Is It Really June?

Happy first day of Hurricane Season! (not) Yes, today is the day. It hardly seems like it’s June already. Just last week it was the first of the year. This year I am a little worried about hurricane season. In the past 2 years we have been here, we have only rented, and had all hand-me-down furniture. Not much to worry about, or stress about it we had to leave. This year we have our home, and some belongings that we actually bought for ourselves. It’s not the stuff I am worried about really, all that can be replaced. It’s that now we are responsible, scary. I hope this season is quiet, but before it even started we already had a tropical storm. Hopefully this part of the year will pass as quickly as the past 6 months.

In other news, I *finally* finished the Never-Ending Anastasia Socks. I really love these socks, except how long they took to knit. I guess I was just sick of the yarn and I got bored with the pattern after half of the first sock. It’s a great pattern but it’s a little too repetitious for me. There isn’t much you can do with this yarn since it is so fuzzy though. I am just glad they are done.

Yarn: Zen String Lotus Toes BFL

Needles: 3.0mm Knit Picks Circulars

Pattern: Anastasia Socks

Pattern Designer: Pepperknit

Date Finished: 5/30/2008

Well, this weekend is almost over, but it has been good. We spent Saturday shopping for work tools for T. I can probably go without standing around in hardware stores for a while. At least we got to stop at Joann’s and Michael’s while we were in Melbourne. I wanted to exchange the Patons SWS I bought last week since I got totally different dye lots. I don’t know what I was thinking but I tried to exchange them at Joann’s before I realized that I didn’t buy them there. So we went to Michaels and I decided to get different color this time.

Today we decided to grab breakfast after church and headed over to Cracker Barrel (miss it mom?) where we waited forever. At least I had the new Monkey sock to work on. Breakfast was good, but they took a really long time to bring the food and when mine was ready they figured out that the server ordered the wrong thing for T. So the manager came by to tell us that T’s order would be up as soon as they could, and they there would be no charge for the meals. Wow, usually they only would comp his meal. That made our day! So now it’s back home to relax a little and get ready for work again tomorrow.

Long Weekend

Wow, it’s been a while. Since I last posted a lot has happened. Nothing particularly interesting, but stuff. Last weekend was T’s work party. The owners throw a huge yearly party for about 250+ people with food, drinks (yum, mai tai’s), Hula dancers, and celebs. Well not really celebs, but close enough. There was even a mermaid in the pool. Good times.

We had a great time, but not a good as some. We ended up driving T’s co-worker (and his puking wife) home since we lived nearby. Moving on…I got to hang out with Angie again on Saturday. Right after we picked up the money for the Mustang. Oh yea, we sold it FINALLY! I am so glad to have that gone! So Angie and I got to hang out at Panera for a couple hours while her boys went to see Speedracer. I’ll pass on that movie, thanks. We had a good time, and even got to run into Joann’s and Michaels after. I really wanted to pet the new Lion Brand Sock-Ease, but they didn’t have any yet. I did pick up some Patons SWS but I was a moron and didn’t look at the ball bands. I got two totally different dye lots.

So after we laid it all out I, figured put that there are a lot of events coming up. I wanted to try and make it to Stitch N’ Pitch this year in Tampa on June 21^st. We also wanted to try and throw an event together for Knit in Public Day on June 14^th (I know we’re slackers). Then there is blueberry picking in North Brevard, and of course SAFF is coming up, but we’ll see about that.

Now for an update on the Never-Ending Anastasia Sock:


I have turned the heel and am zipping through the leg, sort of. It is a little farther than this now since I took this on Saturday afternoon, but I have had other things on my mind too. Like This:


Yup, I frogged the Nutkins and switched them to Monkey’s. I liked the Nutkin Pattern, but on the foot it looked weird to me. It was all stretched and the purls between the pattern stitches looked like ladders. I really like how the monkey looks though. I loved the yarn and wanted to use it right away. Plus I really didn’t want to rip out the picot cast on.

So what are we doing for the long weekend? I am knitting a lot and cleaning a little less. T decided to mow the yard and when I stepped out to change the laundry this is what I saw:

This used to be the cat’s favorite tree to climb in. I know it was kinda dead, but I liked that tree. Shouldn’t landscaping be a mutual decision?? Ugh…

Blah

The weekend’s over, back to work…But I did have a good one. I got to spend Saturday shopping with Angie. We hit up the book store, Joann’s, Target and even got to spend some time knitting while her son played in the Burger King playplace (after I crawled through to point the way to the slide). We had a great day, It’s been a while since I got to shop all day.

I even was able to finish the cami on Sunday. It is a little snug, to say the least but I think it looks ok. I will probably only wear it over something though.

Since it is snug it is shorter than I wanted, even after adding an inch to the body. I only tied the gather in the front so it could be removable too.

Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport

Needles: 4.0mm Knit Picks Circulars

Pattern: Ballet Camisole from MagKnits July 2006

Date Finished: 5/11/2008

Mods: Added 1 inch to the body and only tied the gather so it is removable.

Sorry if my heart isn’t in this post. I am kind of bummed about all the wildfires going on right now. The interstate is closed just about everyday and there are so many homes in danger. BTW, please keep Angie in your prayers, she is very close to one of the worst areas…

Broken Cars and Sick Dogs

Man I think we jumped right through Spring and into summer. We are going to be in the 90's until next week. I am glad I work in an office all day. Since the women there are somewhat older than me, they keep it super cold in there. I even bring a sweater most days.

I can't believe that the Integra is finally gone from the carport, well sort of. T finished gutting it and saved what he could to sell so he chopped up the rest. This is what the yard looked like on Saturday, but it was amazingly all cleaned up by the time he was done. Now the car is a couple of large pieces of scrap metal in a pile. He even sold the engine, but he still has to ship it. Not bad, I thought that thing would never leave. I never knew you could actually chop a car in such little pieces.

Saturday morning we took Diana to the vet again. She had more skin allergy type rashes so now we are trying her on a hypoallergenic food to see if that's what she is allergic to. Hopefully that will fix it because she looks like she is in pain when she gets those rashes. She is on all kinds of meds now too. We have ear drops and cleaner, ointment for the rash, steroids, and antibiotics. And look, She's officially part of the family. We had to go pick up her prescription from Publix and they couldn't find it until I thought maybe they put it under Diana's name. I never would have thought they would put it under her name at the people pharmacy.

I thought I was much farther on the Anastasia Sock than I am now that I tried it on. I thought I was about ready to start the heel but I need to add another 1 to 1 ½ inches. Sigh...At least the cami seems to be moving along.

I think I am going to try and get a knit night together this weekend, either on Friday night or Saturday morning. T will be gone all day Saturday golfing so I think I need to get out too :-)

May Flowers

How does that saying go... “April showers bring May flowers”? Well we didn't have much in the way of April showers but we did do some gardening. A friend of ours gave us a bunch of plants, whose names I have completely forgotten. I know that some of them are brumeliads, and we got two hibiscus bushes. I love the pink ones. I found that while I love the look of new plants, I don't really like the work of planting them. I would much rather sit in my chair with a sweet tea and some knitting and watch the hubby do it. He wasn't too thrilled with that idea so I pitched in. The yard doesn't look half bad, but it could use some grass.

While I have not been knitting a whole lot lately, I do manage to get in a little bit here and there. I have noticed that sometimes two days will go by without knitting a thing, but my hands do get a little shaky.

I have yet another update on the Cami and Anastasia Sock. I am not letting myself work on anything else until these two are done. They have taken long enough already.

The cami is past where you split for the arms and well into the lower back. If you click for a larger image you can see that my guage changes when I switch from knitting in the round to back and forth. I am not worried too much about it since any extra room will help in the chest area. I think that you won't be able to tell the difference once it is washed.

I haven't knit as much on the sock since it has turned into mostly car knitting. But still it grows ever so slowly.

The Never-Ending Sock:

As much as I despise this little sock now, will I like the finished pair? Or will I burn them...I think not. Burning them will only let them win.

So thats all I have for now. I had to make this quick since it's National Day of Prayer and we have a prayer service at my church. Do yourself a favor and say a little prayer today.

Have a good one!

What a Vacation!

Wow, this is the first time since my mom came and left that I have had a minute to sit and write a post. I will warn you, this is probably going to be long. We have been busy! My mom got in on the 10^th at 10pm, great flight huh. They decided to go check out the Space Center on Friday and we showed them around Brevard county on the weekend. It was a lot of fun since my mom used to live here. She recognized a lot of he area. On Monday we drove out to Savannah, GA to look around. Savannah is beautiful!

We ate at Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady & Sons, on Monday night. We almost didn't get in though, just by chance they put 2 bar tables together and said they had an opening. The food was good, but the entertainment was better. Our poor server, Frances aka Gwen, worked for her money! She played along with our jokes and even called my mom's boss because she is such a big fan. Since Paula was not in town, she agreed to hold the sock for a picture.

On Tuesday, after staying in a nasty hotel in Garden City (Hotels.com had horrible customer service on these matters), we got on the bus for the Paula Deen tour. It was really interesting to learn how she got started. Did you know that she suffered from agoraphobia for 20 years? She even had her sons going around with a cooler selling the bag lunches for the Bag Lady. She really worked hard to get her business going with not much capital. The tour was great and I would highly recommend it, you get to see some great areas of Savannah. At the end of the tour we had lunch at Uncle Bubba's, Paula's brother. We had some awesome food there, and let me tell you, the oysters were great! He happened to be in the restaurant and was willing to meet all of us. First off, T asks him to do me a favor and he replies “I'm not taking my clothes off”. He must have thought we were crazy. I asked him to take some pictures with us and then asked him to hold the sock. We might have been ok after that but then my mom asked him to call her boss. After that he definitely must have thought we were crazy, but even after all that he was super nice to us.

We had a good time wandering around Savannah and left later that day. I have all the pictures here if you would like to see. The rest of the week was spent wandering around and eating, lots of eating. My favorite part had to be the air boat ride we went on. We were able to closer than I have ever been to some really big alligators. If it was not for the bars on the boat I would have freaked. We saw some turtles, a bald eagle (so beautiful!), and a really cool cypress swamp. We will be going on more air boat rides for sure. We even got to hold a baby alligator when we got back to the dock. Really fun...

I hardly got any knitting done since we were running around all week but we did spend some time at the beach so I knit a few rows there.

I did knit on the cami a bit too at knit night on Monday. I have now split for the arms. I should be done pretty soon here, but I know that I take forever to knit something. I saw how cute the little soakers turn out too so I think I make knit one after this. Something easy and quick.

I can't believe that it is almost the weekend. I think I need a vacation from my vacation! If you want to see all the vacation sets, they are on my Flickr page here.

Finally

After waiting so long for my mom (or someone) to come visit us she's here. We picked her up at 10:30 Thursday night and she stays until next Saturday when we will drop her off at 6:30am. She picked great flights huh? So the first few days have been busy sightseeing. We went to the Cocoa Beach Pier for some music and lobster, went to the flea market (at her request), and they went to the Space Center. It seems like the days go by much faster and we seem more tired since they got here. I haven't really had any time for knitting even. But I will have more time soon. We decided to drive to Savannah, GA on Monday. We are taking the Paula Deen Tour and eating at the Lady and Sons restaurant. I am very excited to see the area, it will be beautiful.

Maybe on the drive there I can finish the Cami...I really am not that far now. I am about 1 ½ inches from binding off for the arms.

Since I have had it rolled up in a ziplock it is kind if wrinkled. I am trying to not roll it up anymore so it doesn't get so wrinkled. Since it is so big now I have been knitting on my second Anastasia sock in the car. It has taken me forever to knit these socks.

I thought I was getting faster at knitting but these have taken more than a month. I will be glad when they are done.

Well now I have to get back to figuring out what to do with Diana while we are out of town. We didn't even think about where to take her since we will be gone for 2 days. This is the first time we have left since adopting her, and we usually leave Jessie here with a bunch of food. We thought about friends but since it is such short notice I think we will board her at her vets office down the street. Hopefully, if it's not too late now.