I've got finish-itis. I'm unable to commit to a project. 1" is apparently as much love as I can give any project. Booooo. I need a project that I love.
Top left and then clockwise:
1. Socks
2. Dishcloth
3. Miter Square
4. Mitten Cuff in teal
1. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (First 3 letters of first name plus izzle) CHRIZZLE, fo' shizzle!
2. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal) Blue Cheetah
3. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, and current street name) Elizabeth Whitney
4. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name) Garchbro [ha, ha... I kinda like it]
5. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink). Red Peppermint Tea
6. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one your pets) Black Murray [or Black Sibbie]
Can anyone ever win Solitaire without cheating?!?! I can't. Never have. Never could. Didn't last night. Boo...
I got a nostalgic urge to play Solitaire after cleaning the porch on a very nice day. The day reminded me of my grandparents' cottage. I would stay there some time every summer... playing cards on the porch. Never winning at Solitaire. Or Monopoly. I did ok with rummy.
Here's the table and chairs I garbage picked. I painted them and re-upholstered them. [We were at an auction last summer and there was a cute, old-fashioned table painted yellow. I thought "Oh, how cute! I'll bid on that and paint it bright green!". Um, yeah, I already had made this one.]
Sibbie, the demon cat, stalking us from under the TV stand. It was hilarious watching her get under there... she must have been through basic training with the Navy Seals.
Murray "helping" me wind yarn. It's good to have helpers.
Friend Megan is home from Millikin. She tried on Wicked 1. It's too big for her too, but she's hipper than I am, apparently the 80's are back, and she plans to "Flash Dance" it. Since I already dressed bad in the 80's, I'm not going through that particular phase again. Anyway.... she likes it and I'm glad for her to have it. It had to go to someone that didn't live here regularly... that could be AWKWARD. Hey! I've got that exact hand-knitted sweater! Yeah! Same color and everything.
Now, the only problem I have is that I bought 9 skeins of this Teal yarn. Each sweater took 3, because my row gauge was off, so I gained some yardage. Do I make Wicked 3? Do I make a bunch of Teal mittens and socks? Will it be a Teal Christmas? I'll have to think on it.
Miters are all the rage. I was so enthusiastic about them a couple of days ago. Now on my 8th one, I'm losing steam. I'm trying to use up all my random leftovers of Nature Spun wool. I'd guess I'm about 3 blocks away from having used up that stash. My wrists hurt from the straight needles, I think. 
Murray approves in the only way he knows how... by rolling on them, sitting on them, and then, as a final seal of approval, cleaning his heinie on top of them. Ew.
Spring has hit the south side of the house... this pic is the 1st part of Resurrection Lilies. Our first year at the house, I thought that those long leaves were all it was. Then they died off. After a couple of weeks, long flower stalks popped up where the foliage had died. They are really pretty flowers, but they look a little odd with just a 2-3 foot stalk and a lily swaying on top.
Plants are fighting their way up through the matted down mulch and leaves. I'm pleased to see that the things I roughly transplanted at the wrong time of the year are coming up again. My rule for garden plants has always been survival of the fittest, and they'd better live with the rain they get, for they'll not get watered by ME. Seems as though the ones I hacked to bits are ok with that. My lavendar lived through the winter and seems to be growing underneath the dead stuff. I read that Martha Stewart will not cut her lavendar back until they start budding. So, I guess I won't either. Martha would know.
These little so-and-so's seem to have no problem coming back either. I don't approve of them, but I haven't the heart to start fighting them so early in the season. I'll pay for that later, I bet.
Chris - here
Lee - absent, but back tonight! :)
Murray - here
Sibbie - here
mouse - here
Wait? What? Murray woke me up at 5 a.m. hissing and growling. That can only mean one thing... a mouse cowering in my undies... the undies that ALMOST made it into the laundry basket... not the undies on my person. Just so we're clear.
Lee did not want me to put the poison out in the room where cats can't get to, so I didn't, but this Seek and Destroy method of the cats isn't working for me. (Actually, it's more of a Seek and Play method.) Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have the cats alert and interested... kind of... but maybe I'd rather not know. Shudder.
Anyway, the mouse is still somewhere in the house. Murray thought it went up on the little shelf in our closet. I'm hoping it went out of the closet, because if it didn't, that means it has climbed up in our clothes. Gah. I didn't check it out too closely. Did I mention that Lee will be home tonight, and I have officially deemed it "His Problem" ?
Lee is gone this week. He's being a Mr. Smarty Pants at BrainShare 2007 in Salt Lake City. He asked me what I was going to do this week. I could only shrug. And he said "No, really... what projects are you going to work on?" Ummmm.... Errrrrr....
He left yesterday afternoon, and I spent the whole evening finishing Wicked2, starting a blanket, and watching Veronica Mars. I did vaccuum last night. AND cleaned cat vomit off my bed. Murray has a delicate stomach, which apparently LOVES emptying itself on our covers. Also, I ate 1/2 a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints. So much for no sugar. I'm back on the wagon this morning... clearly still not able to control myself. I felt pretty gross after eating all those cookies, but not so bad that I wouldn't do it again today. Hence, the severity of my disease.
My options for "things to do" are these:
1. clean house
2. paint back entryway
3. strip wallpaper
4. put finishing touches on kitchen
5. knit something
Exciting, non? Number 5 sounds best to me, but 1-4 will make me feel better in the long run.
I saw mulch for sale this morning. Spring is coming! That means yard work. Ugh. We usually hire a kid to mow our lawn. We may have to expand the duties to include weeding, raking, mulch hauling, etc...
... and I love, love, love it! I'm gonna wear it tomorrow. Woot.
Also started working on a blanket with my leftover wool. Used the Mitered Square Blanket from the Mason Dixon book. I like knitting these squares... it's awesome how every row is shorter than the last. I crocheted an edge around it, working in the ends as I went... no way was I gonna weave in the 50 million (roughly) ends the old fashioned way. I'd like to donate a blanket to either Afghans for Afghans or the Dulaan Project: Knitting to Warm Mongolia. Anyone want to make squares for a blanket with me?
We spent the weekend in the Dells at the Kalahari. There was a baby girl Tiger in the lobby. You could have your picture taken with her. We missed the time to get a picture taken, but we got to see the little baby close up. Super cute.
Seer: "Beware the Ides of March."
Julius Caesar: "The ides of March are come."
Seer: "Aye. but not gone."
Then Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of senators. Beware, indeed.
In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. +The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. +Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. +The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien
6. +The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. +The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. *Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. +The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. *The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. *I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. *Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. *She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. *Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. *The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. *One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. *Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. *The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
I don't need no stinkin' ball winder. No sirree... I've already got one. One winder and one inspecta-cat.
I am not including pics from the new Wicked. It looks exactly like the other Wicked, except it's smaller... and it fits so far. I'll post again when it's done.
Yerp, my worst fears were confirmed today. Finished "Wicked". I knitted the wrong size. It's too big for me. I still have yarn left, and I think I have enough for a smaller size. I'm casting on today. I love the design so much, and I still want this sweater.
My friend Melodie came for a visit this weekend. She and I spent quality time together on our laptops, sharing all the funny videos we'd collected. Melodie spoke to our women's group at church Friday night.
Let's see... knitting vs. computers, knitting vs. computers... You can guess which is more important to me... :) The orange yarn is marking the line for the pocket to be sewed on. Speaking of the pocket... didja notice the beautifully matched M1's? Right and Left, baby. No, I didn't steam the pocket 1st... it'll have to stretch into place. I'm thinking this sweater is going to be a bit too big. (I maybe picked the wrong size.) The body is great... you can't see it, but it is shaped... in toward the waist, out again for the hips. The underarms are a bit low maybe. At this point it would mean ripping back TOO FAR. I think short rows for the bosom would be a good idea too. Listen to me... acting like I know what I'm talking about! (Isn't that cute?!?! OMG!!! Ponies!!!) I think I'd make this again. Maybe in magenta! I'm about 2 evenings away from finishing. Can't tonight or tomorrow... got meetings. Argh. I loved last Saturday. Lee was at the Walk Worthy conference all day, so I had the house to myself. I believe I knit for 10 hours that day. My hiney was a bit sore.
Sooooo... it's been 3 weeks since my last sugar high. After the headaches went away (about a week) the lack of sugar started feeling ok. I have lost 4 pounds. I stood on the scale this morning, WILLING it to be lower... you know how you try to think "light" thoughts... and it WAS lower. In addition to NO SUGAR, I'm trying to eat only "real" food... ie: not much snacking. Must be working. I'm hungry at least 2 times a day. That's not a goal I had, but it is reality. I remember back in Weight Watchers, a leader said, "It's not bad for your body to feel hungry. You don't have to feel full ALL THE TIME." I forget that. A grumbly stomach does not equal pain, but in the U.S., it's hard to make that distinction between need and want.
... or "MATH", as I like to call it.
Bleak, bleak, bleak. Here's my daytime view in one of my offices. The other office is even more bleak, if possible. No window there. February is over... shortest month? It felt like it went on FOREVER. March is not starting out much better. Bleak.
So, you can see why I knit... it's full of color and excitement and creation.
