I'm In!!!!!

frecklegirl has invited you to Ravelry!"Here you go! Thanks for your interest in our little site.Let me know if you have any questions or problems!

Got my invite to Ravelry today! Yeah! Now I can waste errr spend even more time online rather than doing housework, yardwork, knitting.....My id is wendydancer - duh!

On the MS3-I'm almost done with clue 3 but have put it aside to work on the Zigzag Lace Top. I have the front and back done and about 20% of one sleeve. The Sunray Shawl has also been sidelined but I'm about 80% on it. I've done 5 repeats and plan to do one more.


Sunray Shawl in Cotton Fleece


Zigzag lace top-front


MS3-clue 2

Well, I would write more but DH is sitting staring at me waiting to use my computer to make illegal copies of something....errrr I mean totally legal copies.

See ya on Ravelry!

This is so much fun!

I've finished clue 2 on the Mystery Stole 3. I am really loving the way this is looking. I'm not having too much trouble with it. I have tinked a few rows here and there, but overall I'm really proud of how I'm doing. I absolutely cannot believe that I'm doing something so gorgeous!



Part of me (the nice part) wants to give this to Evelyn when I'm finished with it. She has been so sweet to me and given me 2 pairs of gorgeous Glide dance shoes and she gave me a beautiful gold petticoat. That stuff is very expensive to buy new! But most of me (the evil, selfish, greedy part) wants to keep this lovely thing all for me. Guess, I'll wait until I finish it to decide...

So, we are off to the coast for the weekend to dance. Should be lots of fun. Ricky & cheryl, Sharon & Gary are going down also. And we will get to see June, Sue, Bob, Art & Vicki and probably lots of other friends will be down there! If we aren't full of dancing we'll stop in SA on the way home Sunday afternoon and round dance with David & Terri's group.

Sweet Deer

See these deer? Aren't they so sweeeettttt? Make you want to say "awwwww". Well they really aren't sweet at all. They are destructive little critters. I know, I know....they were here first...we're encroaching on their habitat...yada yada yada. They still piss me off!


They eat your potted plants that are out on your deck. And make your hibiscus look like this.....




My hisbiscus used to be beautiful with red flowers on the left and orange flowers on the one on the right. I have another picture here somewhere.....of a beautiful blooming hibiscus.

So, now I have my deck chairs strategically placed on the deck so maybe the deer won't get up there again and munch. Not that there's anything left to eat! Should I try to save the hibiscus or give them up as deer food?

My Life is So Wonderful

I'm sorry, but it is! And then some normal crap happens and I can just barely handle it!

Take yesterday. Gary got up complaining of pain in his lower abdomen. Well, he had this a month ago. He thinks he has kidney stones again. Or maybe a bladder infection.

So, right away I start reminding him of that and telling him to call the dr.....No. That doesn't happen. All day long....him complaining and me saying "call the dr!"

Finally at 3 pm....I say "call the dr. or I will!" What a woman! So, he calls the dr. Tells them his symptoms and guess what??? Come on over!

So, he rolls back in about 5:45 and I am dressed and ready to leave for square dance. It's our regular Monday night weekly dance and we are Presidents of the club. Not that I expected him to go, but I would go make a presence. Florence Freakin' Nightingale, I'm not!

Anyhoo....so the dr says he has a bladder infection and gives him Cipro antibiotics. All is well. I go off to the dance.

This morning I awake to the sound of the shower running at 7 am. Not a good sign! I rub my eyes and say a few choice words then roll out of bed to find out what the hell is going on.

"I'm getting ready to go to the emergency room" he says. So, I scramble to get dressed, brush teeth, grab some knitting cause I know I'll need that, maybe a book too. Do I have time for makeup? Well, now he's in the bathroom trying to pee. So, I go for a little foundation.

"Did you try to call the dr?"

"Why? They don't open til 8 and I can be at the hospital by then."

Oh jeez! So, we call the dr's exchange and the recording says if it's an emergency go to the emergency room. Shit!

He's hurting and so off we go. En route, I hand him the cell and the drs card and say call them again. Lo and behold they answer. After several minutes....the result is that we have an appointment to have xrays at 11 am and see the dr at 1 pm. It is freaking 8 am and he's in agony. So, ok they will call in a rx for pain pills. We go to the pharmacy. They don't open until 9. And it's a thirty minute drive back home.

Ummmm...ok. I need coffee. "Let's go have some breakfast and go back to the pharmacy at 9." Good plan, tonto! So, 30 minutes later I feel a little better. Back to the pharmacy... 30 minutes later, he feels better. Pain pills have been ingested. So, now we have an hour and a half to kill before the xray appointment.

Lord have mercy!

Finally, after going to fill the car with gas and trying to think of something to do to kill time we opt for going to the imaging center and hoping we'll get in early.

Thank goodness for small towns! We arrived at the imaging center at 10 (an hour early). They xray and cat scan and we were out by 10:50. So, hoping our luck will hold we haul ass for the drs office. Drop off the films and hope they can squeeze him in early.

No such luck. So, it's 11:10 and we have an appointment for 1. pm. So, a stroll through Wal-Mart to kill time, then a trip to the grocery store to kill more time. Trying to be cheery when he's in pain and I am just wishing for a xanax.

Finally it's 12:45 so we figure we can get into the waiting room at least and sit down in the a/c. Ahhhhh!

He's in....he's out....back to the pharmacy for yet 3 more prescriptions. That's 5 prescriptions in 2 days! The pharmacy says 45 minutes....45 minutes later they say 15 minutes.....By now I've lost track of time....I am running on autopilot. He's had 2 more pain pills and is sleeping in the car on the way home.

So, it's diverticulitis. Painful as hell, but when we left this morning I was figuring he'd be in surgery....

So, my life is wonderful~

MS3 Update

So, I am finished with clue 1 on MS3 and up to row 105 on clue 2. I know that I'll fall behind from here on out because I really want to get back to the zigzag lace top. It is a summer top after all and I'd like to wear it at least once before summer ends. silly me! So, on the zigzag...I've finished the back and it's sitting all blocked and pretty. I've done one and a half repeats on the front. So....long way to go. But it goes pretty fast.

We square danced at Rick & cheryl's again on Saturday morning from 9-11. Then we had our round dance yesterday afternoon from 2-5 pm. Tonight is square dancing again. Wednesday night we go square dancing again in Georgetown. Saturday we will dance in Marble Falls for the Founder's Day. I'm not even sure what that is. But we'll be there as entertainment. And then next Sunday we'll be round dancing again. Geez, I gotta find time to knit somewhere in there!

I Love to Dance With You!

This is the name of a song that we round dance to. It's a cha and I absolutely love this song and can't get it out of my head! It's such a cute beat. I have googled for it and can't find it anywhere. Gary says it is from the 60's and is a Patty Paige song. WHO?? Anyway....if anyone knows where I can get a copy of this song, I'd love to have it. The words go something like: "I love to dance with you. Tell me you love it too. Da da dee da da da."

The round dance on Saturday was really wonderful. We had 19 couples and 2 singles so 40 dancers total. Very nice crowd. From 2-4 pm we had a workshop where Lucy & Jerry taught us a couple of dances. Sweet Petite (an easy phase II two step) and I Love to Lead (a hard phase IV foxtrot). Gary & I tried really hard on the foxtrot but we stumbled some. I think we can do it with a little more practice. There were pretzels, nuts, chex mix and other salty snacks as well as coffee, water and lemonade.

Then we all went to eat at the Country Club. Sounds really posh....but get real....it was in Kingsland. The food was good, the service was outstanding, and we got back to the hall before 6 pm ready for our evening dance. The Pate's did an outstanding job cueing the dance and I think everyone had a great time. They danced "I Love to Lead" for us and it was really beautiful! We had cookies and brownies available for the dancers to enjoy with their coffee and lemonade during the evening.

I think everyone was pleased with the day and I hope we can do it again in the fall.

Cash Crashed

Well, I was surfing this morning and thought I'd go look at Save Cash! Use Your Stash! Got this

Page Not FoundThe requested URL was not found on this server. Please visit the Blogger homepage or the Blogger Knowledge Base for further assistance.
Home About Buzz Help Discuss Language Developers Gear Terms of Service Privacy Content Policy Copyright © 1999 – 2007 Google

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So then I thought well, I must've screwed up the link. I'll google it. Got this-

Save Cash! Use Your Stash!
I'm sorry to announce that I will need to dissolve the Save Cash Use Your Stash-Along. Due to returning to school full-time and working, I will need to cut ...savecashuseyourstash.blogspot.com/ - 63k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

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I am seriously pissed off about this. Ok maybe not SERIOUSLY, but still. If you start a site and invite people to join don't you have a moral obligation to keep it up and running? I know that people volunteered to help her with it because she was hinting at shutting it down a week or so ago. Anyway, I guess I'll get over it. But what reason do I have now to use my stash instead of buying new yarn? Not that it was working real well anyway. I just bought this lovely soft laceweight yarn off ebay last week from yarntreehouse. Ya know another thing that pisses me off? I can't figure out how to put pictures where I want them in these posts. I can drag them around but when I do they won't open anymore in a larger window. What's up with that?

Round dance today from 1-8 pm. Maybe I'll take some pics and post them tomorrow. Like anyone cares! Ok, yes, I have an attitiude today.

Update on Zigzag Lace

I have finished the back of the zigzag lace top! I'm so thrilled and I think it's going to look good. I would like to keep on knitting it but MS3 started today and so I'm working on that. On row 35 of 100. Pretty good start, but it starts out small and grows. here is the zigzag back blocking. I've already bought 2 cami's to wear under it. Can't decide which one I like the best. One is a paler color than the top and is lacy. The other is darker and is smooth cotton.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Ok, so I know the entire state has had lots of rain this spring. But, we had 4 inches Tuesday between midnight and 8 am Wednesday morning. And another two inches today. This is just getting insane! Many of our friends had 10-12 inches and in Marble Falls they had about 20 inches. This picture is of a road locally known as Slab Road. Normally there might be a trickle of water running over it as the Llano River runs through there. But most of the time it is bone dry. Not today! If you look hard you can see the road emerging on the other side.

Lamps, Lamps & More Lamps

So, I've been on a little bit of a lamp search lately. In search of the perfect lamp for reading and knitting. First someone told me of a lamp that they got at IKEA that was great. So, off I went to IKEA (wierd store!) and found a lamp that I thought was great for only $14.99. The catch was that the bulbs were going to cost more than the lamp. So, I went to Home Depot to get the bulbs and did indeed save a ton of money. But, I found another lamp there that I liked even better because the little attached flexible arm lamp took a 60 W bulb and the IKEA only took a 40W. So, I bought bulbs for the IKEA lamp and the new Hampton Bay lamp at Home Depot. This is the Home Depot lamp. Turns out that I didn't like it very much. It still wasn't bright enough.

So, then we went into this huge Walmart in Corsicana and I couldn't believe it but they had an Ott-Lite! I paid the $79.99 and took it home. I was sooo excited! Hmmmm. Turns out it is only a 13W which translates into about a 65W incandesant bulb. I've been doing a whole lot of reading on the CFL bulbs here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

This is the Walmart Ott-Lite. I will be returning it.

This is the IKEA lamp which I am taking to my daughter's this weekend and going to give it to her for her birthday. Kinda cheap, huh? But she needs a lamp in her spare bedroom for her guests to read by and it should be great for that. And I'm the guest who needs a lamp to read by.

So, even as I type, hubby is on his way to Home Depot for this baby http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100050643&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&srccode=cii_1038957&cpncode=10-43215609-2&cm_mmc=shop_comp-_-yahoo-_-27-_-100050643

I may have totally gone out of my mind. In the space of a few weeks I have bought 4 floor lamps! And of course, I still have my old floor lamp to dispose of....

I have joined the MS3 KAL and can't wait for it to start! I have swatched and will be using Silk City Silk Denim (fingering wt) in a dark green called Jasper. Thsi yarn is like 80/20 cotton/silk. I'm using size 6 needles. Should be fun!
I don't really understand the whole thing with clues but I guess I'll figure it out!

I have decided to leave my msn spaces blog and just do one blog here. It was getting to take too much time to try to have two seperate ones and I really don't have that much interesting to say anyway.

Plus, BIG PLUS, the msn spaces live or whatever it's called it just too limiting. You can't add buttons or html/java code to it. So, screw 'em. I'm outta there. But I did like their photo album feature. Ahhh well.

OK, I'm having a serious crisis here....I am so loving knitting this zigzag top. But....I'm worried that it's going to be too small. I did my swatches and measured and calculated and recalculated and rewrote the pattern. My goal is to make it the same size as this Liz Claiborne top that I love and that fits perfectly. And it seems to be the same size when I lay it out on the floor and smash it flat. But will it lay like that when I'm wearing it or will be all tight and make me look fat? And what if I gain more weight? I seem to be on a weight gain cycle right now....what if I can't lose what I've gained and/or gain more? You see the crisis?

And will there be a problem when I come to the sleeves? I've never done sleeves. Should I have considered this before I rewrote the pattern?

I am almost crippled by doubt and fear....I am afraid to continue knitting on this top. Here's some pics. One with the skirt that it's to go with and one with the top that I'm using as my gauge.

And there is the fact that I spent $53 on yarn for this top. That's a lot of money for a little cotton top. What if I totally screw it up and hate it? The only other top I've made...Simple and Sleeveless...I didn't spend much and I hate it because it's too short and the bottom rolls up. So, I tried to fix that problem with this top.

I had a really scary idea today...to make a spreadsheet listing all the projects I've completed and how much they cost. But I'm afraid the results would shock me...

Yesterday, hubby and I took our bicycles and kayak and drove 45 miles to the Colorado River and a little campground. We beached the kayak, then drove to the point where we figured we'd be ready to take out and left the pickup. Then rode the bikes back UP the hill to the starting point. And it was almost noon and humid and hot as hell. We put in and started merrily down the stream. Things quickly went south and we managed to hit a rock and turn over. I fell out of the kayak and our paddles headed on down the river. Meanwhile hubby was yelling "Help me flip this ****ing thing over!" Oh joy! After several minutes of pandemonium we were back in the kayak. "Do you see the paddles?" "Yeah, I think we can catch up to them." And so we were dogpaddling the kayak. We finally caught up with them and beached the kayak and loaded it on the pickup. Then drove back to the bikes and got them. Then to the showers for a change to dry clothes. Thankfully SOMEONE thought to bring extra clothes and towels.

So, Friday was truly "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" (cause if I was a name dropper I could tell you who the rich & famous father of the friend is....But I won't. Cause I'm not a name dropper.) Today was "The Beverly Hillbillies"!

There will be no pictures from today. Oh yeah, and hubby lost his keys in the kayak flip. Good thing SOMEONE brought a spare set and kept them in her little fanny pack in a zipper bag with the cell phone!

Last Friday we went to some friends house on the lake for an impromptu square dance. What fun! We danced for an hour or so then ate lunch....everyone brought a dish....then danced for another hour or more. The house was absolutely amazing! I wish I had taken my camera. I've never been in a house so expensive. They have 5 bedrooms (ok that's not all that impressive) but listen to this...they have 9 bathrooms. I only managed to pee in 7 of them and never found the other two. But they said they have 9 bathrooms. They also have a gorgeous swimming pool and jacuzzi surrounded by limestone pavers all the way down to the lake edge. They have 4 boats and 2 jet ski's and every toy imaginable. It was a gorgeous home and even more important...they are terrific people.

Quilted Blocks Baby Blanket

The beautiful baby blanket is finished and off in the mail to the new mama!! I'm so glad to be finished with it but feel a little lost without that "job" to do everyday. So, here's a pic.

Here's the pattern if anyone wants it.

Quilted Blocks Baby Blanket
Copyright © 2006 by wendydancer at gmail dot com


Materials: Worsted Weight Yarn (I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease. I used about 5 ½ balls.) Size 8 29” circular needle, 2 stitch markers. The Quilted Blocks pattern comes from several sources including Barbara Walker’s Treasury.

Cast on 176 stitches. Work 6 rows of seed stitch. The first and last 4 stitches of each row form a seed stitch border along the sides. The markers are used to mark the border. Slip all markers on all rows when you come to them. pm=place marker

Row 1 (WS): k1,p1,k1,p1, pm, k3, *p8, k6; rep from * until 15 stitches remain, p8, k3, pm, k1,p1,k1,p1.
Row 2: p1,k1,p1, k1, knit to marker, p1,k1,p1, k1
Row 3: k1,p1,k1,p1, k3, *p8, k6; rep from * until 15 stitches remain, p8, k3, k1,p1,k1,p1.
Row 4: p1,k1,p1, k1, knit to marker, p1,k1,p1, k1
Row 5: k1,p1,k1,p1, k3, *p8, k6; rep from * until 15 stitches remain, p8, k3, k1,p1,k1,p1.
Row 6: p1,k1,p1, k1, k2, *p2, k6, p2, k4; rep from * end last rpt k2, p1,k1,p1, k1.
Row 7: k1,p1,k1,p1, p3, *k2, p4, k2, p6; rep from * end last rpt p3, k1,p1,k1,p1.
Row 8: p1,k1,p1, k1, k4, *p2,k2,p2,k8; rep from * end last rpt k4, p1,k1,p1, k1.
Row 9: k1,p1,k1,p1, p5, *k4, p10; rep from *, end last rpt k4, p5, k1,p1,k1,p1
Row 10: p1,k1,p1, k1, k4, *p2,k2,p2,k8; rep from * end last rpt k4, p1,k1,p1, k1.
Row 11: k1,p1,k1,p1, p3, *k2, p4, k2, p6; rep from * end last rpt p3, k1,p1,k1,p1
Row 12: p1,k1,p1, k1, k2, *p2, k6, p2, k4; rep from * end last rpt k2, p1,k1,p1, k1.

Repeat these 12 rows until desired length is achieved. End with row 5. Work 6 rows of seed stitch. Bind off loosely.

I finished the Wool Peddler's Shawl yesterday and blocked it. I plan to take some pics today of it. It was a really fun knit and I'd like to do it again. The yarn was Elann's Peruvian Highland Silk which is a dk weight. It was great to work with but I'm not sure how it'll hold it. It seemed to get a little fuzzy with washing.

Have you seen this? Can't believe it was created in Texas at the Texas State Fair. Or maybe I can believe it. Have you noticed how many fat people there are in Texas?

Because we don't already have enough fried foods.. - Yahoo! News

I finished a shrug recently and thought I'd post the pic here. My spaces blog is all screwed up because they changed the format and some of the pics are gone. Anyway, here's the shrug. Done in Caron Simply Soft in orchid.

I am so jazzed because I finished the Elegantly Simple Baby Blanket last night! It turned out nice, I think and I can't wait to give it to Irene who's expecting her first grandchild later this month.
Now waiting for the lace KAL to start...