Megapost…… March 23, 2008

OK, so there has been some serious knitting!!!

First there was this……

Yes, apparently if every other knitter jumped off a bridge…well maybe not that, but I did come late to the Clapotis party, and I have to say, I DID love knitting it!! Made in just 8 days it is my all time favorite now, since it is a scarf and a wrap and a mini blanket for a cold movie theater…… If I had known how much I would love this thing I would have made one a long time ago, as it is I bought a couple skeins too many for this one, they may go back to Michaels for another color so I can have two.  This particular one is made from good ole Patons classic Merino in what is one of my all time favorite colorways as it goes with practically EVERYTHING I wear, there is red, brown, purple, black and blue in this jumble of colors, and somehow they made it look amazing.  This is a TV knit so if you are looking for challenging, or exciting look elsewhere, the only satisfaction you get from this in terms of something different is dropping those stitches every twelve rows.  For me it was satisfaction enough.  If you are considering your own Clapotis, may I warn you that classic merino is sticky, so you will have to work to drop the stitches, but I found it so well worth it!!

But wait…that’s not all for tuning in today you also get a peek at this delightful trio….

two ball band dishcloths and one garter stripe bias knit dishcloth from peaches and creme, red and light blue..Something about these dishcloths is just…addictive, they are like dishcloth crack…. anyway, this set is going to grandma, she is the only person I know without a dishwasher, and I think she might appreciate them.

Oh and just in case you are still here… how about some eggs?    Every year I fall for some gimmicky egg dye kit, some are good, most are busts….funny thing is Mom bought this one, but it is the exact one I was planning on buying….which just goes to show you I am at least not alone in my egg dye love 🙂

Now check out our eggs…..

….see how they sparkle just like in the picture?  Yup, after all the years of getting egg breaking disaster kits, or mess making disaster kits, or ugly eggs kits, this one was a winner, not very messy, and nice results.  Like most dye the pink and purple dyed the fastest, so even though my dye helpers this year were both boys, I still ended up with a high percentage of pink and purple eggs.  To give credit where credit is due, virtually all of these were dyed by the boy method of dip it in and take it out 🙂 I finally broke out the crayons just to slow them down, but still two dozen eggs dyed up in about two minutes!!

AND just in case you are still here, we went to the movies today as a family of four for the FIRST TIME EVER.  Horton Hears a Who, a very cute funny movie, that perhaps I read a little much into, but still kind had a touch deeper meaning, all in all a nice movie, and a good first for all of us together.  Now we know boy can sit through a movie, so it might be a little more regular that once every five years 😉

Hopw all are having a happy Easter 🙂

 

Good Morning :-) March 18, 2008

Yeah, it’s pretty clear I am a blog slacker…no need to rub it in. As you could probably tell from my last post, me and life just weren’t getting along there for a bit, we have made peace with each other for the time being, but I really must beg life to be a touch more reasonable.  Clearly life has let all his power go to his head…but you didn’t hear me say it……

Me and Steve Jobs though? we have issues.  Some time ago I bought a shuffle, one of those cute little ipod clippy MP3 players, and we had a real fling, me and the shuffle.   But then something happened.  Something that almost tore us apart for good.  The dock came between us.  I tossed the little dock into my morning bag as always one morning.  When I got to work I pulled out the dock with the intent of loading a couple new knitting podcasts and I discovered to my horror that the prong had BENT.

And yes, I did try to bend it back before I got to the desperate step of taking it apart…..

Once it was apart though, I decided that perhaps apple design is not all they say it is.  You can’t see it well from this picture, but the prong being at a 90 degree angle to the body of the charger is design flaw number one.  I am not sure there is plastic tough enough to hold that thing at that angle and survive day to day rough treatment of other chargers.  Granted Apple may not have intended it to withstand such day to day use, but shouldn’t they have told us that?

Second all the wires between the board and the little prong are HAIR THIN, and have NO SLACK, so that when the prong is displaced the chance of the wire surviving intact are slim to none.    

For what it was worth, I did visit the Apple store online with the intention of purchasing another dock, but a new dock was $30.00 and a new shuffle only $45.00! Then to add insult to injury, I found the dock had overwhelmingly negative reviews at the Apple store!!

So, my five year old now has a shuffle of his own because I refuse to pay $30.00 for a dock.  We are sharing the dock it came with, he is loving his shuffle, and I found an aftermarket source for a better designed dock, WAY cheaper.  Gotta love technology.  But knowing about the overwhelmingly negative reviews of the dock I wonder, why has the guru of design not addressed them?  Why is there no alternate charger design? sigh. Trust not the so called wizards of technology, for they are naught but frauds.

 Anyway, last time I left you I was headed to a yarn store where there was a sale, and I did indeed indulge!

   

Currently this is slated to be a dollar and a half cardigan, but I really am afraid I will have to swatch before starting, I am learning disturbing things about my gauge as of late…… 

Anyway, enough of my babbling today, tomorrow a meme, and a FO, actually the FO would have been today but no decent picture yet!!

Lovely…thanks…. March 6, 2008

I really think perhaps sarcasm doesn’t work in a title.  Read it again only sarcastically to make me feel better eh?

Thursday is just turning out to be an entirely uncooperative day.  Boy suffered the onset of nightmares last night, which brought him and a herd of stuffed animals crawling into my bed at ridiculous:30 am, fortunately he did decide to sleep after the moving process was complete.. so there is that. 

Walked outside this morning to a less than delightful burst of COLD, the kind of cold that freezes your nose hairs and makes you want to turn around and go right back to bed.  The sun is shining though, so I have hopes that it will warm up a *little*.

Anyway the only thing that really wants to make me whine today is the fact that I have been calling a bazillion people to get some work stuff finalized and NO ONE CALLS BACK, or they have to call 50 people to get answers… essentially I am thinking that if the day keeps on this way I will have worked my hiney off, all day long, and accomplished NOTHING.  I am shocked that anything EVER reaches construction stage without an architect or an engineer somewhere keeling over (having been poisoned by an architect or engineer, or possibly just the guy doing the estimate).  Anyway, since it is clear I will be spending the day on endless hold, I figured it was best to put the lovely hold music on speaker and share the love with the whole office 🙂

On a brighter note, I just got an email about a sale at a yarn store, close to work, but far away from home.. the sale starts today, and they open at lunch time.  So I plan on fully consoling myself over lunch.

If any yarn happens to jump into my hands, y’all will be the first to know 🙂

March…. March 3, 2008

It is the first Monday in March, and I have got to tell you it feels very strange dating things March already…..it seems like if I blink I will be writing December on things…..

The weekend was a touch like the weatherman predicted….Saturday was AMAZING and WONDERFUL and NICE…. I took DD out shopping, an experience to say the least, but our shopping trip was pretty successful, and it was so nice driving around with the windows down!  We had a car picnic, and I ordered yarn at The Cottage Yarn to make a flutter sleeve cardigan…..a nice kind of lavender grey color that for some reason I loved instantly.  I didn’t go with the recommended yarn, but am subbing a beautiful cotton acrylic blend…easier on the wallet :0)  I really liked this sweater when I first saw it, something about it just sucked me in… then I read a lot about how people DIDN’T like it, in fact some thought it was AWFUL, I know I shouldn’t care what others think, but I have found with this knitting stuff, sometimes it is good to listen to the voice of experience, so I had doubts….THEN I saw it on  the knitting daily models, and I pretty much decided that this was going to be my next project.  Yarn is ordered (which is good, Maybe I will actually finish something a second pomotomus in between) and I am a happy camper!

I do have knitting – very happy knitting – I made a ballband dishcloth, brought to fame in part by the lovely ladies of  Mason Dixon Knitting.  I like making dishcloths, although I am not sure why, and I love cotton yarn – this is like the supreme dishcloth pattern though!  I held off making them because I had seen pictures where they looked like they were kind of scrunchy and wouldn’t lay flat, and I was a little worried about making an ugly dishcloth….no need to have worried….

Barney the dishcloth is already working hard in my kitchen… and will have an opposite twin soon.  I really think it is a little sick how much I love this dishcloth.  Indoors it looks like wine and forest green, out in the park where it was cast off and photographed, it is totally Barney the Dinosaur Purple and Green.  I have got to get me an Ott light!!

As of now I am offering no account of Sunday.  It snowed. Lots. ’nuff said.

But how about one last Saturday picture to end things on a high note….