl.


Its good ... dangerously so. Its so smooth. When I opened the bottle I curiously took a whiff. I think I got a buzz off the fumes. I took a sip straight, I didn't get that involuntary knee-jerk, sharp exhale and shudder that harsh liquor gives one. It went down easy.

The bottle itself is super cool, but check out the bottle cap!



And what's indulgence without some yarn?!? I'm on a lace kick since successfully completing Ishbel.


On the left is Filatura Di Crosa Nirvana in the interestingly named colorway of #14. 100% extra fine superwash mercerized wool at 372 yds per 25 g ball. On the right is Silky Alpaca Lace by Classic Elite Yarns in another fascinating name #2476. Its 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk at 460 yds per 50 g.

Marth 4th TUSAL

Time for another TUSAL post!