FantasyLitKnits

MOVED!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-05T02:16:00.000-05:00

FantasyLitKnits has moved to

http://fantasylitknits.wordpress.com/

Just do It Already!

2009-04-04T14:24:00.002-05:00

Moving forward. That's been my goal my entire life, to better myself daily. Some days I make much bigger strides then others. I plan to make those days much more frequent. I realized that I was putting everything on hold. I told myself that when life was easier (i.e. I am getting more sleep and not working), that was when I would start really pursuing my dreams. The recent possibility of me working for another year made me realize that life would never be "easy." Always good, NEVER "easy."

So here I am taking action, or making the attempt anyway. I have ideas NOW for my writing projects, so what's holding me back? Only myself, I've realized. My first step was to get informed. I subscribed to Writer's Digest Magazine after coming across it on the internet. It certainly has already been a good investment. I am no longer nieve to the fact that I have NO idea where to even begin with getting published. Well maybe that's not true. I do know the first step, writing. And that's exactly what I plan to do.

I may feel overwhelmed after reading about the difficulties and amount of work it takes to get published. Okay, "may" wasn't the right word. More like I definitely feel overwhelmed. Do I have what it takes? The self motivation and perseverance to stick it out? Do I even think I have the talent to be able to get the attention of a book agent or publisher? Worried would be a major understatement to how I feel at the moment.

Then I took a step back. There was no point in freaking out about that stuff now. One step at a time,I told myself. So here I go. Writing every day is my first step. Discipline. Step two, blogging. A simple and, according to WD, a worthwhile endeavor in building a reader base and platform. I just learned that word, platform. Look at me, using intelligent, in-the-know writer's lingo already!

One step at a time

2009-01-29T12:25:00.004-06:00

The journey continues, even if it is taking a somewhat different path. The apartment is looking much better than before. I had a little bit of a breakdown (about a week ago?) and ended up calling my mom in tears. It was a powerful moment for me, much like when a drug addict hits bottom. This was my bottom. I looked around my apartment and couldn't comprehend how I had let it go so far. I took pictures for motivation. Never again could I let my husband and children live in such disarray. Replaying the photos on my camera was like watching one of those organization reality tv shows where you gasp at the before scenes. This wasn't me, I am not a slob.

Interesting. The first half of that statement feels completely true, yet the latter feels like a complete lie based on outward appearances. I have work to do.

my wonderful and amazing mom came and helped me get started getting everything to the point where I can start doing it on my own. I'm still working with the organizational book I talked about before. so far the living room, kitchen, bathroom, and kids' room are all to the point where I am not completely overwhelmed and can slowly get them closer and closer to what I'd like them to be. The main difficulty is motivation on a daily bases to keep them clean.

I'm also cracking down on diet and exercise again. I'm 13lbs more than I was two months ago and I feel every pound. I started weight training today. My plan is to weight train Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I have kick boxing Tuesdays and Thursdays with open gym on Saturday and my hope is to run on Mondays and Sundays. It's not as much running as i would like but that's a pretty full workout schedule already. I can focus on running more when I have a more regular schedule. I just bought weight Training for Dummies, since I have NO CLUE where to start.

Kick boxing is going well. I feel much more comfortable with my kicks now. My punches however need some serious work. I'm crossing my fingers that I will be able to get a wavemaster xxl with our tax return so I can train at home.

I'm trying to stay focused and remind myself that I've made progress. It's going to take time to get everything under control. I even started focusing on writing. I finished a short story to submit to a literary journal and all that is left is editing and sending it off. I've gotten some good feedback on it which is nice. I am fully prepared for it not being accepted, realistically I'm not even sure if it's the kind of thing they are looking for. The point is that I'm writing and trying to get published.

In knitting news, the cabled scarf is done, all I need to do is block it and then take some pictures of my beautiful best friend wearing it. I'll post them once I do! Now I'm on to my little godson's pirate beanie. It should be a quick knit.

so there's a quick update on everything. I'll try to get a more daily streak going. It's definitely more interesting than occasional updates!

Day 1

2009-01-12T16:58:00.003-06:00

So the journey to a clean and organized home has commenced. I did my journal work for the week today. It went well. My eyes were opened to some of the reasons for my disorganization. I made the mistake of scanning ahead to the next couple weeks. It said that the estimated time for organizing your kitchen is 5-7 hours. ACK! I'm crossing my fingers that it's not all at once. I can't imagine that it will be since the rest of the book is about taking one step at a time.

Today's project, which had nothing to do with the book since the first week is only journal work, was getting the living room situated. I got evrything picked up, and I had three other somewhat bigger projects to do. One was getting the boys toy "room" (it's really just a walk in closet) sorted and organized. I now have 4 or 5 bags of toys and stuffed animals to get rid of. Luckily my mom is taking the toys so I just have to worry about the stuffed animals. I'm crossing my fingers that my sister-in-law wants them.

The second project is getting the christmas tree and decorations put away. Third is going through the mounds of papers lying about. I spent 2hrs getting the living room picked up and the toys sorted and aparently that's my limit as of yet. I always hit that time and I'm worn out. I think it's because I see what's left and it's almost impossible to stay motivated. I'm trying to focus on what I did get done. One of my major projects, that's pretty decent. One of the biggest things holding me back with all this cleaning is feeling like a failure. I need to shake the feeling that no matter how well I do short term, long term I always slip back into old habits. That's what this year is all about, overcoming and solidifying a new set of habits. And proving to myself that I'm not doomed to a mediocre way of life. I want to thrive!

Another major goal I'm working on is writing more consistently. I came across an opportunity to be published in a literary journal called Silence Prohibited. Deciding to write a short story I wracked my brain for several days. Yesterday I came up with the story line. All I have to do now is write it, perfect it, and send it in. I have it started and I think it's well on its way. My intention is to use this to get me writing. I'm not expecting to get published my first attempt but I know there's no way to avoid being disappointed. Let's just hope I don't lose my motivation. It's hard to know in the fantasy genre if your story will be viewed as awesome or lame.

On the diet front, my husband and I have decided to do it together. He has a new exercise routine figured out and I'm going to jump back on the bandwagon. Unfortunately tomorrow is my son's birthday so I'll have to figure out some other exercise than kick boxing. man it's hard to find time and motivation for it when you have to work around your kids' schedule. Especially working the midnight shift. Anytime I have free I want to either sleep or spend it with the husband.

how you do anything is how you do everything

2009-01-07T14:51:00.005-06:00

The title of this blog is a quote from this book:

2009 is my year. I'm growing up, getting organized, and finally doing the things I know I was born to do. The first step to the book above is reading the introduction, pondering it for a few days, and creating a dream board. The dream board is just a poster board with clippings of words and pictures from magazines that represent your dreams and what you picture your life being like in the future. I'm also going to take before pictures of my house, just as a reference.

I've been drowning my entire life. When my husband came into my life it started my swim back to the surface. I eventually reached the top but to my horror it was completely solid with ice. all I could do was scratch at it while I slowly drowned. I had no idea why. I was so confused as to how I could work so hard and achieve so much and yet it wasn't enough. I still failed at everything I did. I could make a little crack in the ice but eventually it would just refreeze and I'd be stuck all the same. Now I know why. I'm paralyzed. I'm afraid that the ice will never break. At the same time I'm terrified of what's on the other side. What if it's not as sunny as I imagined. Maybe I'm better off down here with the familiar fish swirling around me. All this time I've been scratching and thrashing about, there has been an ice pick floating right beside me. Now that pick is in my hand and I'm ready to take the first swing.

This book seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. I'm scared to death of failing, but my fingers are bloody and sore from scratching so long. I'm ready to find out what exactly is above the ice. It may not be as sunny and warm as I want it to be but it certainly is better than this water that crushes my chest with cold. There will probably be pain, a few cuts and scrapes from the broken ice. No matter how difficult it may be, at least I know that after it all there's a fresh breath of air waiting for me.

A New Year, A New ME

2009-01-02T16:53:00.007-06:00

It's been a LONG time since I've blogged. So much has changed, mainly concerning my interests, well sort of. The main change I've made is my eating and exercise habits. I've lost 20-25 lbs since my last blog entry. This was spurred on when I met my now best friend, Vanessa. She encouraged me to take more control in my appearance and I'm 100x better for it. One of the most inspirational people I've ever met, I'm very very lucky that God brought her into my life.

As far as diet and exercise altering my interests, this change didn't take away my love for writing or knitting, but it added to my loves running and muay thai kickboxing. Yes that's right, I have fallen in love with fighting. I am not currently aspiring to become the next Gina Carano but I do want to be the best that I can be when it comes to the Muay Thai art form. You never know though. After some time I may find the idea of an actual fight more intriguing. I do certainly enjoy UFC fight nights.

I'm also falling in love with running. There's just something about being "that person" you see running along the road. I've worked up to about four miles right now. My ultimate goal is a marathon. It won't happen for quite some time because of time restraints when it comes to training. Right now I'm just enjoying it when I can and working up to as many miles as I can. I did my first race on October 5th and it was awesome. It was the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure and since then I have learned a lot about how devastating breast cancer can be to whole families. The pink ribbon has now become a symbol of perseverance to me now. I look at it and see both my own struggle with getting healthy and the fight to survive that so many women have been forced to endure. It truly is inspiring.

For anyone interested in losing weight and becoming more active try Sparkpeople.com. It's an amazing site, and if you join, add me! My name is Flitknit.

With all of this you would think that my New Year's resolution would be more geared towards fitness goals and more weight loss. But no, my main focus now is my inner self. I have struggled with many things my entire life and it's time for me to finally over come them. It's a very hard struggle for me, but I want to look back next year and see a big difference in how I live now and how I will be living then.

One of my biggest struggles is keeping my house clean. I am nowhere near up to par on this. I am on a constant rollercoaster of keeping the house clean for a few days and then letting it slip back into chaos. There are reasons for this that I'm working on with my therapist. I'm encouraged that I'm taking that step. I also want to really, truthfully, put effort into following flylady.com's program. It has helped so many others and I hope that I can be one of them. I think I will try posting my progress everyday on this blog. Maybe just coming here and blogging everyday is what I need to see my progress.

I want to be very open on this blog. So be prepared! A few months ago I found out that I am bipolar. It isn't a very severe case of it, but it's enough to really affect my life obviously. This is on top of finding out I have asperger's a few years ago. Knowing these two things have helped me a lot in coming to terms with my mental state. I no longer live in fear of being a complete lunatic. I have things I must deal with but I CAN deal with them. I take lexapro daily and that has made a WORLD of difference with the emotional cycling that comes with bipolar disorder. I also have multiple vitamins that very much help me. It is a very difficult thing to handle though, because many bipolar people have trouble consistently taking their meds. I can't exactly describe why this is but I definitely have trouble with it myself. I even started carrying my lexapro around in my purse so if I remember while I'm out I can take it. Speaking of which I have to go take it right now!....I just set my Iphone to alert me at 10pm everynight to take my medicine. Hopefully that makes a difference.

On a lighter note, I am still a lover of knitting! Currently I'm working on a scarf for Vanessa. She's very excited!

After this is finished I will crank out a pirate hat for my godson, Zander.

Then it's on to a year of Christmas knitting! For the past few year's I've waited much too long to get anything done in time so this year I'm doing all the stockings, ornaments, and presents I have been wanting to do for some time now. After all those are done I might as well start cutting into my sock yarn stash. I've gotten quite a few skeins since I couldn't help but buy one every time I went to Stitch 'n Bitch. how can you resist when you go to Miss V's SnB??? Sadly enough I haven't been able to go in a VERY long time. It breaks my heart but sometimes we all have to make sacrifices. Sigh.

A couple years ago I realized what it was that I wanted to do with my life. I am and always have been a writer. Okay well ever since I learned how to anyway. I have a project I've been working on for about a year and a half. It's a fantasy book series. Another one of my goals is to be more seriously working on it. I feel it's very promising and I have gotten a lot of good feedback from other fans of fantasy, so here's hoping! My ultimate plan is to work on it as much as possible until my husband finishes school. After we move and get settled (he'll be in the Air Force) I will start my search for a book agent and then hopefully really get the ball rolling with my writing career.

Ok so for now that's about it. Not that it was a short blog by any means. I feel much more focused. Blogging I know is very beneficial for many people. Perhaps it is a tool I can use in my journey towards a better, happier me.

Polls and Venting

2008-02-14T13:15:00.000-06:00

Soooo...I picked up the patons SWS in Natural Blue. 7 skeins and I'm in love with it. here are the results for the poll BTW.

Clapotis
(5)
Fuzzy feet
(2)
fake isle hat
(2)
my so called scarf
(8)
calorimetry
fetching
(4)
pidge
(1)
butterfly hat
(5)
27 votes in total

Despite the My So Called victory, I actually decided to go with the Clapotis. Thanks to everyone who voted! Don't worry I know I'll eventually make that scarf. The stitch pattern is so unique I have to at least try it! Maybe I'll have some left over from the Clapotis. Not likely but I've seen some who only used 5 skeins with this yarn and I'm using size 10s. We shall see.

Jeanie is still going well, I'm lovin it. I cast on for the Clapotis last night and I'm dying to cast on some socks too. I thought I was a one-project-til-it's-done kind of knitter. But apparently not :)

So here's my main reason for this post: venting. And a bit of tooting my own horn.

I started a thread on Ravelry a while back and got an odd response. I'm a bit proud of my response so I'm posting the conversation here ;P

My original post:I’m getting a tattoo on my back. It’s a christian fish or “Ichthys” with the acronym IXOYE in the middle and the actual words written around it. my problem is I want to make sure it’s accurate and translated correctly. Any ideas on where I should look?

KittenLion:I’m just curious and don’t mean disrespect but why a tattoo ?

Note: this is a thread in a group called Tattooed Knitters & Crocheters

Me:I’m not exactly sure what you mean. Are you curious as to why I would want that as a tattoo or why I would want a tattoo at all?

KittenLion:why a tattoo of a christian symbol because in the bible it says that one shall not tattoo oneself, I am tattood and was catholic, It always makes me giggle to see people tattoo christian symbols on bodies

Me:It actually says not to mark oneself in pagan ritual. It was talking about practices during funerals where they would cut themselves and make the markings of idols. There are no New Testament scriptures talking about tattoo directly. The only thing it says is not to defile your body because it is the temple of Christ. To me the word defile is talking about things such as sexual immorality and things of that nature. Things that harm your body. And I certainly don’t want to get into a debate over what’s immoral or not. That’s my whole point with this post. I don’t believe tattoos defile your body as long as they aren’t satanic or pagan in nature. If I thought it was wrong to tattoo at all then I wouldn’t have my ears pierced because it falls under the same premise. That comment was pretty condescending. I take the bible and my beliefs extremely seriously. To make the comment “it always makes me giggle to see people tattoo christian symbols on bodies” was extremely rude. Just because you don’t agree with my beliefs doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to comment on a thread I posted solely for translation help and attack my devotion to my God. I say this because in making your comment you suggested that I was either ignorant of what the Bible says or did not take it seriously enough to care. Ravelry and this group are not about debating beliefs and making others feel attacked. It’s about having a common ground in knitting and being able to share our tattoos and ideas w/o being told it’s silly or stupid. There have been plenty of tattoos on here that I certainly didn’t agree with but I respect the person enough to not attack they’re choice or personal life. If you didn’t mean the comment to be condescending then you need to be much more careful about the way you present a question or comment like that.

I realize that A LOT of my friends and others who read my blog won't agree w/ my actual beliefs but it's the principle of the matter. I mean really.

Poll It Up!

2008-02-11T15:20:00.000-06:00

Phantastic!

2008-02-11T09:47:00.000-06:00

So my birthday was on Saturday and it was awesome. I got up in the morning with the boys since I didn't work the night before and we just hung out and cuddle all morning. Then Hubs and I went to see Phantom of the Opera at 2pm and The Orpheum. It was awesome! So awesome that I'm seriously contemplating recruiting someone from Ravelry to go with me so I can go again. It was that good. Granted I can't rationalize the full price tickets($68) and the seats will more than suck but whatever. I love the show so much it'd still be more than worth the $30 price for gallery seating, which is the floor directly in front of the stage. If you know anything about theatre you know that those seats are really crappy. Especially since the only ones available are far left or right. Ack. Like I said before though it'd still be worth it!

Anyway after the show I bought this shirt.

and the back

It was super overpriced at $35 but I knew I wouldn't find it again and it's just so freaking cute!

After the show Hubs took me to dinner at our fav restaurant and then we went home and hung out with our friends and my Godson. Cute no?

I love that boy.

So yeah, that was my actual birthday and then Sunday I celebrated it with my family. Mom made this super cute cake for me. Ignore the pretzel fish in the middle, that was courtesy of the 5yr old :)

The knitting needles have the cute kitties on top, which was a joke because my family used to tease me about acting like a cat when I was little. the other "ball of yarn" had a gift card to Michaels in it. I'm totally getting some Patons SWS with it. I've wanted some for a while but always ended up choosing to spend my money on something else. Not completely sure what I'll make yet.

When I got home from my parents we had people over to watch the TNA pay-per-view and Andy gave me the UFC 74 Respect DVD.

Holy crap I LOVE it!! It has my favorite fighter, Roger Huerta, on it in my fav fight where he uses the big screens in the arena to see the guy who has him in a hold from behind. He just keeps watching the screen and hitting the guy in head. Poor guy didn't have a chance. It also has Couture's last fight before retiring on it. It's also the fight that made me seriously respect him. (I'm fairly new to watching UFC) Plus the dvd has Georges St Pierre, another fav of mine, on it too. Last year Andy got me an Inuyasha movie. He knows me so well.

The weekend had a wonderful end with some more godson cuddling :)

Drop it like it's hot!!!

2008-02-09T12:41:00.000-06:00

Sooooo..I already finished my knitting goal for the day! All I wanted to do was get to the first row of dropping stitches on Jeanie. Voila!

The colors pop so much when the flash hits them. They're a little more subtle in regular light. Such is the fabulousness that is the Raven Clan! I'm loving the pattern too! Now I'm off to Phantom Of The Opera. I've seen it once before and it's WONDERFUL!! I can't wait! Oh and did I mention I'm 23 today!? It's turning out to be quite a wonderful birthday.

Seeing Blue

2008-02-08T17:37:00.000-06:00

I got these today in the mail.

I want to make the Clock Blanket, Harry's Weasley sweater, and a Quidditch sweater from Charmed Knits and the hexagon blanket on the cover of Classic Knits. I first saw the hexagon blanket on Alison's blog. Alison also wrote Charmed Knits so apparently I had a very Alison Hansel inspired Amazon order!

I'll updat later with pics of the projects from Charmed Knits. Apparently my sleepiness has turned into laziness. Or do the two coincide simultaneously? I'm too tired for abstract thought. good night.

Climbing Everest with Hyena Hair

2008-02-05T13:27:00.000-06:00

I've decided to climb Everest. Okay, so not literally, but I did get my very own sherpa. My Everest goes by the name of Jeanie. After a lot of sweat and tears I finally got over the massive foundational boulders that could otherwise be called the cast on/first two rows. Seriously, I was so frustrated! That is until I looked to my ever so faithful sherpa. I am now scaling the mountain one foot at a time and it's going quite well. No lack of oxygen so far!

I did stop to camp out a bit. I realize I just started but my mom's birthday is coming up on the 19th and I wanted to get a couple things done for her. One is a book scarf and the other is...

It's a book sweater! I found the chart for the K here. It's turning out really well so far. Especially considering it's my first time actually "achieving" color work! Minus double knitting but that's not exactly hard color work, it's just switching the yarns back and forth. Can't say I'm all too fond of the process of intarsia. It's quite annoying actually. I can totally see me falling in love with fair isle though. I'm hoping to eventually make the Venezia Pullover from InterweaveKnits Winter 2006 issue.

I love the colors Jench1n used, but then again I love most of what she does!

Speaking of colors (yeah that transition was a little too Deawn-ish, don't ask), I tried to lighten my hair. It was black with red stripes, now it's a brand new color all together! introducing the next rage in hair coloring....

The Hyena!!

Yeah, it's bad. Oh well, I'm rockin' it. I have to wait a few weeks before attempting to fix it since I kinda overkilled it in the past 6 weeks and now I fear hair loss if I try too soon. I have actually gotten compliments on it but most people are like "oh wow" and not in a good way. I think the compliments are coming from those who thought the black was too "goth." I roll my eyes at them. Doesn't matter now anyway, I've got hyena hair!!

Pink isn't always my favorite color

2008-02-01T07:10:00.000-06:00

So. Um. Pinkeye. Is. Um. THE SUCK!!!!!! Three boys 5,4,and 2 yrs of age + Pink eye + eyedrops 4 times a day - mommy's 3 hr daily nap she so desperately needs = a knitting day because I seriously need to mentally escape the craziness that is Pinkeye.

Okay so I'm whining, and not all too seriously actually. I'm in a super good mood today after my 2 hrs of sleep(two days a week I get up with the kids at 6:30am after working from 11pm to 3:30am, it's fun let me assure you). We'll see how long the mood stays happy, especially when it comes time for the much needed nap that is not going to happen today. Usually Rashawn and Rayden are at school so I can force a nap on Rion for a few hours. I've tried forcing a nap on the three of them the past couple days but after a freak tornado went rampant through their room unexplainably yesterday, while they were still in there (it's amazing they weren't hurt really) I've decided that isn't such a good idea. Really, I may take a picture of the aftermath just to show you how devastating this freak tornado really was. It was a learning experience though. I never knew how remarkably close the rushing winds of a tornado sounded to three children pretending to be Power Rangers. Come to think of it, tornadoes and children sure do have a lot in common.

So anyway, today will be my Jeanie Day of DESTRUCTION. I'm going to pummel that pattern. It may have defeated me in the last 6 fights (ahem in the first round ahem) but I will prevail! I'm like the Rocky of the knitting world. I may be an underdog but my determination will win out in the end or I'll die trying. I can hear the crowds chanting my name already. Flit-knit, Flit-knit, Flit-knit. You're going down Jeanie.

I wish I could pummel pinkeye.

Holy Crapola!

2008-01-28T21:43:00.000-06:00

Okay, quickie update cause Hubs needs the computer to do his homework.

I SOSOSOSOSOSO excited that I was linked to in the Ravelry newsletter!!!! It's for the thread I started about Random Sleep Outbursts. Awesome! here's a link if you're on Rav.

Newsletter

Also I just ordered my Vintage Socks in Pinot! holy crap fantastic knit day!

Here's the YarnHarlot post that started the vintage uproar. There's other posts about it after that one too though.

In other news, I cast on Jeanie. Then I ripped and cast on again. Then I ripped and cast on again. The I ripped and cast on again. The I ripped and cast on AGAIN. this thing is kicking my butt.

Hey a post, who woulda thunk?

2008-01-25T16:22:00.000-06:00

And the yarny goodness has arrived and then some...

From left to right we have Socks that Rock Valkyrie, LimenViolet Sasquatch Sock Audrey Hepburn, CrashintoEwe Pumpkin Myst, and my fave theDyeingArts Gothic Boobies.

I got the Audrey at my first SnB meeting last night. It was flabbergastingly funtabulous. Ashley and I met some freakin awesome people and we can't wait to do it again next week!

I finally finished the Sunrise Circle Jacket. The pictures don't do it justice. It's alot more fitted looking in person.

I'm so in love with it. I've been wearing it every chance I get. Especially now that I found a sweater pin on Etsy from RubyVegas. I LURV it!!

I also BARELY finished a Calorimetry to match the jacket. Seriously, I had to use scraps from the jacket to piece together a bind off but it still turned out well.

I like it but I wish I could wear it a little bit more effectively. I think my head is shaped weird. I mean really I'm the only person in the world I know of that can't wear headbands without them slipping or looking ridiculous. It's still cute as long as I wear it with some bangs hanging out. Otherwise I have an egg head. No really.

Next project is Jeanie with the STR Valkyrie, which got cast on at the SnB. Thanks to DragonKnitter for showing me the provisional cast on. I hope she wasn't too frustrated that my see-and-do skills suck and I ended up just looking it up online. Her showing me definitely helped but I have to watch it over and over to get it and she was super busy with LnV orders. How super nice was it of her to take the time to show me in the midst of that!?

Stupid Stomach Suckness

2008-01-20T10:46:00.000-06:00

The Circle Sunrise Jacket is almost done. It's all seamed and fits! Now all that's left is about 1/2 the hem line on the Jacket and sleeves. If I finish it today I'll try to get some pics. Crosses Fingers. I'm soooo ready to finish this. I want to try and get a Calorimetry out of the left overs but after seeing how much yarn I'm using in the finishing stage I'm doubtful. Actually I'm quite surprised how much seaming I've done in the past couple days considering the "Stupid Stomach Suckness" that has invaded my home. First it was Rashawn on Friday morning. Luckily he was done puking well before the time came for the Hubs and I to go out and celebrate our 5th Anniversary. Yeah! 5yrs and we still can't get enough of each other. More about the Anny later. So Rashawn was fine after sleeping it off. Poor kid missed his 100th day of school party. Ironically we stayed up the night before trying to get his 100 things poster done since it was due.

(photo to be added later because I stupidly forgot to take a pic before shuffling Rashawn off to school with it)

I was so freakin excited about this. I thought the crayons were a great idea until we finished it and I held it up. Yeah, a hundred crayons isn't exactly light. His teachers are going to hate me.

So the sickness hit me on Saturday morning just as hard as it hit kiddo numero 1. The bug apparently is insistent upon making you puke your innards out for several hours and then when you're so exhausted you pass out you sleep it off and all is well. Okay, well-ish. My midsection still isn't 100%. The tum is still if-y enough that I'm sticking to the gingerale for a bit this morning. Especially after eating Chipotle last night and my stomach really not liking me for it. I can deal with the needing to relax for a bit (oh woe is me ;P) but the feeling like my chest is imploding every time I cough is kinda irking. Poor Rayden got the triple S yesterday just as I had slept it off. Did exactly what Rashawn and I had and then slept all night. He's fine today.

So everyone is fine currently. I'm still in awe of the fact we still got to go out Friday night. It was a fantastic night. First we went to Kobe Steakhouse and had the BEST cook ever! He made a joke about the finely chopped parsley being Japanese marijuana and then put a little mound on my plate and said "Happy Anniversary, Ma'am." Then proceeded to take the paper off my chopsticks and lay on top of the "marijauana" and said "there's some paper but you'll have to forgive me, I left my lighter in the back." It was hilarious. Then near the end of the "cooking experience" he asks if I want some mushrooms. I LOVE mushrooms so I'm like "uh, YEAH." He then asks for one of the waiters to bring him another steak and he makes me a STEAK too. FOR FREE! It was awesome. Steak there is really expensive too. Funny thing is, he was Mexican and I tend to get a lot of attention for them. I know it sounds bad but seriously I do. It happens A LOT. I thought maybe it was because I was blonde but Friday night I had red hair, so guess not. Today my hair is black with strawberry blonde stripes. It was actually an attempt at #78 on the list but the pink didn't really come out as PINK as I wanted but whatev. I'm good, it's cute.

So we also went to see Cloverfield on Friday. SO good. But one HUGE WARNING if you get motion sick EVER then DON'T see this movie in the theater. The count for our theater was close to 30 people who walked out because of feeling sick. It was so bad that the security guard warned us before the movie started. The whole movie is basically this guy filming mass hysteria. Sounds lame but it was AMAZING. I was one of the sickies and I still LOVED it. I can't wait until until it comes out on video and I can actually watch the entire movie.

Next post should have some new yarny goodness in it. I ordered some Socks That Rock in the Raven Clan Valkyrie. Unfortunately is was delivered to the main office for our apartments on friday and considering the puking I didn't get to pick it up yet. Why in the world wouldn't they be open on the weekends? Don't they know people need their yarn?? I also ordered yarn from TheDyeingArts and CrashIntoEwe on Etsy. Mmmmmmm....

I've always wanted to be a guru

2008-01-16T08:55:00.000-06:00

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!

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MJB goodness

2008-01-03T05:30:00.000-06:00

I finished knitting the MJB Newsboy Cap!! I'm excited to get it done even if I'll never wear it. It didn't come out quite the way I wanted but I'm still going to write up the pattern and post it. You never know, maybe someone might like it! So here's a pic.

Try to ignore the creepiness that is my face in this picture. I was looking in the mirror to try and get a good shot. Silly me.

So anyway I used LionBrand Jiffy Thick and Quick. I've wanted to use this yarn for awhile but never got around to it. I loved the charcoal colorway too. It's so classy and the yarn is super duper squishy, who can resist that? I bought two skeins and only used one so now I have more fun yarn to play with!

I'm getting back to the Sunrise Circle Jacket now. I want to finish that up so I can move on to some of the things on my list. Notice over 25% of my list is knitting. Hmmmm...if I didn't know any better I'd think I was a tad bit obsessed. Oh wait I AM obsessed! Making awesome things with some sticks and some string has that effect on a lot of us apparently.

The List

2008-01-01T14:19:00.000-06:00

Well it's 2008! I know I posted some resolutions in the last post but I stumbled upon the 101 in 1001 since then. I made up a rough draft and I'll post a link in the sidebar to the official breakdown and a blog where I'll explain some of the things on the list in the first post. My start date is today so my end date will be Sept 28, 2010. So here goes my 101!

1 knit harry potter stuff(at least 5 projects)
2 potty train Rayden
3 Potty Train Rion
4 knit 2 shawls
5 knit 3 sweaters/jacket
6 write 1st book in fantasy series
7 submit book to publishing company
8 design a knitting pattern
9 treat hubby to a candlelight dinner
10 knit a sweater for Hubby
11 re-knit Hubby's knucks
12 start an art journal
13 go letterboxing with Dad at least 10 times
14 finish 10 things on my Ravelry queue
15 fill out Rion's baby book
16 fill out Rayden's baby book
17 knit 3 pairs of socks
18 lose 30 lbs
19 wear "the dress" on a fancy date with Hubby
20 get 20 recipes from Mom
21 knit christmas presents for mom, dad, ian and megan, and erik by dec 08
22 read 200 new books to the boys
23 read one complete children's book series to the boys
24 take at least 1 college course
25 make 500 entries in my journal
26 make 120 blog entries
27 do 40 mins of yoga 200 times
28 record a cd
29 get celebratory knitting tattoo (for losing weight)
30 get "tramp stamp" tattoo
31 go to 2 knitting/wool events
32 get second car
33 get Corgi puppy and name him Dobby
34 teach Rashawn how to knit
35 upload complete stash to Ravelry
36 knit at least one VERY lacey item
37 start and finish Wedding Afghan
38 frame and hang all posters
39 knit christmas stockings
40 go on Old Market date with Hubby including horse drawn carriage ride
41 join one sock knitting club (i.e. Socks that Rock)
42 reread Harry Potter books
43 try project 365
44 knit lampshades
45 quit my job(when mike graduates of course!)
46 be in Lincoln Trailer at work every night (not based on whether the new guy is there or not)
47 get 2000 package scans in one night at work
48 try a papaya
49 sing in church
50 get bump on leg removed
51 go on road/plane trip with Hubby
52 get Ryobi radio for work
53 go to membership 101 class and join the church
54 try an Avocado
55 start writing a fiction novel based on my life
56 whiten my teeth and be better about brushing/flossing
57 get rid of full size bed and set up queen size
58 convince Hubby to let me get a guinea pig to tide me over until I can get Dobby
59 knit pirate sweater for Zander
60 pull crib down
61 reteach Ashley to knit
62 get engagement ring fixed
63 finally send my sockpal her package (I'm the worst ever!)
64 send out non-Christmas cards
65 buy Socks that Rock yarn
66 Do something special for Mike for 5 yr Anniversary
67 read at least one book along with a book club (preferrably a knitting book club)
68 pay my library fines :(
69 dye hair black with pink streaks
70 read Koga Ninja Scrolls
71 finish Jaywalkers
72 knit MJB Hat
73 go to at least one concert with Hubby
74 play through at least one full Wii game
75 make Hubby an air force blanket
76 get Starz onDemand
77 get 5k missort rate at work for one month
78 do photoshoot for Hubby after losing weight
79 rewatch Smallville seasons
80 buy at least 4 skeins of sock yarn w/o having a pattern in mind
81 buy three knitting related shirts (tee,hoodie, or otherwise)
82 go horseback riding
83 meet at least one of the LimenViolet podcasters (this includes Carin)
84 lose 5 lbs
85 lose 10 lbs
86 lose 15 lbs
87 lose 20 lbs
88 lose 25 lbs
89 Buy Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke
90 make tooth fairy pillows for the boys
91 read and/or watch The Namesake
92 read and/or watch I Am Legend
93 find thick/thin pattern for Giboulees yarn
94 knit up Giboulees yarn
95 get back into Bible Studies
96 find new background for computer
97 buy warioware for the Wii
98 overcome stage "nervousness" (it isn't quite stage "fright" but it's still a hindrance)
99 Get Avatar: The Last Airbender seasons (however many they release in the next couple years plus)
100 start taking prenatal vitamins for an overall health boost
101 make new list

As far as knitting goes I'm working on my own pattern for this hat!

I'll hopefully finish the hat in the next few days and sooner or later I'll put the pattern up. I'm super excited about this because I've never made my own pattern before and it's going way better than expected. Well so far anyway!

New Year, New Incentives

2007-12-27T03:39:00.000-06:00

I usually don't make New Years resolutions but this year I think I will. Largely because of NaNoWriYe and Ravelry.

Resolution...

#1 Write, not occasionaly, a lot! I have a five book series that I'm determined to get published.
#2 Knit, be more consistent about knitting time and get some serious projects from my queue done(this includes stockings and Christmas presents that I've decided to make starting now and presenting them as I finish them. Hey, better late than never right??)
#3 Lose 30 lbs and get a celebratory knitting tattoo much like this one (but unique of course)-

That's it. I figure keeping it simple will make it more attainable right? Yeah, I'm skeptical too but these are things I really want/need to do. Especially the losing weight. I have one wedding in April and another in June that I'm in and I NEED to be in shape. I lost 40lbs after Rion was born so I'm pretty sure this is doable. I just have to get into the swing of it and then I'm golden. Easier said than done...blech. Although not having any cute clothes is helping push my incentive a bit.

Yuleknit Joy

2007-12-25T11:31:00.000-06:00

I actually have some knitting to show you! Lots of little stuff and some progress on the Circle Sunrise Jacket.

First off are the garter stitch scarves I wipped up for the boys.

Then comes the eye patch for Rashawn, I just winged it so it came out kinda big but he loved it anyway.

And the last of the knitted Christmas presents happen to be my first knitted toys.

A peep for Rion our duck obsessed 2 yr old. He said duck and started quacking when he opened it!

And a little red elephant for Rayden since he's always asking me to make elephant sounds.

The boys had fun this Christmas. They got a lot of stuff they loved AND we didn't spend very much money. One of the best things we got was Rashawn's Power Rangers play outfit for $10. He loved it and put it on immediately.

Oh and just for the cuteness of it here's a pic of the three in their Christmas PJs :)

Okay so here's my progress on the CSJ.

I'm soooo loving it and so far it looks like it'll fit just fine, but we'll see once it's totally done. if it's too small I won't frog until I've lost all the weight I plan on losing before the two weddings I'm in this "summer" (april and june).

As far as my next project goes I'm definitely doing Jeanie.

Tata for now!

Christmas approaches

2007-12-07T08:27:00.000-06:00

Alas, I nixed getting the stockings done before Christmas. I decided to make the boys some presents instead. I'll just suck it up and buy some big fuzzy ones for this year or something. So far I have a scarf for each of the two olders boys and probably a third of the little one's done. I'll post pics after christmas so I can make them model them.

Sooooo...the new Knitty is up and it's the best one yet in my opinion. I'm in love with most of the patterns. Here are my picks that I immediately put in my queue on Ravelry.

Halcyon

Entangled

Square Cake
(I plan on making this in black for those gussied up moments)

Chevrolace

Azure

Slippery

Toasty topper
(for my godson Zander who is due to arrive on the 17th! Can't wait!)

And last but best of all

Jeanie

I wore my Lady Eleanore to a funeral a few weeks ago and got a lot of compliments and got over my fear of actually wearing a shawl out and about. So Jeanie is definitely getting made and will be worn often. I want to make it in a colorway that is easily worn with pretty much anything. it's going to be hard to turn away from Smooshy in these colors though.

Chinatown Apple

Wisterious

Cloud Jungle

Petal Shower

Cocoa kiss

Maybe I'll just choose my favorite and make another one in another yarn that's straight black or something. I dunno. Miss Violet mentioned using Raven on the L&V forum on Ravelry.

Maybe Korppi

Whatever I use at least i know it'll be beautiful no matter what.

Okay back to christmas. I made an advent wreath with my mom. It's a tradition to get together after Thanksgiving and make real advent wreaths. I always tend to go simple with mine but I always love them.

Sorry there isn't a ton of WIP action in this blog. I'm still working on the Circle Sunrise Jacket. I'll finish it once I get the kids' presents figured out. I also have a hooked rug project from long ago that's nearly finished. Actually I have a bunch that I hooked and never finished the edges, thus taking up knitting and leaving that craft behind. I'm not so good at finishing other crafting projects, unlike knitting where I already have everything I need I just bind off, weave in some ends, and possibly sew some seams. With other crafts you have to do finishing work with extra tools and such. Maybe this doesn't make sense to anyone else but it does to me. So anyway I have this tree skirt that I figured I'd just glue down the edges with craft glue and get it over with. Especially since it is Christmas. I do have a tree that is a bit barren at the bottom. Might as well actually finish off the several year old project.

Okay this post is long enough. I'm done rambling :)

Elyse AKA...

2007-11-15T05:03:00.000-06:00

1.YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Argus Taurus

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Strawberry Cheescake Sugar

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
Etho

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Pink Puppy

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Hope Goldsboro

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Thoel

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, first tool that comes to mind, put “The” at the beginning)
The Blue Hammer

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Ike William

9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )
Lynne Lynn

Progress and Stockings? Already?

2007-11-12T17:07:00.000-06:00

Like the new layout? Cause I do!

So, progress on the Sunrise Circle Jacket is going wonderfully. I have the back done and started the left sleeve. I'm very happy with the colorway. The pictures online I've seen of others' projects just didn't do it justice! I'm once again enjoying a more challenging project. Not that it's that difficult, it's just increasing and decreasing but it's way more work than let's say a baby hat! I needed something substantial to spice up my knitting a bit. Anyway, it's going well and I'm really enjoying it. I've come across comments about being totally bored with the stockinetted. Knitting with Noro REALLY helps with that. The color changes make it much more interesting.

Unfortunately, now I'm contemplating putting that aside (very painfully might I add) to work on Christmas Stockings. It's almost Thanksgiving and I have 5 stockings to start on. Not to mention I wanted to make presents this year too. That probably won't happen though. I NEED to have the stockings done this year. It's our first Christmas in our own place and we have a fireplace in the living room. how can I buy cheapo stockings? It'd be sacrilege! Okay maybe not sacrilege, but seriously I'd have a hard time forgiving myself for using store bought stockings! So here's what I'm thinking.

This one for the Hubby.

This one for moi.

And these for the boys.

Doable? I sure hope so. I should start with the boys'. I think they'll work up pretty quickly. my only concern with those is the blocking after they're felted. Hopefully a coat hanger wonked out will work just fine. Is it bad that mine is the most intricate? I just thought it was girlie and the others are more masculine. Any comments? Come on make me feel better about this, cause I think they're perfect :)

I'm sad that all the fall decorations are soon to be put away. Maybe once I start being surrounded by the new seasons decorations I'll be in more of a Christmas spirit. I just sooooo love fall. Plus, I'm seriously not looking forward to the snow. Two more years and hopefully we'll be in some warm climate like California. Only time will tell.

Grrrr...

2007-11-08T06:20:00.000-06:00

After all that work to rehaul my blog, I'm soooooooooooo hating the layout for my posts. I can't line anything up! Expect a new layout soon :(

Scary, cute, and fun!

2007-11-08T05:29:00.000-06:00

Ummmmm, sooooo...yeah. I just tried to publish a post I wrote long ago and finally just got to putting pictures on it, but I'm looking at my blog and no post. Weird. Maybe it'll show up later?

Okay so anyway, knitting. I have lots to share! I finished the Jackyll & Hide hat. Here's pics.

After I completed that novelty, I was consumed with Halloween costumes. The boys were Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi. I made them with a trip to goodwill and Walmart. They cost me about $40-50 for all three. All it took was a few clothing items, some felt, sewing utencils, a little paint, and face paint. I was sooooooo proud of the finished products! The camera made the different greens on the yoshi costume look more drastic than they really were. They matched pretty well. And yes of course the hat is knitted. The spikes are just felt sewn on to it though.

Now that Halloween has passed I've moved back to knitting full-time. I started a new project. I had bought 12 skeins of Noro Silk Garden in plans to make a Klaralund. I recently decided that the Klaralund would probably not be so flattering on me. (Side note- I figure that out through my many recent adventures on Ravelry, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that site!!) So I browsed some other patterns and stumbled on this beaut.

It's actually the Sunrise Circle Jacket from Interweave Webknits but done in NSG, which I love! I probably wouldn't have done this jacket for it's original look. I just fell in love with this version of it though! And thank god Jench1n included her modifications of the pattern in her pattern notes. Thanks girl! I actually read that her modification said she frogged back to her decreases and redid them so the neckline would be tighter. So I'm totally bummed because I'm well past halfway on the back and I'm convinced I have to frog all the way back. But when I took a closer look I realized she frogged to the RAGLAN decreases which I hadn't gotten to yet. YAY! I was sooooo glad to realize I didn't have to frog my 4-5hrs of knitted beauty I worked up the same day. So I'm happily knitting my jacket and totally enjoying it. Here's a peek at the colorway and my early progress!

written long ago, posted now

2007-10-31T16:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I swear to you it's not as bad as it looks. I tried to write a blog since the last entry I swear! I actually had the whole thing written and then blogger messed up and wouldn't save the draft. Sigh.

Finished my niece's Upside Down Daisy Hat. She looks so cute in it! I would post a pic but I'm too lazy to connect my phone to the computer. Maybe in a future update :)

A friend of mine liked the hats so much that she asked me to make a pumpkin AND a daisy hat for her niece. So I'm cranking those two out so I can finish one more pumpkin for my 3 yr old. Then I can carry on with my first crochet project.

I'm quite excited about it. Before this I had done some swatches of the basics and wasn't too impressed with knitting's cousin. But knowing that to be able to embellish and be more knowledgable I needed to learn to crochet I kept looking around at Crochet magazines. Then I found Crochet Today. This is the best magazine ever! I look through each issue and find several projects I not only like but plan on doing. Usually a magazine is lucky to have one or two that I'll put the effort into actually accomplishing. I still buy them for the sheer window shopping aspect of them, and for the stories. I only buy them for the stories! Haha. Something knitting magazines and Playboy have in common. You definitely don't buy them just for the stories! Anyway, the project I chose for my first crochet adventure is actually intermediate which makes me very proud of myself. I love that even if a project is hard in either knitting or crochet you can always attempt it and do well. As long as you take it one step at a time and get help if you get stuck. Usually my help is the internet. Like in this pattern when I came across the dtr or double treble crochet. I just paused, googled, and followed these directions. I love the internet, I wouldn't be the knitter I am without it.

So here's my progress on the convertible shrug.

Not much I know, but those hats have over taken my crafting life at the moment. I did have one issue with my progress. I don't like my popcorn stiches in the center of each granny square. It isn't that I don't like the popcorn stitch design, it's more of I don't like MY popcorn stitches. they certainly don't look like the picture. I even took away one of the chain stitched in between the popcorns to close them up a bit which helped but they still aren't too my complete satisfaction. I'm chalking it up to being a brand new crocheter and eventually I'll be able to popcorn with ease. Besides, only a decent crocheter might notice and even that might take me pointing it out.

Oh and just in case some of you are planning on venturing into the world of crochet soon. When a pattern says to join a circle and then crochet INTO that circle, it means in the circle SPACE. I was so frustrated and confused by this. It's actually the reason I gave up trying years ago when I originally tried crochet. I kept crocheting into each stitch in the circle, which you can and then double up in each stitch according to how many stiches you are increasing to, but stitching into the space of the circle is much easier and it looks a million times better. Just my opinion.

Honestly, I should be working on christmas presents but that's what November is for right?

Moving on...

Have you guys seen THIS ? It's actually really cute and then evil at the same time. SO awesome, totally making this one. That designer is a genius!

Score!

2007-10-30T18:33:00.000-05:00

Oh yes, I'm on Ravelry! My username is Flitknit so look me up!!!

So close!

2007-10-28T07:10:00.000-05:00

508 people are in front of me in line for my Ravelry invite!!!!!

Countdown to fantasticness!

2007-10-27T04:34:00.000-05:00

904 people are between me and Ravelry! That means within the next couple days I will be addicted to my computer for only God knows how long! EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!! I'll get around to actually updating for reals one of these days. I've written two blogs, one got deleted accidentally and the second sits unposted because of a lack of crucial pictures. It'll go up sometime. I've been busy getting costumes ready for Halloween. I'll definitely have to post about those! SOOOO excited. Craftiness is totally rockin my world right now. Yay!

Revolutionizing the Knitting and Crocheting Blogosphere

2007-10-01T09:27:00.000-05:00

RAVELRY

This new site is going to be the best thing to EVER happen to the knitting blogosphere. It's basically a database you can use for almost any information you could want for a project, yarn, book, pattern, anything! I'm super pumped about this site. You MUST check it out if you are a knitter or crocheter. It's going to be amazing. There are already thousands and thousands signed up and even more thousands on the waiting list. The site is still in beta right now. That's why you have to sign up and then they'll send you an invite when they get to you on the waiting list. I signed up on September 26th and am #36494 on the list. If you go to this link then you can find out where you are on the list after you signed up. Today there are 15609 people in line in front of me. It will also tell you how many people have signed up since you did. That number is 1660 for me right now. You can take a video tour here. It's worth waiting for it to load so you can get the full impact of how awesome this is going to be. From what I've seen so far it's going to be one of the most impressive sites I've ever been on. Okay so maybe that's the knitter in me taking over but seriously, this site is going to be AMAZING. So go sign up.

I'm back with HATS!

2007-09-21T08:03:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited that I'm back! So much has happened in the past few months I'm just going to pick up here and move on. I didn't get a ton of knitting done until recently so there's not a whole ton to post anyway.

My current projects are from this fantastic book called Itty-Bitty Hats.

Initially I didn't think I would make very many, if any, of the patterns despite they're cuteness. Thanks to Sarafae, though, I'm now addicted to hats! I'm making them for my kids, my nephew and niece and all my friends' babies! I had gotten burned out on baby blankets because they were so time consuming, especially since SO many of my friends are having babies! This new discovery of baby hats is sooo exciting. They're perfect knitted gifts. I can work one up in a day or two and they're super adorable.

This is the first hat I tried out from Itty-Bitty Hats. I made it for my friend Kinzy's baby. Unfortunately I haven't been able to give it to him because he's been so sick. We're very worried about him, so if you could just say a little pray for the kiddo. He needs it.

So I liked the pumpkin hat so much I decided to make one for all three of my boys and my neice and nephew. We plan on taking a picture of the five kiddos together and giving them to my husband's parents. They'll love having a picture of the five together.

I'm also making an upside-down daisy hat for my niece because she seemed to love the first pumpkin hat I made. She kept walking around with it sitting on her head, despite that it was about 3 sizes too small. She's such an adorable little girl she just has to have a super cute girlie hat! I love that girl!

She and her brother are just SO cute!

New name, new address, happy blogger

2007-09-17T09:19:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I think I figured it all out. The layout for the posts is going to take some getting used to but I'll figure it out as I go. I'm happy with the new look. Hopefully my readers do to. SOoooooooo...look for a new knitting post update coming soon!!

Testing, 123

2007-09-17T08:32:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting a dog. I'm fully aware that with three boys ages 2,3,and almost 5, it's not the best idea. So I'll wait until the youngest is at least in kindergarten. Until then I will dream of the day I can walk in the door and have my cute corgi greet me.

His name will be Dobby for any of my fellow HP fans.

Rehaul

2007-09-17T07:53:00.000-05:00

Bear with me until I can get the blog up to snuff again. Just redoing the whole thing and getting back into the blogosphere. Hang with me!!

Blog Oh Blog where art thou?

2007-05-18T02:10:00.000-05:00

No, I didn't die and I haven't forgotten my blog or my blog readers, if there are any of you still out there... A sad thing happened after my last post. My laptop was plugged into its charger and took a fall right onto the plug in the back, crushing the outlet. Currently it is sitting at my brother's house waiting very patiently for the glorious day it will be fixed. So blogs will come but being grateful that my brother is willing to fix the computer and save me $200 to send it back to the company to be fixed I won't be pushing him by any means. He'll do it when he has time. Until then I will just have to be patient and wait to reenter the magical world that is the Knitting Blogosphere. Don't worry though, when I do get the computer back in working order there will be a catch up blog showing all of my recent work, most of which will be of the Sockapalooza 4 fun!

~DK

TNA and Knitting....life is good!

2007-04-16T16:28:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was A-MAZE-ING! Trully trully fabulous. Friday night was my best friend's wedding shower, where I gave her the garter from the previous post. She liked it and I got applause from the whole room, which to me was just silly but nice all the same. We had a ton of fun that night with lots of resisting another fantastic pina colada. The best wedding shower I've been to yet. Saturday wasn't super eventful but Sunday was what made the weekend fantastic to the max.
We made it to St Louis (St. Charles if you want to be technical about it) by 1pm after a six hour drive. I got some decent knitting done.

So did Andy!

And we saw a few humorous bilboards along the way.

When we got there we found the arena and then made our way to the first yarn store stop.

Honestly it was a cute little store but not much in variety of yarns. It might has well have been named Cascade Land. It seemed 3/4 of the store was just that brand of yarn. A little disappointing. They did have Addi Turbo circulars, but I resisted buying them due to low funding and wanting to support my own LYS. To be fair, the store only opened last month but if it had been me I would have started with a bit more variety. It was in a very cute little historical section of the city though!

Then we started toward the next yarn store to see if it could be a little more satisfying. On the way we saw a

Now up here where we habitat there is no such thing as the wonderfully scrumptious Jack-in-the-Box so we had to stop and get a bite, especially since we hadn't eaten lunch yet. And of course we had the resposibility to call our good friend and fellow knitter, J.R. who was back in good old Bellevue, to let him know we were eating at one of his favorite places. I won't repeat his response to us although it was said lovingly...I think.
I very much enjoyed the meal there (the fajita chicken pita meal).

I can only hope a Jack-in-the-Box should magically appear in our area. Not likely I know. Lucky southerners.

So we finish our meals and drive down the street to Artistic Needles which just by the look of the outside was promising. Unfortunately this was as far as I got.

I was disappointed but was still excited about the show to come so it wasn't so bad. Besides, this way I didn't spend all my money!

The show, TNA Lockdown Pay-per-view, was AMAZING! Our seats were literally the best in the arena, front row right between the announcer box and the entrance to the ring. We shook hands with tons of the TV personalities and wrestlers, two of the women's division (Gail Kim and Miss Jackie) ended up in Hubby's lap (I don't think he was too disappointed ;P ), one of the rather larger wrestlers (Rhino) ended up on top of me, we were given mints by SoCal Val, and last but definitely not least our good friend Andy was insulted, spit on, had his mother called a w****, and even had a swing taken at him all by big name wrestlers!! It was the most fun I think I've had! The DVD is out sometime in August and you can bet Hubby, me, and Andy will all be first in line to pick it up, seeing as though we'll be on it at least a littler bit. Especially when the wrestlers fell on us. Oh yeah, and the biggest move of the night happened right in front of us, like a foot maybe two away! AJ Styles fell off the top of the steel cage and landed on 4 or 5 other guys right there. It was awesome. I got lots of pictures so go to my flickr set and check them out if you like! Here's one of me and Hubby after the show in front of the ring.

Maybe I need SKA (Sock Knitter's Anonymous)

2007-04-13T15:42:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Elyse and I'm a sock addict. It started innocently enough with just the Jaywalker pattern.

I had been warned that sock knitting was addictive and at first I resisted the peer pressure. All those sock pushers saying "try it, try it."(Sara) I even bought some yarn but was too afraid to cast on. Then I finally gave in. I told myself it was just once. I can handle it.

I couldn't. Now my Etsy favorites is full of sock yarn and my Amazon is full of sock pattern books. But it's okay, I know I'm addicted but it isn't affecting my life yet so I'll be fine. I just won't let it get out of hand. What do you mean I'm in denile? I am not. It's fine, I'm fine. So what if I knitted in church for the first time last week? I wasn't hurting anyone. No one really even saw me...I don't think. You know what, why don't you just leave me alone!? It's none of your business anyway!

Sorry about that. Maybe I do have a problem. But honestly, I don't really want to kick the habit. Sock knitting is just so...so...it just feels soooooo good. Sigh, there's just one problem.

Bamboo size 1s.

Not a good choice. They broke. I love bamboo usually but I guess when it gets thinner it's not so good. Maybe Rosewood or Surina? I must have them soon. Not finishing the socks is killing me! I know it's withdrawl okay! Didn't I tell you to leave me alone about this?

Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I promise I won't yell again.

Let's just talk about something else for now, okay?

I made this garter for my best friend.

She's getting married next month. It's from the Lily Chin Wedding Collection. I LOVED how it came out. Quite possibly the prettiest thing I've knitted. Granted I've only been knitting for a few years. It's still a really pretty pattern though. I had fun with sewing the beads on too. I was a little disappointed the beads weren't knitted into it because I wanted to try that technique but it looks nice so no biggie.

In other knitting news, Hubby and I are driving to St Louis for a TNA pay-per-view on Sunday. There's a yarn shop not too far from the Auditorium so hopefully I can make it by before the show stars. Even if I don't, the drive is six hours each way so I'll for sure have some knitting to show for it next week. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to get Andy (He's the guy in the middle with the fun facial hair) from the knitting group to work on something. Quite possibly I'll be able to talk him into learning how to purl, FINALLY! We shall see.

~DK

Bad, bad blogger!

2007-04-04T17:59:00.000-05:00

What a horrible blogger I am! It's been far too long, I'm so sorry. Well, I am back to the blogging world. My absence was due to some strenuating circumstances. Don't worry, they aren't bad, just stressful. We're planning on moving soon, just to a new place in the same town. We are currently working out the budget and me getting an overnight job with UPS. The job end of things is looking good. I had my second interview last week and the interview said it was basically a formality and I would probably get a call next week about starting the following Monday. It's a month long hiring process because they only hire every other week. This would be my third week in the process so hopefully, if all goes well, I will have a new job next week!

So to the knitting, the Lady is finished! And here are the horded (until now) pics. I used Hubby's camera phone so they're a bit fuzzy.

I have also decided that I am not a spinner. I will be sticking to the knitting I think. At least I can get in on a spinning class of some sort. Glad I didn't hock over a few hundred for a wheel just yet. Here's what I did accomplish.

Don't be fooled, the horrible parts are neatly hidden on the inside of the ball. I am too much of a perfectionist for spinning I think. I trully love hand dyed and hand painted mill spun yarns so that may need to be my next endeavor.

Okay, after such a long break I should have had tons to blog. I'll be honest, I do. but I've been so lazy about taking pictures. Sigh. I'll try to do better for the next post, I promise. Yeah, I know my promises aren't giving you much confidence in me so far are they? At least I'm still knitting!

Side note- check out this ebay auction! It's insanity!

Here's a picture of my adorable nephew born last week. When failing to deliver quality knitting pictures just give them a cute baby to look at and all will be well!

Dear Library, you did not disappoint

2007-03-21T08:52:00.000-05:00

I loved the way the Rowan Ribbon Twist knitted up into cute wristlets.

Yay! An FO! Should be another coming along soon. The Lady is quite close to being all knitted up. Then I just need to block her and attach the fringe and she's done. But of course I'm going to string you along just a bit longer and not post pics til she's finito!

The boys and I took an excursion to our local library the other day. It was my first time browsing their knitting selection. They actually had some pretty good things, I was surprised. Here's what I picked up.

I immediately fell in love with The Principles of Knitting and A 2nd Treasury of Knitting Patterns. The first has basically any information you will ever need as a knitter. Unfortunately, it's out of print and there aren't enough to go around. Hence the $365 price on ebay. The killer is that eventually I will have to return the book. But until someone puts a hold on this baby I'm going to be renewing like crazy! The latter of the two books I actually enjoyed more though. I can see why so many people have mentioned it either in a blog or a pattern. Thankfully it's only $30. I'll be getting all four of these. (Or however many there are and ever will be!) They're amazing! The cables just made me drool.

The other books were decent. I did really enjoy Vogue Thick Knits. It's funny that a book from the 80s is so appropriate for todays styles. I saw 3 or 4 patterns I would like to knit out of it. Usually I only like 1 or 2 in a book this small. The others I didn't really see anything I'd do. The Urban Knitter was the most recently published that I got but was the one I really didn't see anything I'd like. It was a little surprising because Lily Chin is one of my favorite designers. Have you ever seen this girl knit? It's like watching The Flash knit! Okay so maybe she isn't that fast but she's pretty darn quick.

Okay so let me ask you a question. Does this or does it not seem to be Andie Macdowell?? I'm almost positive it is!

Anyway, all in all it was nice to know I could satisfy my addiction to browsing new knitting patterns by going to the library.

~DK

Fat yarn, fat needles

2007-03-16T13:34:00.000-05:00

Sara and I went to Personal Threads to drool a bit. It's a cute little store connected to an antique gallery. Very cozy and LOADED with yarn. I enjoyed looking around. I finally got to experience some yarns I had only heard about like Lorna's Laces, Jaeger, and some Noro Kuryeon sock yarn. Mmmmm... but the yarn I wanted to buy with all my heart but had to refuse myself the indulgence was this Prism lace weight yarn-

It was $36 for a little more than 1200 yards if I remember right. I've had my heart set on making this shawl from Victorian Lace Today and this yarn would have been awesome.

Unfortunately I don't have the money to dish out at the moment for two skeins at $36 and a $30 book. I don't think Hubby realized that when he got me the Noro Silk Garden for my birthday he was creating a yarn snob MONSTER. I have several projects I just "have" to do and they're all at least $100. It's time to do some saving up!

I did allow myself a very small impulse buy.

Rowan Ribbon Twist. I lurv it! I'm finding recently that I'm facinated by bulky yarns. One of my next book buys is sure to be Big City Knits. But for now I'm gonna have to settle for some small wristlets.

I found these on Marcia's blog. Very cute blog by the way. She said she got the pattern out of an old Rebecca pattern book but it's just a K1P1 rib so it should be easy enough to figure out. Thanks Marcia!

I bought some size 15 & 17 needles for the project. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the 17s. the gauge swatch pictured above was done with the 15s. Only problem could be that I might run out of yarn so I may end up going with the 17s just to lessen the chances of that a bit.

Speaking of my size 17s, 19 month old Rion has taken quite a liking to them. A future knitter? I sure hope so!

What a crock!

2007-03-08T10:00:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: I wrote this a few days ago and I've been waiting to get ahold of Hubby's phone so I can download pictures off of it. Hasn't happened yet so I'll just edit them in when I can, try to enjoy despite the picturelessness.

Yesterday was THE BEST MAIL DAY EVER! I got both spindles, the Pink and Blue Space roving, and the Pirate Tote from Anatomy of a Skirt. The bag I LOVE LOVE LOVE! It was totally worth the wait. The roving was awesome, and I didn't realize how much 4oz was! The spindles were great too.

So of course I taught myself how to spin last night using this as a reference. I think I did pretty well for a self-taught first timer.

And only one thing went wrong, besides the uneven spinning :) The roving was crocking like crazy! (Crocking is the rubbing off of excess dye.) I had purple hands afterwards! Being a beginner I wasn't sure that this was unusual or just a part of handspinning. Apparently it's not unusual but it's not supposed to happen either. I have to order some Synthrapol to wash the roving in. It's a little annoying being my first experience with spinning. My main concern is how to get the dye off of the spindle so it doesn't get on any other yarn I spin. I'm sure I'll find a remedy online somewhere. Sigh. (update: the internet says use chlorine bleach) Looking at the bright side, I know how to spin now! I'll be excited to spin the Rose of Sharon roving when it gets here. Hopefully there won't be any crocking with that one!

PS The new Knitty is up!!!

Where are you??

2007-03-05T19:10:00.000-06:00

Hey guys! I want to know where all my readers are in this big wide knitting world! So if you would be so wonderful, go down to the link under Frapperfy in the side bar and put yourself on the map! Gotta love my readers!!!

~DK

I give up!

2007-03-04T13:21:00.000-06:00

The afghans became so daunting that I have given up! They needed to be done too soon for it to be possible and I just refuse to let knitting become stressful, it's my only means of de-stressing! So the black belt afghan is not going to exist, ever. The other two I'll get done eventually...I think. Right now I'm sticking with the Lady who is getting prettier and prettier every day. I lurv it! I'm not going to post any more pics until she's done. Cliffhanger, ha! Now you have to keep reading :)

This week is going to be an awesome knitting mail week. The yarn Pirate Tote should be in any day now, after a lot of hard work on Erin's end. Poor girl made it twice because the mail lost the first one. And that's with the policy saying they aren't responsible for lost items. There's a lot of appreciation on my end with that.

I ordered two spindles from AnnieMay on ebay(one for bulky on for lighter weight yarn) so I can finally get to learn how to hand spin.

And how could I resist getting some roving on Etsy? I ordered 4.25 ozs of Pink and Blue Space from ritaspins37

and 4 oz of Rose of Sharon from hippieartchick.

I've already fallen in love with them! If I suck at spinning then at least I can cuddle with it still! Roving makes me drool, it's soooooo pretty!

I Pity the Fool!

2007-02-24T15:32:00.000-06:00

The Lady Eleanor is still going strong, and I'm still love love loving it. But I have one teensy weensy problem.

Confused why this is a problem? Because I WANT TO CAST ON!!! I need to hide this yarn from my sight until I'm done with the Lady. I picked up the DPNs I needed from String of Purls so now I just have to keep talking myself out of starting the Jaywalkers every time I see the yarn. Sigh. At least my current project is a good one that I adore.

Speaking of String of Purls, I'M IN LOVE WITH THIS STORE! the day I got the DPNs was the first time I actually got to sit and knit. It was also the first time it was busy because I usually go during the slow hours. A friend of mine (who wanted to learn to knit), Kara, enjoyed our time so much that we decided we're going to spend ALL Saturday there once a month. It was nice being surrounded by so many other women and we all felt instantly like friends. It was not at all hard to strike up a conversation. One girl had this awesome spiral ribbed hat and she gave me her blog site address for when she posts the pattern. Unfortunately I typed it in and all I got was an error. So if anyone can find somewhere similar to tothepoint.typepad.com and it might be her, let me know! I'm storing in the back of my mind the dream of working at the store in a few years when all the boys are in school. Yeah, I know, fat chance. But it would be wonderful.

In ending I leave you with words of wisdom from Mr. T, this goes out to all my male knitting buddies.

NORO I LOVE YOU!!

2007-02-17T23:15:00.000-06:00

But I love Hubby more for buying it for me!

My birthday present, Noro Silk Garden colorway 205. I heart this yarn more than I've ever hearted a yarn before. It's sooooo pretty. Now what will it be used for you ask? Why the Lady Eleanor Stole from ScarfStyle of course! Here it is in the works.

I'm so excited about this project. It's the most addictive project I've done. I literally have to talk myself out of working on it so I can do motherly and household responsibilities. The Entrelac is a lot easier to do than I expected. Minus the first night I tried to start while I was tired and got a mangled mess. Somehow I can manage to get a pattern completely wrong multiple times despite carefully counting and redoing, just by being tired. The next day I tried again and it was perfect the first time. Apparently I've reached the point in my knitting skills where I can knit tired but not start a project tired. Although I made a few too many mistakes last night while knitting too. Hmmm...let's go back to saying I can't knit while tired, or better yet I can knit but not well while tired.

I'm also working on some dishcloths for my mom's birthday. I have four done so far. Two are from the monthly dishcloth KAL and the other two are the Tried and True Dishcloth pattern from knitlist.com. Click on the pictures for a closer look, they're a little hard to see.

I plan on working up another two from the last ball of yarn. Mom's going to really like them I think. Okay so I already know she will because I showed them to her. Hubby wants to get her something else too so it should be a good birthday for her. Just because I knit her some washcloths.

~DK

Stay Tuned!

2007-02-14T17:07:00.000-06:00

New post coming soon I promise! Last weekend was the GWR Sunshine Foundation Summit on Autism and my birthday plus I haven't had access to a computer when I have had time to blog. One will be coming soon though!!!

I like veggies, what's wrong with veggies?

2007-02-03T21:10:00.000-06:00

I've been researching some yarns lately(in other words looking at reviews) and everyone seems to be complaining about having to pick out vegetation from yarns. So I'm just gonna come out and say it right now. I LOVE finding vegetation in yarn. Weird? Probably. But I have an explanation for it, unlike so many of my other "quirks". When I come across a peice of whatever they may be (I'm assuming it's straw or grass) it reminds me of where the yarn originated. It somehow connects me, or rather makes me feel connected to the sheep that this little peice of earth got stuck to. It makes me thank God for having created such a wonderful animal that would provide millions with this little piece of heaven called knitting. Okay, so maybe there won't be knitting in heaven but as far as I'm concerned knitting sure is heavenly! Doesn't finding those little bits just make you want to hug a sheep? Or maybe, at least, adopt one from Australia. I have to keep telling myself that I will not be able to have a pet sheep from which I can make my own yarn. Yes, yes I know there are those who do, but I'm not sure it's allowed within my city's limits. Sigh. I'll just have to settle for adoption and picking sticks out of my yarn.

In other news, I got another UFO off the needles. The Breast Cancer Blanket that I've decide is more of the Breast Cancer Diamond. It's not quite as square as I would have liked but oh well. I would block it but honestly I'm letting the lazyknitteritis over come me with this one. It'll do the job and it still came out pretty, no?

If you click on the picture you get a much better view.

Now I have to focus on my projects that have the deadline curse on them. One is due for mid-April I believe (still don't have that date confirmed yet). Then two others are due for mid-May. I still have a few months yes, but the bad thing is all three are blankets. not baby blankets mind you, full size afghans. Two have intarsia which won't be so bad I suppose, then the other is the twin tress afghan from this post. It's such a bummer because I have some really exciting projects I want to work on for myself but being the kind hearted selfless person that I am (that was dripping with sarcasm by the way) I will put those aside for the afghans. Two of them are gifts from me, so that's my own doing. The other I'm making for someone I've gone to church with for years. It's actually for her husband. She asked me to make it for her to give to her husband. I'm crossing my fingers that when I'm done I'll get some compensation for my time. (And that she's not reading this, haha) I know she'll reimburse me for the yarn, but we haven't talked at all about anything past that. We'll have to see how it all unfolds. After this though, I'll be charging at least $100 on top of the yarn cost. After all, it isn't like I'm sitting at home with absolutely nothing to do. Three little boys are pretty time consuming and that's before you throw Autism into the mix. I won't let it get out of hand though. I want knitting to stay enjoyable and I want to be able to knit for myself occasionally(or a lot ;P). Well, cross your fingers with me will you? Or better yet say a prayer or two!

~DK

Caution: sneak peek into our nerdiness

2007-02-02T08:38:00.000-06:00

The Knucks are done! Hubby loves them.

Let me just explain the embroidery on them for those not aware of the goings on of the pro wrestling and card gaming worlds. The words WORD LIFE are a gimmick used by this guy.

The heavy weight champion on WWE (formerly known as WWF). We've been big fans of his for some time.

The embroidery on the back of the gloves is the logo for the card game my husband plays called VS System (vs as in versus).

I made them so when he plays said card game his hands won't be cold. He plays in a lot of big tournaments and being nervous makes your hands cold. Voila, the knitting wife fixes the problem!

Now moving on to some UFOs that are desperate for some attention.

Knu=half a pair of Knucks

2007-01-26T15:31:00.000-06:00

The past few days have been very eventful. Tuesday morning Rashawn got sick and the same night Hubby was sick too. Needless to say there was lots of laundry to be done, setting me back quite a bit from catching up in the first place. Wednesday I was exhausted from the previous day. Thursday morning it was, of course, my turn to be sick. Unfortunately, Hubby was catching up at work on top of going to school and there were loads of things piling up on him because some big shots are coming in next week. So I powered through. I was fine as long as I didn't move much.
Despite the mountain of work still needing attention Hubby came home early evening and I got to "relax" in the bath and bed. Today, I feel much much better, thanks to Hubby letting me sleep in. Feeling normal feels so much better after feeling horrible.

So that's why I haven't posted in a few days. In the knitting arena, I finished one half of a pair of Knucks.

Unfortunately I couldn't even knit during the sick days so not much got done despite having to sit and lay down all day. It was torture, I assure you. I did manage to purchase some sock yarn from FeltStudioUK (as heard of on Lime and Violet's podcast) on Wednesday.

I'm in love with this colorway. It's called Pink Smoke. This being my first sock weight yarn, I'm doubly excited. And yes I have decided on a pattern to use it for. And of course it is none other than the ever popular Jaywalkers by Grumperina. Had to jump on the bandwagon sometime I suppose.

In closing, I took this cute pic of Hubby and two of the boys this morning, in the aftermath of the past few days.

~DK

tears mixing with snowflakes

2007-01-22T17:31:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago it snowed. And melted. I hadn't taken my kiddos out to play, and I felt bad. Then it snowed again, started to melt, and again I felt bad I hadn't taken them out to play. The other night it snowed again and then again. So refusing to be an evil mother and deprive my children the pure enjoyment of play in the white fluffy stuff, I took them out to play.

It took thirty minutes to get everyone suited up and, of course, I forgot my gloves and scarf. Oh well, at least the kids had theirs. I did remember to camera, hence the photos at the end of the post. So, I'm taking pictures and hoping they're turning out decently. My camera doesn't like to show the actual quality on the replay, have I mentioned I need a new camera? It's not happening soon so don't get your hopes up. The one I have is working decently enough, I'll have to just do without primo quality blog pics.

We're outside for all of maybe five minutes before Rayden starts crying because his hand is cold. His mitten had fallen off. So I get his hand brushed off and search for the mitten. I find it on the make shift ramp that was built for the dog for going outside (note the picture of Rayden climbing it below). A new deck should magically be appearing in that same spot sometime this spring I think :) Those elves are just wonderful aren't they?

Rayden gets his glove back and plays for about two more minutes before he starts crying again. Simultaneously, Rion starts to yell too. Hmmmm...this isn't going quite as well as I had imagined. After a little consideration I decide that it's best to just go bck inside and have a cup of cocoa, which is what we did.

snow + 3 autistic little boys + 1 adult = a mother who is not going to beat herself up if she is the only parent who hasn't taken her kids out into the snow. When I thought back on it, after the fact, I realized that the people I had been thinking about taking their kids out in the snow a) only had one child b) might have had more children but they were older or had more space between their ages c) had help in the form of a husband or grandparent (mine were working at the time of the snow excursion). Actually I'll just have Rashawn go out with me or someone and the other two boys have fun inside. Rashawn loved it but the other two had the impression that it was overrated I believe. They'll be older next year so we'll see how it goes then.

delurk yoself!

2007-01-20T17:37:00.000-06:00

I stole this from smariek knits. Don't shoot me please. It just looked fun. Apparently it's national delurking week, which means if you read my blog I want you to comment and tell me so. Just because I love all my blog readers and would like to know you're out there. How depressing it's going to be when no one comments on this haha. But, I KNOW you're out there. The hit counter way down there at the bottom of my sidebar doesn't lie you know. I even blocked my own hits so it isn't ME raising the count. Although I'm thoroughly amazed that anyone other than myself is even remotely interested in any of this. So tell me hi. It doesn't have to be quippy I just want to know my audience. Lots of love!

~DK

Knuck it up

2007-01-19T10:21:00.000-06:00

A happy dance is occuring as we speak. Why, you ask? YARN OF COURSE! Possibly my most favorite blogger, Alison of The Blue Blog, just had a yarn sale to "make room for baby" as she put it. I had my eye on the 13 skeins of Phildar Giboulees.

$40 for 13 skeins! It's a discontinued yarn too! Only thing now is finding the perfect sweater pattern. I may just redo the one I made before I lost weight though. I loved that sweater.

The Red Scarf Project was finished a few days ago. Okay not the actual Red Scarf Project, just my contribution to it. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't a ruined peice of unrecognizable mess. It actually came out to the right deminsions and everything! Maybe winging it isn't always so disastrous after all...

Rashawn being my little model :)

Finally received the sz 4 double-pointed bamboos I had been waiting for and cast on the Knucks immediately.

Sorry the pic is so blurry, I need a better camera. The Knucks look so comfortable from just the little bit I've knitted so far. I can't wait to finish them for Hubby. He's excited about these so that makes me really excited. It'll be my first official knit for him, and I'm pretty sure it'll be the first of many. I already have something else I plan on making him that he said would be awesome, but that will be in a future post. I think I'll make another pair of knucks for myself after I get some other UFOs off the needles. And of course what else would I put on them except DIVA KNIT. Or should I put DIVA KNTR, I don't know I kinda like that one better.

I just keep adding and adding to my work-in-progress pile. When will it ever end? Hopefully never :) I'll be off now. Hopefully to finish some projects!

~DK

Where did all my knitting time go?

2007-01-15T08:35:00.000-06:00

It amazes me how ignorant (and I mean that in the nicest way possible) those not in the knitting world (aka muggles) can be! Have you seen The Yarn Harlot's post about this silly bank who didn't believe so many people could be interested in knitting socks? It's unbelievable! Here is the link to the blog post. You gotta love Stephanie Pearl-McPhee! She is the epitomy of a yarn diva! I salute her as such :)

For me the knitting has sadly been cut down in the past few days. I was getting ready for Rayden's 3rd birthday party.

There are also some rather daunting projects I need to undertake. I got one done; sorting through all the boys clothes to make room for their ever expanding wardrobes. it sounds simple enough but the overwhelming part is that I have loads and loads of laundry to fold and no where to put them. Even now! No, three seperate dressers is not enough. Sigh. Next on the list of to dos is finish up the boys' picture schedule completely. I made some stars that Rashawn can put up whenever he does something good or helpful. When he earns ten stars he earns a coke. It really helps motivate him. I also have a ton of photos to cover and put velcro on. The other thing I need to do that is hovering over me like the Hindenburg is sorting through all the boys' toys. sound easy enough right? Not when you have a whole wall covered in rubbermaid drawers just for toys and train set parts(GeoTrax may be freaking awesome but they definitely are NOT easy to store).

After that I just have a small organizing project to do. Usually I would enjoy getting these things done, but because of the lack of space we have no where for all this stuff, especially laundry. Not just the kids' our own too. Oh well, we're anticipating a move soon so then we should have some room for everything.

I started my Red Scarf Project contribution. I'm kind of winging it which is usually disastrous but we'll see how it goes. Here's the beginnings of it.

It's just a drop stitch pattern that I plan to felt at the end. The drop stitch supposedly will make it much more flexible. My only true worry is the yarn I'm using. It's not the softest thing around but I'm hoping it softens a bit when I felt it and add the fabric softener. This is what I'm using.

Sorry the pictures are so blurry. It's a yarn my grandmother had gotten from a friend and sent to me. I have no idea if it's a good yarn or not all I know is that it's definitely a different yarn. It seems like it's barely spun at all. It's interesting to knit with just because it's so different from any of the yarns I've worked with before. I can't decide if it's a good or bad different though. We'll see how the finished project turns out. if anyone is familiar with this yarn let me know what you think of it, or if it is considered a quality yarn at all. It's pretty old so I'm just wondering.

~DK

Goodbye my love, I will miss you...

2007-01-11T18:15:00.000-06:00

Continental and I have decided to separate indefinitely. I tried. I really, really did, but our relationship just couldn't last. There was just way too much high maintenance for me to deal with. I mean seriously I always had to come back and make sure everything was done correctly and it never was. Sometimes things were just uptight and other times way too laid back. How can anyone live like that? It's so unpredictable. Yes, I know, I know, there are those who enjoy such a relationship but it's just not for me! I suppose living like that is just different for others. They were made for that kind of life and can keep everything organized and consistent. I'm not one of those people. So bye bye to Continental. I'll be going back to my ex Throwing. We just worked SO well together. Everything gets done faster and life is much more CONSISTENT! If you're reading this, please don't be jealous, it isn't you it's me. We just don't mesh. It wasn't meant to be. There are plenty of other fish in the sea, really! I'll miss you. I wish it could have worked out too. Maybe we can get together again for old times sake. Like for a nice relaxing cup of cocoa and some quality catch up time. That could be nice. But as a long term thing, we can never be more than just friends. And don't worry about me, Throwing will take really good care of me promise. We work well together. Good luck with everything, it's really too bad it didn't work out for us. It could have been such a beautiful thing.

~DK

I got tagged!!!

2007-01-10T08:27:00.000-06:00

I promised myself when I started this blog that I wouldn't post quizzes, surveys, or anything in the like. BUT I got tagged and I just CAN'T let the Knitstress down, now can I? So here you are, six weird things about me.

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

1) I love anime. My favorite movie is Howl's Moving Castle. I'm a self-proclaimed nerd, so save yourself the trouble of telling me so ;)
2) I don't like to crochet because I can't get every single loop the exact same as the others. I'm a perfectionist. At least I am when my lazyknitteritis doesn't overcome my perfectionism.
3) I actually enjoy watching my kids TV shows, my favorite is The Upside Down Show on Noggin.
4) I mix mayo and ketchup for my french fries and hamburgers, I've been known to put it on a managerie of other things too.
5) My favorite sandwich is a peanut butter, banana, and mayo sandwich. Okay, so I just like weird foods!
6) My husband always gives me crap because I never wear socks. I'm warming up to them now, but I still don't wear them very often. Maybe when I start knitting my own socks I'll wear them all the time. Maybe.

Here's the lucky six who I'm tagging:

Needles on Fire
Yarn-A-Go-Go
Knitlet
Knitting Wench
Pinku!
Yarn Harlot

Yeah, I know, I actually had the guts to tag the Yarn Harlot! I've seriously overestimated myself here but I had to try :)

UPDATE- Kate at Needles on Fire had already done this one so here's the replacement blogger :)

cosmicpluto knits!

~DK

FINALLY!!

2007-01-06T09:39:00.000-06:00

I know, I'm so so sorry it's been sooo long since my last post. Okay, so I'm pretending that I have thousands of readers who rely on the consistency of my posts. So what? It's fun to pretend :)

Anyway, I know I promised everyone I would have my first felted project actually felted by January 1st after sitting in a drawer for six months. Well there's good and bad news. The bad news, I lied. The good news, I got over my fear and threw it in the washer last night! It turned out pretty decent for my first felting experience I thought. I didn't feel like throwing it in the trash so I was happy. Of course it isn't perfect, but the important thing is it's done.

The main reason for waiting so long to post was this project.

They're the cashmere arm cosies from lionbrand.com, there's just one difference in mine and the ones in the pattern. Mine are wool not cashmere. But they're warm and that's the point right? I had left over merino from the felted bag and decided the gauge was close enough might as well use it up.

So on New Year's hubby and I went to a friend's 22nd birthday party. It was really fun, but that's not the point of including this little tid bit. this picture explains it all.

That's right. New Year's, all dressed up, at a party and what am I doing? Knitting of course! I was working on the arm cosies. And no, I was not in the least bit tipsy so it was safe knitting. No KUI for me :) That's "knitting under the influence" for anyone who hasn't come across it yet. That's my knitter friend, Sara, that I've mentioned before. She's not quite as addicted to knitting as I am. Yet.

In other news, I got to run to the local Michael's for some knitting stuff without a huge cap on the spendage. Here's the loot.

The yarn is for the next project seen below. The floss is for the embroidery on some Knucks for my husband. He's really excited about them so I'm going to do them as soon as I get all the supplies in the mail. The rest of the stuff in the pic is just this and that. I actually had more yarn but ended up taking back the three skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick that I got. For some reason I thought that's what my Knit.1 mag meant by Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky. It was good though, because I decided to nix the legwarmers until later. I'll be putting the money toward this instead. There will be a guaranteed happy dance when it comes in the mail. I've wanted this thing for over a year!

In conclusion, this is my next project.

The remote caddy from Knit.1 magazine's TV issue. I'm sick of looking for the remote.:) I'm thinking it should only take a couple days at most, but we'll see. I thought I could have finished the arm warmers in a lot less time too.

~DK

a little knitting, a lot of autism

2006-12-30T14:17:00.000-06:00

My husband and I have come to terms with the fact that all three of our boys are Autistic. Rashawn, our four year old, was verified on the 21st of December and we're certain that Rayden, our 3 year old, is also. Rayden had some problems when he was around 7 months old and started having seizures. The disorder he had is called Infantile Spasms, also known as West Syndrome. We were very fortunate that the first treatment we attempted worked wonderfully and he hasn't had a seizure in over two years. Because of the Infantile Spasms we had Rayden receive services from the school district we're in. The program is called Early Intervention and it provides in-home physical, speech, and occupational therapy free of any cost to the family. It also provides a services coordinator who is available to the family for anything they may need help with, from finding an apartment or home to accessing government financial aid. There's a teacher who is also on this team available for consultation if needed. The program is absolutely wonderful.

Because Rayden was in the program already and I started to see some speech delay in Rashawn we had him tested and he began to receive services also. He started preschool to help him develop social and speech skills. At parent teacher conferences his teacher told me she had some concerns that he may be Autistic. I was shocked, but calm. I had worked with Autism every summer from the age of 14 to 19 and was very very familiar with it. I only stopped because I had babies :) I listened to the teacher's concerns and it all began to make complete sense. I finally had a reason why my child was so much harder to keep up with than all the other children I knew. It explained the constant getting into things he knew he shouldn't. I can't tell you how many eggs I've had to shampoo out of my carpet. It's funny now, but when it happens, it can almost break you, because you're already exhausted.

So after I had time to contemplate all this a bit and watch Rashawn with this in mind, I realized it was true and almost beat myself up for having worked with Autism so closely and not recognized it in my own child. In watching Rashawn, I began looking at Rayden too. It didn't take long to figure out he was. He starts his testing in Jan when he starts preschool also. It's a 60 day test period so we should be able to verify him by the end of February.

And now the third kiddo. Rion, our 16 month old. Up until now he's seemed right on target for development, but I have been worried about his speech because he hasn't said a single word yet. Yes, I know he's still young but even Rashawn and Rayden had said at least one word by now. The other night Mike, my husband, and I were talking and he said he'd pretty much come to terms with the fact that all three of our kids had Autism. This may seem pessimistic and rash but we've both realized that we have some pretty profound Autistic tendencies that perhaps were not recognized because we were high functionaing enough that it didn't affect our school work or social lives severely. It can be hereditary so it adds to the risk for the kids. I was still clinging to the hope that Rion was going to be the exception though. This morning changed my mind.
Rion kept climbing on top of a chair and every time he'd end up falling off and getting hurt. Then he would just get up and do it again. (One sign of Autism is a tendency to do things without regard for their own safety.) Then when my husband started to get stern with him he would throw a fit (not too uncommon for an almost two year old) and ended up hitting his head on the bar to the one-point net swing we have. He got up and started climbing on the chair again so my husband got on to him again. He did the same thing, except this time I realized he was hitting his head on the bar on purpose, not by accident.Then it occurred to me that Rion is also always opening and closing his hands and staring at them. Yes it's normal for a baby to do this, but Rion does this constantly, which could be another sign.

So now I'm in the process of accepting all of this. I do not feel defeated, because I know that God has given me this because I have a heart for Autistic children. He gives strength in everything and he will in this. He's blessed me with a wonderful husband who is just awesome about all of this. A lot of men don't handle it quite as well but my husband is already using techniques he's learned when disciplining Rashawn. I'm extremely thankful for this because I've seen personally parents that can't handle it. It's going to be a tough road but there are so many blessings in it. I have the sweetest little boys ever. Everyone just falls in love with them. They're wonderful kids. Not too mention they're beautiful! Yeah, I know, I'm pretty biased but I have others who will testify too it :P

Rashawn

Rayden

Rion

Today I spent some time setting up a picture schedule for the two older boys. I'm kind of excited about it. Here's a picture, it's only half done. I need to pick up some more velcro.

I just put contact paper on our bedroom door and used velcro to attach the pictures and times.Each picture represents a part of their day: playing with blocks, music, tv time, trucks, train set, coloring. Everything is scheduled to help them feel more secure, it does wonders I promise. They're much calmer when their day is ordered and predictable. Who doesn't feel better when they have that!

In the knitting scheme of things, I'm still work on the same old same old. Probably getting a little burned out now. I'm probably going to work on the leg and arm warmers I've been drooling over for a few weeks. At least it'll be a quicker project. A finished project would be nice. Anyway, here's a picture of the Bruce Lee throw. I have up to the knuckles of the lower fist done so far. It's going pretty fast I think.

Check out the bamboos, nice eh? And the cord length is a big upgrade from this. Sorry the picture is so big, I got lazy ;P

And last but definitely not least, I got this super cute purse.

Yes, yes, I know, it's sacrilege because I could totally make this. But it comes down to the fact that I got it for $10 and you just can't beat that. The supplies alone would cost more than that and I have way too many on the needle projects to be messing around with something I could get for just $10!!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

~DK

mmmm...bamboo

2006-12-27T16:00:00.000-06:00

I had a knitting day out today. Okay it was only three hours, but with three boys 4 years old and under it's a vacation! I was surprised by my little excursion though. I found that I actually enjoyed Michael's more than the Knitting Shop. I know, I know, it's a horrible thing to say. It comes down to this, I just can't afford to spend $10 a skein for my big projects right now. (And that's the cheap ones!) Michaels has affordable yarn and supplies and I can actually look around and possibly buy what I need. At the yarn shop I just fantasize about possibly, maybe being able to splurge on enough for a project maybe in two years when my Hubby isn't going to school and working. Besides I have a list of about thirty projects I'm dying to do, and at the moment don't really need more yarn or pattern books, the latter of which being my ultimate weakness. I will splurge a little for some smaller projects though ;P

Wanting to support the shop I bought my bamboo needles there and walked away quite happy. that is, until I went to Michael's, as previously mentioned, and while waiting for my knitting companion, Sara, to choose some yarn, I went just feet further along the yarn adorned wall than usual, and what do you suppose I came across? A whole section of BAMBOO knitting needles and supplies. Now why, WHY, would they not be by the OTHER knitting needles? *pause for a calming breath* It's okay, I've supported the local knitting shop (even if it did cost A LOT more than I wanted) and I can purchase the bamboo needles much more conveniently now.

I did manage to find a pattern for tabi socks at the knitting shop which I've really really really wanted to knit. but being a member of Crafter's Choice I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much on it. I promise I'm not really that cheap, I'm just on a limited knitting budget right now. Here's a picture of the socks on the cover of the book I found them in. I know, what an easy find-right there on the cover!

I'm lovin these. I have a love for oriental things (mainly Japanese) after reading Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. It's easily my favorite book and now I've become obsessed with all things kimono, including Tabi socks which were traditionally worn by Japanese geisha.

***WARNING: foot squimish readers do not continue***

I have a rather large gap between by big toe and the others which are relatively close together.

Yes, that's right, I just posted a picture of my foot. This gap is horrible for wearing flipflops, and of course I love wearing them. I'm not a fan of toe socks because they feel weird between my smaller toes. So Tabi socks to the rescue! Now all I need is the Geta sandals for added Oriental fun!

Speaking of oriental, I got a gorgeous oriental-looking jewelry box from my mother for Christmas. I love it and just thought I'd share :)

Okay so maybe it doesn't really look that oriental but upclose the little embellishments look kinda oriental, or is that wishful thinking? Click on the picture for a super close-up and you can decide for yourself, just don't burst my happy little oriental bubble please :)

And that's all I've got today. Now that I have my bamboos I will be able to knit up some finished projects to share pretty soon!

~DK

Intarsia was the road to my cure...the cure to lazyknitteritis

2006-12-21T13:01:00.000-06:00

I don't have a ton of updating to do because I haven't made it up to the yarn shop for some new bamboos yet. I will for sure after Christmas. All gift money goes straight to knitting supplies of course!! So after this weekend I will be forcing my way to the yarn shop, by whatever means possible.
The Bruce Lee throw is coming along. I've gotten past the 39 stockinette rows + 5 garter stitch, for border, and made my way into the actual chart. My next row is the beginning of intarsia and I'm DYING to get into it. But alas, of course, life gets in the way, as my bottom lip juts out theatrically. Yes, I am pouting, and look remarkably like my three sons whenever they don't get their way. I woke this morning and the first thing I thought of was intarsia and my longing for it. If you are not a knitter I expect there was a comment or facial expression that had something to do with thinking I'm insane which likely was exuberated following that last sentence. Yes, I am, like so many others, afflicted with the Obessessive Compulsion know as Knitmania. With that said, not much has been on my mind, after forcing myself to undertake the common chores of a stay-at-home mom. Okay, so I did take some time to cuddle with my boys. Although I may be obsessed, my love for my family has the power to override my knitmania, thankfully, or I might've been to blame for the desinitegration of a marriage and happy family all do to knitting.
Okay, I'm getting off track, back to the throw. I'm completely loving it and unlike many of my first-time endeavors, I'm extremely excited and anxious to get into the intarsia, as previously mentioned. I'm very happy that the chart has sections of white instead of being all spread out. This way I can have a few bobbins going at a time and not have to freak out over tangled yarn everywhere. I've had my fill of untangling knots for the next year, in the past couple weeks.
Okay so in my excitment for intarsia, I decided to finally check out this knittinghelp.com that everyone is screeching about. Here's my reaction to the site-

YOU MUST SEE THIS SITE!!!!!!!!!!

Yep that was a screech, I've been screechified. In all seriousness, it really is a wonderful site. I watched the video on intarsia and it was soooooo helpful. I usually succomb to my lazyknitteritis, and end up attempting to do things without really being knowledgeable about them first. Except when it comes to felting, THAT scares the geebelees out of me. I've even knitted up a cute little bag and have yet to actually throw it in the washer despite having read and watched several different sources on felting. This is what it has looked like for the past six months at least-

I'm just too scared. Maybe if I promise you all I'll do it soon, the peer pressure will give me some bravery. So here goes- I, the Divaknitter, solemly swear to attempt felting my bag by the New Year.
Wait I was talking about knittinghelp.com and intarsia, how do I let myself get so distracted? Knitting does it to you, I think. You know, like when you have this project you're really into and then suddenly you spot the legwarmers in the Knit.1 TV issue and somehow they appear on your needles and become your fifty billionth project in the works. Yes, like that. Now, back to intarsia and my lazyknitteritis. I actually considered just trying intarsia without looking it up anywhere. It really is a sickness, I swear. But a miracle has appeared in the form of knittinghelp.com. It is WONDERFUL! The exact cure needed for the common knitter plagued by the seemingly uncureable lazyknitteritis. I watched one little ten minute video and whammo, I know exactly what I'm doing now! So check the site out. I'll put the link in the links list too just for you. Enjoy.

I must go finish christmas letters so I can finally get to my intarsia. If I don't get a chance to say it in the next few days-Merry Christmas!!

~DK

Blah, blah, blah...am I rambling??

2006-12-18T18:22:00.000-06:00

I have recently, as in the past day or two, been pulled in to the addiction called, Podcast. Maybe I should have resisted. I knew it was coming the moment I decided to try them out. But somehow I rationalized this new possible obsession by thinking I wouldn't enjoy all 25 podcasts that I subscribed to. Certainly there would only be one or two that would demand thirty minutes to an hour of my already jam packed life. Of course I didn't actually end up enjoying all of them but there are quite a few that have grabbed my attention, and I'm only on number 12 of the 25. lckily not all podcasters update every day, week, or even month, so there may be days that I can get away without a podcast session at all. This is a good thing as long as I don't end up with podcast withdrawl which is very likely with any addiction. Well, crossing my fingers for the retainment of my sanity, here are the podcasts I have enjoyed so far:

Sticks and String

Unwound

Pixie Purls

Ready Set Knit

Knitcast

Beyond podcasting, I have ventured to write down a list of all the projects I want to embark upon. Unfrtunately, knowing full well that I will never stick to such a list having made several predecessor to this current one. But, maybe, just maybe I can finish them all....yeah, maybe.So anyway, these are the projects on the needles at the moment:

The very late and slow going double knitted baby blanket (yes, it makes an appearance once again, and no I have not made anymore progress)-

The baby I've been knitting this for is approximately 3 months old now. It possibly could have been finished by now, but no, the curious incident of the child in the daytime has destroyed any progress that possibly could have taken place. Since said incident I have undertaken the following projects so this one will have to take a backburner until I'm able to reach the lovely supplier of all things Clover Bamboo thirty mins from my place of dwelling. I will also be purchasing this same brand of needles for this-

Maybe you've seen this before, or more like, you've probably seen this before. The needles I was using for it also broke although it wasn't to the fault of any children. Needless to say I'm going to be using bamboos from now on instead of the horribly irritating Needlemaster. Having said that I'll also be purchasing needles to replace my final on-the-needles project.
This, while the needles are in technical working order, is in need of a serious upgrade. I've been using my smallest length of cord in the needlemaster set because it's basically all I have left. This would be just fine and dandy (minus the hate of using a set of needlemasters) except that the cast on for this project was 156 stitches. Not so convenient for such a small length of cording.

Okay so although this project is somewhat annoying to try to keep on the needles (hence, the cute sockies on the end of my needles) I'm really quite excited about it. I was once again browsing the knitting web community and stumbled upon this wonderfulness at www.domiknitrix.com.

Okay so maybe I'm not a huge Bruce Lee fan but my husband's best friend certainly is! And to make things even more convenient, he's currently engaged to my best friend. I certainly need something that will be just spectacular for their wedding gift and now I have it, or...well...them. As in two gifts. I can't very well give them BOTH the Bruce Lee throw (did I mention it's a throw?) so I had to come up with something else for her. I was having trouble until I discovered this-

I found it here. If you read the information on the link then you can see where the designer/knitter got all the different elements of the Afghan. I really love this. I am going to change quite a bit about it though. The leaves I want to make look like this-

I may use the bordering trees sparingly and the edging I'm definately doing the same. But I'm going to try and incorporate their initials into it and possibly the wedding date also. Is it bad that I'm stealing ideas from others and just tweaking them to my specifications? I hope the people who created these patterns and knitted works won't be upset by my copy-catting. Of course I won't be selling the pattern or even posting it as a freebie of my own. Hmmmm...

Okay, so this post is getting quite long so I'll just bother you with one more picture of the belt I knitted up the other day, and be done with it. (YES! Finally a finished project, nevermind how small ;P )

~DK

Knitting with boys, I mean men, sorry guys

2006-12-15T08:28:00.000-06:00

My Christian Knitting group met once again last night. Get this, it was me and three guys! One of which was my gorgeous husband. It was a lot of fun. The guys have actually outnumbered the girls and other than Becky, my friend of twelve years, are the most loyal in their attendance! Okay, so it isn't a very large group but we have a lot of fun. We meet monthly but I'm changing that to bi-weekly. Our official meeting time is the first Thursday of each month. If you're keeping track, that was last week. That meeting was kind of a bust when it comes to actual knitting. We had fun hanging out but I was compulsively obsessed with getting the massive knot out of Becky's poor mangled yarn. That was a feat! I started working on that thing at 8:30pm and didn't get it all out til about 1am. Another member of the girl persuasion,Sara, who had been looking forward to the meeting as some R&R after some rough weeks, couldn't make it. And the guys just kinda hung out and watched me obsess over the monster knot. I'm currently teaching all three guys so they were somewhat stuck while I was completely entranced, maybe that yarn had some mystical "I must be untangled" power. So after that meeting busted we decided to do a make-up meeting last night. Sara and Becky were wiped from hard days at work and whatnot so it was just me and the guys. I gotta tell ya, in my experiences with teaching knitting, guys are by far the quicker learners. No offense to any of the girls I've taught but these guys just pick up on it right away. My own hubby blew me away! Not only did he learn quickly but he almost immediately was knitting twice as fast as me and I've been knitting for 3 years or so. Plus his stitch consistency, for a beginner, is quite outsanding.

Don't mind hoodie over there. It was enough that he actually let me take the picture! Hubby is in the red. He's such a good lookin guy!

If you look closely at the TV you'll see their method for retaining their masculinity while they knit. They were just kidding really. We all watch wrestling together for pay-per-views so we just happen to decide to watch a TNA video on Samoa Joe. Not that any of you would even be remotely interested in the details of what wrestling we were watching. I'm fairly certain I'm the only knitting wrestling fan in existence (other than the guys of course). If there are any others out there, let me know. We could make a group! You know, of the two of us. Haha.

Thanks for being so cool guys. I'm really lovin this group. It's basically some of my favorite people (along with my all-time favorite person) doing my favorite thing with me. Who could ask for more?!

~DK

Hotlinking is a No No...OOPS!!

2006-12-14T08:58:00.000-06:00

So I'm surfing my fellow knitting bloggers' pages and I'm having a fine good time. I discover a new blog, well new to me she's been around for a while. Anyway her blog is quite interesting and I'm very excited to be reading it because she does patterns for Knit.1 my all time favorite knitting mag. What a dream job! So I'm reading and she has one post about traffic on her site spiking unusually, which most of us accredit to her awesomeness. But some mentioned "hotlinking" could lead to this. Being a new-to-blogging and self-taught HTML user (I have had to edit the actual template using html because bloggerbeta doesn't support the skin I used) I had no idea what hotlinking was. And what do you do when you don't know what something is? Google it of course! So I do and a very informational page pops up. As I'm reading the evils of hotlinking, it dawns on me that I have unknowingly taken part in this rather rude and ultimately un-nice practice. I have since gone through all my links and posts that had hotlinked pictures and saved a copy to my computer, uploaded it to facebook, and replaced the source url.
There were two reasons for this post. One, to maybe bring it to the attention to some people who may not be aware of hotlinking or that they are doing it. And two, to publically apologize to those I was unknowingly stealing bandwidth from, whether they were aware of it or not. So here they are.

My apologies to-

Christian Women Online

drin-in-der-stubn.mydesignblog.de (I would have a better name for it but I can't read German)

My biggest apologies I would like to extend to Knitting Wench and knit1.typepad.com because I feel I probably was wronging those sites the most. I actually took a picture straight off these blogs (the pumpkin head picture and KnitLites picture) and hotlinked them. My most sincere apologies to them.

So in other news...

I'm currently working on 3 projects. Yeah, I know, only three. But I do have two or three that need to be started so it isn't so bad...Anyway, you already know of two of the projects, the breast Cancer Blanket and the double-knitted baby blanket from long ago. Remember? The attack of the needle-killer one year old? Yeah so I finally gave up on making it out to the knitting store (30 mins away) to get those bamboos I so want. I ended up getting the same old, same old from the dreaded Walmart. I know, it was a moment of weakness. I promise I'll still get the bamboos from the other place...eventually.
So I make it home at about 12 am last night with my new knitting needles and decide to go ahead and transfer the blanket onto them so the stitches won't fall off the ruined cord once again.I swear I've picked up those same stitched 20 times. Not really, but I didn't want to have to do it again regardless. That's when I realized that the needles I had just bought were about a half a size smaller than the ones I had used for the blanket. I swear I used 10 1/2s, but no, they were 11s. Sigh. I don't think I'm patient enough to wait so I'll just take the slight change in gauge. I mean it's just a blanket right? How much could just half a size show? Don't tell me, I know it's wishful hoping. I'm sure I'll do a few rows and then end up frogging them and buying those bamboos after all. Which means I contributed to the evils of Walmart for nothing. Wow, I've been taking part in a lot of "evil" lately huh?
Oh right, you're still wondering what that third project was. Well, I bought these new jeans that I was super excited about because they're a size 15 in Juniors. JUNIORS!! Four or five months ago I was a size 18 misses. To say the least I'm extremely happy especially because I got them at Kohl's for $15 each, can't beat that! Well after wearing them around for a few hours they are completely falling off. I mean FALLING OFF. I don't think I'm quite to a size smaller. I hate being inbetween sizes, but I always am. So I need a belt. And of course, why buy when you can knit?! So I'm making a belt using the cast on method they did on KnittyGritty but I think I'll design my own for the rest of it. Of course there will be pictures to come! Sorry I'm lacking on the pictures in this post, but please enjoy the managerie of linkage!

~DK

When it comes to knitting don't settle for ick

2006-12-12T09:15:00.000-06:00

I have decided that I'm not a fan of the Boye Needlemaster set. I switched to the size 11 needles for the Breast Cancer Blanket and apparently they aren't manufactured very well because the end that screws onto the connecting cable has excess metal hanging off. So basically I keep catching each stitch on it every time I move them along the needle. To say the least it's kind of annoying. I actually don't mind the split second of extra time it takes to pull the stitches past the catching point. It's more of the thought that I'm using inferior needles that gets to me. I know, I know, it's prissy but I do really need to get some nicer needles. I may dish out some mula for the Knit Picks Options set and then maybe get bamboos here and there as I go. The Mason-Dixon girls have mentioned in their blog that the Options set is pretty good, and I don't think you can go wrong with taking their advice :) So that may be the next knitting expenditure, besides yarn of course ;P

Okay enough ranting. I'm gettin there on the aforementioned blanket. I won't bore you with post after post of my progress though. Don't worry, it should be finished soon enough, it's a quick knit. I'll post a completed pic when it's done. Anyways, I will venture to entertain you with a picture my hubby took on our recent zoo adventure. It's getting pretty chilly here so the waterfall was pretty amazing I thought.

Our local zoo is rockin! It's one of the best in the country for sure! Thumbs up to the zoo officials for not deciding to turn this particular waterfall off for the winter!

More knitting coming soon, I promise. Sorry for the lack thereof in this one.

~DK

The Last Knit: When Knitting Becomes an Obsession

2006-12-09T15:24:00.000-06:00

I don't have a lot of updating when it comes to knitting. Still working on the breast cancer blanket from the previous post. So I was looking on youtube for a particular knitting video and found this.

Amazing!! Does this girl have a blog?? :)

So here's the actual video a friend showed me a while ago and I thought I'd entertain you with.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

~DK

Note to self: sleep in bed, not bathtub

2006-12-07T12:07:00.000-06:00

My poor hubby had quite a big scare last night. Here's what happened: He went over to his best friends to hangout while I put the boys to bed (I told him to he needed a break). I told him I'd give him a call after the boys were asleep and we'd go from there (see if I'd meet them over there or I just spend some time knitting until he got home). So he takes off and I herd our three boys into their bedroom and hunker down for some good ol' Nintendo DS tetris. Of course I would knit of course but the room is dark and I haven't been able to bring myself to spend $17 on some Knitlites. If you haven't heard of them, they're a genious invention of knitting needles with lights in the tips so you can knit in the dark. I think I just convinced myself to hock over the $17 :)

Moving on...I only played a few games before I was just too darn tired and decided to use the big teddy bear I was leaning on as a pillow. And when I say big I mean BIG.

Not a night of putting the boys to bed has gone by that I've not been very thankful we bought that bear for them! he's a cuddley thing! So I wake up sometime between 9:30 and 10 and all three boys are finally asleep. Still feeling a bit groggy and quite stuffed up (this cold just will not let go) I head directly to the bathtub for some relaxation. I realize during my R&R that I forgot to call my husband but I know he'll understand so I continue my relaxation.

The next thing I know he's waking me up with this unexplainable look on his face. I suppose the best description would be bewilderment. This is what had happened during my little snooze: He and his friend had realized I hadn't called so he called to make sure everything was fine. I didn't answer. No big deal, I had probably just fallen asleep in the bed room with the boys (can you tell that happens a lot? I guarantee if you stick any mother of three preschoolers in a dark quiet room, they will lose conciousness). A little while later my husband comes home and everything is dark and quiet. He checks our bedroom. I'm not there. He checks the boys' room. I'm not there either. This is when he starts to really worry. He calls my name. No answer. And again. No answer. The panic begins to set in. The bathroom, I have to be in the bathroom, but why am I not answering?? He rushes in and sees me unconscious underneath the water with nothing but my nose sticking out. This is when he said the shock started to sink in but he was still clinging to the hope that I was just asleep. Apparently it took a few tries to finally wake me up which just made it worse. But I did finally wake up, not completely understanding the "bewildered" look on his face.
After he told me what had happened I felt horrible. My poor guy had thought I had drowned while he was with his friend. He wasn't upset with me just down right scared. I vowed never to sleep in the bath again. To tell you the truth, underneath the feeling horrible for scaring him so badly, it felt really good to know someone cared so much. Of course I already knew that but to actually see someone have that much fear of losing you just warms your heart.

Okay so enough of the storytelling, here's my recent knitting adventures. I spent all Wednesday sitting in a lecture on Asperger's and Autism so of course I needed a knitting project to take along with me. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to make but I was sure of the yarn I wanted to use.

Moda Dea TickerTape in pink

And Bernat Soft Bucle

In Black

The project started out as either a belt or scarf, I didn't like the results so I ripped it all out and started this

You gotta love that it matches my current knitting bag :)

I'm pretty sure it'll end up being a sqaure lap blanket for someone who was just diagnosed with breast cancer. Her daughter is in the same bible study as me and I was wanting to knit something for her mom as my first PrayerKnits project. I tought the pink was very breast cancer appropriate. I have someone else I want to make something for too so I may be doing both at the same time. It's a little 3yr old boy who has cancer. His grandmother is in my chorus group and was talking to me about the process of her becoming his hospice worker. I had been wanting to start the PrayerKnits group for a while and now suddenly I have two different people who I can knit something for through it. God works in wonderful ways. I don't think it was a coincidence that they both came through groups I was already involved in either. Gotta love that.

~DK

Beauty from ashes, substitute ugly knitting for ashes

2006-12-04T08:07:00.000-06:00

After way too many set backs for a super easy pattern (not at the fault of the author), the clutch purse is finito (have you noticed I like to make boring words more interesting?). I actually almost scrapped the whole project because it just didn't seem to be coming together. First I couldn't get the gauge to match the first front panel I did a while back. I've come to the conclusion that the skein I had ordered online was quite a bit different than any other Bernat Softee Chunky I had or probably ever will purchase. It was a bit thinner and had a sheen to it that knitted just beautifully, but of course was no where close to the same gauge as the front. I finally just decided to double strand and reknit the front after I finished the back. For some reason I thought I could go to the store (they finally restocked their yarn)`and get another skein and have it be the same as the internet skein. Silly me. It ended up being just like the skein used for the first front panel. Oh well, I needed to reknit the front just the same because I had switched to double stranding(just using two strings of yarn instead of one) because I liked the thickness. After I finished and had peiced the two panels together, I was severely unhappy. It just wasn't what I was hoping for. With a sigh I decided that maybe the embellishment might help my prejudice against it. This was the result.

It's amazing what a simple free hand backstitching can do for finishing a project!! The whole look of the bag changed and instead of wanting to shove it in a drawer and forget it ever existed, I can't wait to use it on our anniversary. Now the only step left is to lose that last 20lbs so I look fantabulous(there it is again) in the dress I have picked out. Actually the dress has some history but that's a whole different post. OOoooooh, cliffhanger!

I'm very excited and pleased to say that I believe my charity group PrayerKnits is about to get underway. The basic jist of it is we pray and knit for people going through a rough time. It's just like the Prayer Shawl Ministry. The difference is that we switch-up the things we knit for people. It can be anything from a shawl or blanket to a pair of mittens or a teddy bear for a child. It'll be starting out really small but that's how most things start right? I hope to set up a website soon where people from all over can get involved. The idea is that anyone can be a part, they just knit and pray for someone and I will hopefully have some downloadable things that you can attatch to the gift. Then there will be a blog or some other way for people to let us know their stories and talk to eachother about it all. Eventually I hope to have groups that meet all over but it's all in God's hands so we'll see.

Stay tuned for links to the PrayerKnits website and the story of "the dress"! Wow, I was just full of to-be-continueds on this one.

~DK

attack of the needle-killer one year old

2006-12-01T09:54:00.000-06:00

Don't you just hate those days when you're just way too busy and don't get to knit ALL DAY!? There's been a lot of those days this week :( I absolutely love being in the chorus but when it gets in the way of my knitting I may just have to reevaluate my priorities. Just kidding! Although I will be glad when this week is over and life goes back to normal, with knitting time.
Despite my lack of actual knitting time, I have had some knitting related experiences in the past few days. I currently am using a Boye Needlemaster set until I can manage to replace it with bamboo circulars.

Well, I was busy blogging when I looked over and saw my one year old, Rion, sitting on my current knitting project (a baby blanket from a previous post). I fully considered moving him and rescuing my precious project, but I decided to try and fight my obsessive compulsion to protect my knitting. It will be fine it's just a blanket and he's just sitting there, I told myself. It wasn't long before he got up and charged over to a favorite toy and I breathed a sigh of relief that it had come to no harm. A little while later I decided to move the in-the-works blanket to a safer more protected area, the bedroom. As I lifted it from the couch, however, one of the screwed-on needles remained where it lay and I realize that a few dozen stitches had fallen off. No problem, I thought, I'll just pick up the stitches and screw the needle back on. So after spending a few minutes picking the stitches back up with the needleless cord, I attempted to screw the needle back on. This is when I realized that something was terribly wrong. There was nothing to screw the needle back on to. My son had sat on the needle and cord and broken the needle off with the screw part still inside.

So the blanket must take a back burner until I can manage my way through my busy life to the local knitting shop and pick up some new size tens. You would imagine I would be upset by this but in actuality, I'm just excited to have an excuse to go buy some size 10 bamboos. my goal is to acquire a full set of bamboo needles in circular and double-pointed. One step closer.
Conveniently, I happened across an unfinished project from months ago that I had been quite excited about. The reason it didn't get finished was a lack of yarn, which is so often a problem in the life of a knitter. when I went back to the store to pick up another skein they had gotten rid of almost ALL of their yarn. Apparently they were revamping there selection and just hadn't put it all out on display yet. So I tried several other stores with no luck. Finally in desperation I ordered it on ebay. Unfortunately it took 4 weeks for me to receive it and I had already begun the previously mentioned blanket. So I put the yarn in a drawer with the half finished peice,( it's a clutch purse by the way) and eventually forgot about it until yesterday. I now have the piece and the yarn to complete it. And with a damper on my current project and nothing to fulfill my knitting withdrawl, I shall complete it.

The pattern is out of Emma King's 25 Bags to Knit. It's my first attempt at continental knitting. I plan on adding some embellishments in either pink or red. If you know me well you're probably thinking, she'll pick pink for sure. But in fact I'm leaning towards the red to match the dress I'm wearing on our 4th wedding anniversary. But you're correct, my obsession with pink makes it a very difficult choice. And to wrap it up I'll post some pics of the knitting(and one sewing) books that I just ordered.

~DK

pumpkin heads and church? no, not really

2006-11-28T06:11:00.000-06:00

I just found this adorable hat that I MUST knit. It's just too adorable to pass up. It can be my new "fall baby" baby gift. Here's a basic free pattern and another one with a cuter stem. And here's the best pic I found of it in action (stolen from the knitting wench) :) Actually the patterns are a little different so I think I'll play with it a bit and try to acheive the results in the photo. Although the cuter stem is just adorable!

This weekend is my chorus' annual Christmas in the Cathedral concert. It being my first year singing in this particular concert, I was expecting a "cathedral" not a real Cathedral. I just couldn't imagine we'd have such a thing in our small city and I not have known about it in the 17 years that I've lived here. So I'm driving to the "cathedral" and of course I'm just looking for a regular old church just a bit more ornate than usual, maybe even a little taller. And suddenly as I'm driving this appears before me.

I was astonished that it was right off of a road I've been down thousands of times and I hadn't even known it was there! Suddenly I was extremely excited about the upcoming concert, which I hadn't been because of the enormous amounts of practice that was scheduled for this week. Now it's more than worth it. The acoustics are amazing. It almost rivals the Carmina Burana concert we just did...almost :) So anyway here are some pics of St. Cecilia's Cathedral. And, yes, I do realize it's a very small cathedral comparitively but it's the first one I've ever been in and I have an appreciation for gorgeous architecture no matter the size. Although size helps ;P

This is the front alter, I really liked the sun detailing on the ceiling for some reason.

Actual alter.

This was my favorite part of the whole cathedral. I just loved the pairing of the crystal chandalier and the jeweled design on the ceiling.

Previously mentioned sun detailing

The organ loft where we start the concert

And finally a not-so-great picture of me and a couple of my favorite chorus girlies

Don't you just love my outfit?? I just got it in that day and just HAD to wear it, despite the pajamaness. I got plenty of comments so I suppose my chorus buddies love me despite my fashion failure. Ha!

Speaking of clothing I ended up going to kohls today with a $40 no purchase necessary coupon my mom gave me. Yay! She gave it to me because I drove her to the airport at 4:30 this morning. She knew I would have done it anyway, but it expires this weekend and she couldn't use it because she'd be gone. Plus for me!! Anyway, I was extremely happy with my purchase. I managed to get two pairs of jeans in a size smaller than I thought I was (yay for weight loss), a tank top, and a head band that was just perfect for the concert this weekend. No more hair in my eyes! So I suppose today has been one of my more enjoyable days :)

~DK

an old art and new technology

2006-11-27T10:37:00.000-06:00

I mentioned in a prior note that I was working on a double knitted blanket. It's going pretty well so far. no hang-ups yet but then again I haven't even gotten to the part where I knit the words into it yet. Soon though, I have about 4 inches til the real fun begins :) So anyway, here's my progress so far-

I used Lion Brand Jiffy in White and Light Pink.

I love Jiffy because it's soft and only about $2 a skein. Perfect for baby blankets since it seems like one always needs to be made!

Oh and on another note, I had been planning on maybe using our tax return to get a laptop in January for my writing but my husband, Mike, found something even better!

It's one of the newer PDAs (palm pilots). Mike said you can use Microsoft Word on it and when you connect it to your computer it automatically updates your work. If I get an idea in the middle of no where I can pull it out and just jot it down, no more trying to remember all my thoughts or writing on napkins. I'm so excited. It's perfect for my writing, plus no more carrying around a daily planner and address book. And you can get a keyboard that it docks into so I can type my writing just like on a laptop. I'm so excited. Wait, said that already huh? Well it just shows you how excited I really am! It is a little expensive but I'm looking at it like an investment towards my writing. Plus it's way less expensive then the laptops I was looking at. Besides, it has fingerprint identification! Who can resist that?? :) Technology is astounding.

~DK

A parent's heartache

2006-11-27T07:20:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a heartbreaking day for me. I volunteered in the nursery at church and ended up in the same room as Rayden my two year old. If you remember from my previous posts, Rayden is about to be tested for Autism which we're sure he has. My heart broke as I sat in the nursery room full of a dozen or so three year olds (Rayden turns three in January). Rayden wouldn't sit down for any of the craft, snack, or storytime. When I tried to get him to sit with me he'd arch his back and throw himself on the floor. The other adults in the room were very kind and kept telling me he could just play which I eventually just gave up and let him. I wasn't frustrated or annoyed with Rayden at all. I'm used to him acting that way, but dealing with it while twelve other kids his age sit nicely at the table, listening to the story, or putting stickers on their craft was just heartwrenching. And then something happened for the first time. It happens to all kids and parents dealing with Autism. I noticed the kids staring at him. At three years old they already could tell there was something different about him. It may sound minute, but realizing that it was just something I was going to have to get used to was really hard. But, no matter what, I'm still so thankful that he's mine, autism and all.

~DK

whirlwinds

2006-11-24T15:00:00.000-06:00

Let's embark on the things that are going on in my life in more detail...

In the marriage area- My husband and I are very close, even though we have different hobbies, we invest in eachother's time. I always try to play the card games he likes with him and he has even attended my knitting group and learned to knit, which he caught onto quite quickly! We both enjoy watching professional wrestling together. I really enjoy having our friends over for the pay-per-views. That is one of the things I pride myself on; the fact that I can hang out with him and his(our) friends and just be one of the guys. I don't give myself the credit though, I know full well that we're just lucky to have such awesome friends.
There are some complications in our marriage though. My husband works part-time and goes to college full time so our time together (with three boys) is few and far between. In addition we currently live in the basement of my parents home until Mike graduates. It causes some bumps, you could say. I'm fortunate in having such a wonderful husband that I can talk to. We are luckily on the same side when it comes to my family and the things we need to discuss. But even then, living with your parents when you're an adult with three children is obviously not an ideal situation. It is definitely quite frustrating. Finally, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Mike should be graduating in either May or August, depending on availability of classes. There is a slight chance it will go one more semester in August but we are hoping that we can get a waiver so he can take one class and its prerequisite at the same time. I very much am looking forward to getting a house and being out on our own finally, as you can probably imagine.
I must also say, though, that we are deeply appreciative of the sacrifices my parents have made for us by letting us stay here. We will have a much better situation when Mike has a degree and doing it this way will save us a great amount of stress.

Moving on...the children area- My children are wonderful. I enjoy being a stay-at-home mom so much! My life had an emptiness until Mike and the boys came into it. As everyone knows motherhood is pure joy but comes with some stresses. Currently, we're having our two oldest children, Rashawn and Rayden, tested for Autism. I've worked with Autism in Special Ed classrooms every summer since I was 13 or 14 so I'm quite familiar with it. Basically, for me, the testing is just proceedural. I already know they have it, now it's just the question of where on the spectrum they are and how to deal with it to maximise their educational and social development.
Both boys are extremely high functional, they make brief eye contact regularly and are very affectionate. But the signs are there, even if I didn't recognize them right away. I was at a parent-teacher conference for Rashawn when the teacher said she had some concerns and wanted to pursue the testing. I was in a little bit of shock of course but I handled it as calmly as I could, carefully considering all of her examples of signs he showed. Then I went home, and started to observe him. It didn't take long to realize she was right. I think I was already convinced on the way home from the conference, but watching him just made it that much more convincing.
It was in watching Rashawn that I started to observe Rayden also. He has much more obvious signs and possibly has a little more profound case than Rashawn, while still being high functioning. He is very delayed in his speech and reacts to any stress such as noise in a more dramatic way. Although I'm very lucky that neither of them scream, because I think that is one of the greater stresses that comes with autism. Rayden will throw himself on the floor and we're having trouble with him hitting. Although it never hurts it's still something we need to take care of now. He's very cuddly and each time he reacts in these ways it's obvious that he's very stressed and doesn't know how to communicate it, which is a major part of autism.
Rayden was a bit harder to accept because of his history. When he was 7 mos. old he started having seizures and was diagnosed with Infantile Spasms, a rare form of epilepsy in infants. God blessed us unimaginally. The first medication we tried worked and even after we weened him off of it the seizures didn't return. Shortly after I went to a support group meeting and it was a very difficult experience. I saw all the children around me and not one had been completely cured with the medication. Some it worked for but not long term and others it had no affect at all. Each child had severe mental and /or physical development difficiencies. It was probably one of the hardest things, sitting in a room thinking how lucky I am when the ones around me are still struggling. An older sister of one of the kids asked her mother why it had worked for my son and not her brother. I couldn't bring myself to keep going to the meetings, it was much too heartwrenching. But even harder than that was the fear that began to grip me again of the seizures returning (it can happen anytime, even years and years from now). It eventually lessened more and more. My faith in God and my trust in him kept me from obsessing over it. But still, any rigid movment Rayden would make I would stop everything and just watch him to make sure he wasn't having a seizure. It was a difficult thing but we were blessed in it.
I am excited right now about Rayden starting school. He's going to be in Rashawn's class which gives me a two and a half hour break 3 days a week because Rion takes his nap at the same time. Ahhhhhh, sigh of relief.

On a happier note...knitting!- My knitting group that meets once a month is doing great. I just love sitting and hanging out with friends while we knit. it's slowly adding members, and I'm in no huge hurry, I know God will do what he wants with the group and I'll be happy with whatever happens with it. Eventually I would really like to start a knitting charity that knits and prays for people going through a tough time, but like I said, whatever God does with it will be just fine with me because I know his will is best.
Currently I'm working on a baby blanket for a friend. It's a technique that's really nice called double knitting. I can't wait to get to the more difficult part where I knit the baby's name, birthdate, and measurements into the blanket. My next project will be another baby blanket for a family member and then I plan on doing a more complicated sweater that has me really excited!Here's a picture-

Okay, enough with knitting...how about the writing?- I'm really excited about what I'm doing with writing also. I'm working on a fantasy book series. I won't be able to give any details but I'm surprising even myself with how well it's coming together and I haven't even started the first page! I've just been writing notes because I want to have everything worked out so things connect throughout the series. I can't take credit for it though, because God has made it very clear that he's the one giving me ideas. I'll write something down that pops into my head and then I'll realize later on that it connects to something I wrote a long time ago. It's trully amazing. I'm so honored to have God working through me in such a way!

And the book of the day?? Well week or month, depending on time :)- I just finished The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer and I'm running to the library today to pick up the third book in the trilogy, A Man Named Dave. Then it's on to Eragon by Christopher Paolini because fantasy is the best. And after that is a reread of Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns because I LOVED the book in high school and want to get even more out of it. You can also check out my current reads through the book club a friend and I created on facebook.

Link to Book Club

Another area at the moment...my weight- I'm in the process of losing all the weight I gained through 3 pregnancies. I'm happy so far with the results. I've lost 40 lbs and have 20 more until I reach my goal weight. I may lose a bit more after that but we'll just have to see how I feel.

One more thing...singing- I'm currently singing with the Symphonic Chorus in my city. We sing with the symphony probably 3 or 4 times a year at least. It's really been a great experience. We had 40 people selected from the chorus to join a few other university choirs and perform Carmina Burana with the symphony in the brand new concert hall in our city. It was amazing! I've wanted to do Carmina for years so it was a dream come true for sure. And it didn't disappoint one bit, the performance was absolutely incredible. I won't ever forget that experience. Right now we're about to hit rush week before our Christmas concert so life will be quite busy but after that we'll have a few weeks break for Christmas and New Year's. So that's the chorus end of singing. I have also been working with a wonderful man I've gotten very close to over the six or so years we've worked together. Mr. Price my vocal coach has become like a grandfather and mentor to me. I love him dearly. So it was hard when recent finances made me quit my lessons with him. I'm determined to go back though. I miss him so much! I"m realizing how much I trully cherish him both as a vocal coach and friend.

I suppose I should wrap it up. Thanks for reading!!

~DK

Opening it up

2006-11-24T14:57:00.000-06:00

I'm a writer, knitter, singer, christian, wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. This is my life....

January 18, 2003 I married my wonderful husband Mike who has turned my world from grey to blue. We have three beautiful children, Rashawn (4), Rayden (2), and Rion (1). I'm a stay-at-home mom and I trully love it. Once all the boys are in school I plan on working towards a major in creative writing (fiction). I also have an interest in directing theater so I may double major in that. Currently I'm singing with a group that sings with the city's symphony. It's a wonderful experience. Last weekend I was honored to perform Carmina Burana with 200 other voices and a full orchestra. It was the best concert I have ever taken part in.

My beliefs are the center point of my life, without God and all He has done for me I would be lost. I believe every word of the bible and have experienced God's work in my life to a point that it would be impossible for me to deny Him. I love the Lord with all my heart and even if my life crashed around me I would still be blessed because of his presence.

Right now I'm focused on my family, my God, my health, and my writing. In the health area I have recently lost 40lbs and have 20lbs more before I reach my goal weight. My writing is showing more promise than ever before which I can only attribute to God because I know that I don't have the natural ability to come up with all the ideas that I have concerning the book I'm working on. It has trully been amazing to see things connect within the story even before I was aware of it.

Now you may be wondering why I have called this blog The DivaKnitter Times if they are not the two things I focus on the most. Knitting and singing are the two things I do for pure enjoyment. They may be hard work, yes, but I love to do them and it never fails to release any tension I may have built up throughout the day. So there you have it, the life and times of a DivaKnitter.