Becoming a Better Knitter?

Hmmmmm. Well, after 2 1/2 years I do think I'm entering a new phase in my knitting. I've noticed lately that I seem to be faster and stuff looks better....stitches are neater....could be that Zephyr DK yarn....

But, more importantly, I think I'm developing a sense of what I actually enjoy knitting. And it's surprising me. A year ago I was all about triangular shawls. Loved 'em. Couldn't get enough of 'em. And they are nice. But. What drives me to drink about 'em (aside from my use of 'em way too much) is that they get bigger and bigger and it's so hard to determine how much yarn you'll need to do one more repeat or even the bind off. And it's just depressing for the rows to get bigger. So, now I still love shawls. Just not the triangular as much. Hmmmmm.

Ok. Lost my train of thought. Hold on...Oh yeah. And I used to hate doing hats but thought they were required for new knitters. Now, I like them because they're quick ways to try new stitches. For instance, I'm doing Smariek's 3 hr cable hat just so I can try cables again. But, I still hate dishcloths and think they are lame.

So, I am really enjoying the New Vintage Capelet (google it). It's fast, looks awesome and it frickin' decreases rather than increases. Yay! But really, I'm amazed at how fast this is going particularly since I am doing other projects too. Of course, it's on US 10's and ww yarn so should go fast, but trust me, a year ago I would've been struggling with it. And the other thing that I love about it is that it's the only pattern in my files that has stood the test of time. What I mean is that I saw this pattern like 2 years ago and loved it. But I knew I couldn't do it. So I saved it. And by golly, I still love the way it looks and love knitting it. And now it's easy peasy! How cool is that? Way cool!

I am really feeling verbose tonight. So, I'll continue. My other fav project: Shawl-Back Shrug from elann.com is totally awesome. But only because I have someone who is there to help me with it. She's there in the wings and I never would've started it without that knowledge. Thanks Vicki!! But so far, it's not too hard and it looks great! Again....the yarn - Zephyr DK. Love it! Now, I know this pattern is going to eat me alive when I get to the sleeves. But, for now, I LOVE it!

I was going to write some about the lace articles in Interweave Knits Summer 2006 and Fall 2006. But, I'm getting sleepy. So, I'll save those for another day. But, seriously, they are great articles. And I just felt so validated reading them. Because a lot of the information in them was stuff "I know" but seeing it in print by someone who knows their shit means a whole lot. And they gave me confidence in my abilities. Cool!

I'll leave you with a website that I found today and it is great!
http://www.knitmap.com/ You enter the city or zip code where you want to find a yarn shop and it'll tell you the ones nearby. As far as I can tell, it's all user contributed data and I think it's awesome!

Progress Report

I have been knitting on the New Vintage Capelet and I really love it. It's going fast. I am finished with the lace portion at the bottom and am a few rows into the straight ss portion. I also love the big honking ball 'o yarn from Canada. It's soft and so far there have been no knots! I have no idea why that is underlined and I cannot figure out how to remove it!

I've also done my swatch for the Shawl Back Shrug from elann.com and have cast on for it. I'm using Zephyr DK in Real Red and I love this yarn! It is so soft and the stitches just look gorgeous which is saying a lot for this yarn to make my stitches look good!

I am really thinking that blogging is a huge waste of time and may quit soon. I could be knitting ya know! Or napping or cleaning house....nah!

Wanna See My Swatch?

I am so clever, I know. Actually there are 3 swatch piccies.
The one on the right is done with the Shetland Heather 2/20 cone yarn I got from Berta. I knitted a 4 inch square in the Fir Cone pattern on size 4 bamboo circs. I wet blocked it and it was still a little puffy in the denser areas. So, I threw it in the wash with some jeans. Viola! It felted. So, now I know that it is mostly wool, but I think a little acrylic too.










So, the brown swatch is the New Vintage Capelet . The swatch was done with the big honking ball 'o yarn from Canada on size 10 needles. First I wet blocked it and it looked good. So, in the washer it went with a load of undies. Laid it on top of the dryer to dry. And it looks great, much better than pre-blocked. but I forgot to take a pic of it before blocking. But trust me, it really opened up nicely. I think it's going to look terrific! I cast on last night for the S/M size but only got one row done before deciding to have a second glass of wine.

But yesterday, I ordered Zephyr DK yarn in Real Red colorway from sarahsyarns.com for the Shawl-Back Shrug from elann. Some of the LSSK gals are going to do a KAL on it. I am excited about that!

Beautiful Sun Ray

The sunray shawl is finished! I really love it and I think the Cotton Fleece will be really nice. It was amazing how much it changed with a light blocking. All I did was stretch it out on my foam boards then spray it lightly with water and pin it down. I had to re-pin and re-spray a couple of times. But I was really amazed at how different it was when it dried. Very drapey and soft and just so much nicer.

Here I am wearing the Sun Ray Shawl with my zig zag lace top and my cute little floral skirt. Love this outfit!

And this other pic is the Sun Ray trying to be artistic by draping itself on my back deck railing. Silly shawl....so dramatic, really.

But quite lovely.....

Big Honking Ball 'o Yarn

As promised (or maybe not) here's a pic of the big ass ball of yarn that I bought in Canada. It's 400 grams (that's almost a lb to you Yanks har har).

Although it is 80% acrylic and only 20% wool, it really seems quite lovely. And I figured I travelled all that way....I had to buy some yarn. And the shop owner was so sweet and she was making a cabled sweater with this yarn and it looked really good, and I've really been wanting some brown yarn......Ok, enough excuses! I like it. So there!

Here's what I want to make with it- New Vintage Capelet and I hope it'll work ok and look good being that it's 80% acrylic. Whadda ya think?

But I also really like this shrug from elann.com although it is done with dk weight. But I could probably work it out. Ohhhh too many choices.

MS3-Started clue 4. Still undecided on the wing. Although the pics I've seen of the finished stole with wing are awesome!

Sun Ray Shawl-99% complete baby! All I have left is the picot bind off. Maybe tomorrow will be the day.

Wednesday, 9/5 is our 27th wedding anniversary so I don't expect to be knitting on that day. We are undecided what to do. Usually our most fun times are totally simple so we are thinking of taking the boat out and going up to the falls, swim a little....take a picnic and some wine....Or maybe instead go to the movies and a nice dinner in town.....Hmmmmm....

Oh Canada!

So, we went to Ontario on the 22nd of August. It was such fun! Our friends have a cottage on Lake Erie and they invited us to come up for a week.

So, here are Mollie (the lab), Gary (the dh), Fritz (friend) and Steve (friend) on our first day.

We arrived about 3 pm on the 22nd and after a little sightseeing in Buffalo we headed for the Anchor Bar. This is the home of Buffalo Wings. Cool, huh? We had an order of medium and ya gotta have the suicide wings, right? OMG! I only ate one and my lips felt burned, nose was running and eyes watering. Not a pretty sight!

The next day, Thursday, we slept late (as was our usual routine on this trip) and headed for some of the wineries in Ontario. We visited Maleta Estate Winery (awesome wines & super nice people), Coyote's Run (we didn't find a lot that we liked there but the guy who did the tasting was entertaining), Frogpond Farm Organic Estate Winery (our favorite as far as the atmosphere and people...again not so much on the wines), Marynissen Estates (really pretty place and a very good Chardonnay for $22) and Caroline Cellars where we liked the Baca Pinot (I think). After that we drove over to the Niagara College Teaching Winery. This is a really cool culinary college with it's own winery and beautiful gardens. We strolled the gardens and I was amazed that many of the plants and flowers were the same ones we have here. The winery was closed already so we headed in to the restaurant for a wonderful four course fixed price dinner. Two appetizers, an entree and dessert. Oh and 2 glasses of house wine. All that for $48 per person. And it was wonderful! I had the cucumber and dill cold soup, a warm heirloom tomato tart with fresh baby greens (absolutely delicious), grilled salmon and peach tart. It was all great!

The next day was Friday and they have a farmer's market in Port Colborne on Friday. So, off we went. It was amazing! Probably my favorite part of the trip. They had the best strawberries I've ever eaten. We bought corn, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, yummy fresh breads, bell peppers and onion. That night we cooked steaks on the grill with onion and bell peppers and corn on the cob. Oh it was heavenly!

On Saturday we drove to Old Fort Niagara near Youngstown, NY on Lake Ontario. It was really interesting and quite a pleasant day. We got to see an actual musket fired by one of the volunteers dressed in appropriate garb.

Then we drove back into Buffalo to visit with a friend of Steves whose hobby is breeding and collecting reptiles. He lives in an old house that is a basement, two floors and an attic. That house is filled with reptiles of all kinds....snakes, lizards, etc. The tour took about 20 minutes, then we were off to the Founding Fathers Bar. Very cool bar owned by a high school friend of Steves. This friend, Mike, has a great love of American History and knows lots of trivia. We had a really nice evening there. Good sandwiches and beer too!

On Monday we drove up to Welland and I visited The Wool Shop. A very nice owner but rather dissappointing yarns. Mostly acrylics. I managed to find something to purchase though. A 400 gram ball of Aran acrylic/wool blend. The owner was making a cabled sweater with it and it was really pretty. The we visited the Beer Store and a bike shop. And it was off of Niagara Falls.

Niagra Falls is a must see! Wow! Just amazing and such a wonderful force of nature! Can you believe that I took this picture?? I totally cannot believe it!

On Tuesday we drove up to Selkirk Provincial park and had a nice picnic. Then back home fairly early so we could pack and get ready for our flight home.

Taaa Freakin' Dah

Yeah! I finished the Zigzag Lace Top! And I love it...well I like it anyway. It is a little snug so maybe I shouldn't have made it smaller. But, maybe that'll keep me honest with my self.

The picture isn't really all that good because I was in a rush trying to get ready to go dance and this wasn't what I was going to wear. I mean really now! Would I chance sweating in this gorgeous sweater?

But, for all the anguish I am really quite thrilled with it!!!

Look what I got!

Isn't this bag just soooo cute? It's made of denim with drawstring straps. It's sort of like a backpack, but softer and denim.

I'm going to use it to carry my dance shoes!

And the best part? I bought it at the thrift store for $3.50!!! And was like new. In fact, I think it'd never been used because once I got it home and checked inside it, the original price tag was in there. So, I washed it and dried it and it's just perfect.

Update on the zigzag lace top-I am nearing the finish line. I have about 20 rows to go and the second sleeve will be finished. Then attach sleeves and sew it up and it's done! I really, really want to finish it before we go to Canada (next week).

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.