Feeling Inspired

I’m looking through all my old Flickr pictures and I am feeling inspired. I don’t know if it is the knitting and yarn that’s inspiring me or if it is the frame of mind I was in when I took the pictures. I remember being so at peace and happy. I have felt so overwhelmed lately that the moments of happiness I have are so refreshing. The pictures remind me of that feeling again. I love my life, but I am still getting used to keeping up with everything I did before but with a toddler in tow. There is always something to do, organize, clean, pick up. It never ends, but I am trying to get a routine of some sort and have some me time after Maddie goes to bed. (loving early bedtimes!) I am knitting more than I have in a while and I am dreaming about the next project like I used to but I have not had much success lately.

I wound my Claudia’s Handpainted in Chocolate Cherry for another shot at Nutkins but ripped it out after one repeat, again. I loved Angie’s but when I try I get ladders in between the pattern repeats. I immediately cast on for Undulating rib, wanting something with an all over pattern with the variegated yarn and they came out too big and were ripped out. Again, I cast on for a second shot at Jaywalkers (these came out waay to small) and surprisingly they were too big also. I have always had problems with knitting too tight so this is new to me. I have set the yarn aside and will decide if I will try again with it anytime soon. Maybe it does not want to be knit and I should go for something else. I started to cast on for a shawl with the latest addition, Wolle’s Yarn Creations Color Changing Cotton. (link picture) I realized two things very quickly. The yarn is not plied at all and I’m not sure I like that, and that I have no idea how to go about knitting a shawl. I always thought I could just go about following the pattern directions, but I just couldn’t work it out in my head. I will have to try this again when I have more time and a different yarn.

For now I am back to working on the 2nd pair of Monkeys in DIC Smooshy. The first is done and the second is at the heel flap. I have had a monster headache the past two days but have been able to get a lot done in the evening after Maddie goes to bed. I hope to finish them soon and I love the yarn.












Cannot believe she is a year old already :) Plans for this weekend: Painting the House…

Blog...What Blog?

It has been over a year since I posted to the blog. I am still here and alive, if anyone still follows this. A lot has happened since the last post and I will spare you the long story. The details are that I had a baby in June 2009 named Madelyn, I lost 2 jobs, quit one job, but am working full time right now, the hubby also lost 2 jobs, quit one job and is working sort of part time, we started a home theater business about 8 months ago and we have been hanging in there. We are so thankful that we have each other and have a good Lord watching over us.

I have not been doing much crafting at all until recently. It took me about 6 months after Madelyn was born to knit anything. I am really surprised that I could go that long without my fingers twitching or losing my mind. I did do a lot of reading, especially in the beginning when it felt like I was nursing around the clock. Now that the new baby stuff is over and I am 3 months into a job that gets me home at a decent hour, we have gotten into a rhythm of sorts. I actually have some free time now. I still have Monkey Socks on the needles that I have worked on a little and I cast on for Evangeline gloves. My office is so cold! It feels good to be back into something I love to do so much. Hopefully I will be able to post more often now and get some pictures of my WIP’s up, as well as some yummy handspun that Angie spun for me recently. Thanks! And here is the new little one Madelyn Faith…Isn’t she cute! My Best work yet :)

Glad to be back and I hope you all have a great day!

My Kind Of Music

Well I was going to wait until I had more pictures to write another post, but after seeing this on Angie's blog I had to. Just reading through the list put me right back in high school. More than just remembering the song, I get flashbacks from what I was doing when that particular song was playing. Sometimes it's kinda cool, then other times not so much. Some things shouldn't be remembered...I guess my taste in music is all over the place, as it is now. I did notice that the ones I didn't like I remember very well. I probably don't like them because they were very overplayed. I get kinda annoyed with that. I did cheat on a few by downloading the song because I really remember the title and can't think of the song. So here it is, and please don't hold me accountable for my song choices.

Here's what you do:

A.) Go to musicoutfitters.com

B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year

C.) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline or italicize your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about)

Top 100 Hits of 2003/Top 100 Songs of 2003
1. Crazy In Love, Beyoncé Knowles featuring Jay-Z
2. Hey Ya!, Outkast
3. Here Without You, 3 Doors Down
4. Baby Boy, Beyoncé Knowles featuring Sean Paul
5. Miss Independent, Kelly Clarkson
6. Beautiful, Christina Aguilera
7. Rock Your Body, Justin Timberlake
8. Where Is The Love?, Black Eyed Peas featuring Justin Timberlake
9. When I'm Gone, 3 Doors Down
10. All I Have, Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J
11. Shake Ya Tailfeather, Nelly, P. Diddy & Murphy Lee
12. Unwell, Matchbox
13. Picture, Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow
14. In Da Club, 50 Cent
15. I'm With You, Avril Lavigne
16. Bring Me To Life, Evanescence
17. Cry Me A River, Justin Timberlake
18. Can't Hold Us Down, Christina Aguilera featuring Lil' Kim
19. Harder To Breathe, Maroon 5
20. Why Don't You & I, Santana featuring Alex Band
21. Someday, Nickelback
22. Suga Suga Baby, Bush featuring Frankie J
23. Your Body Is A Wonderland, John Mayer
24. Are You Happy Now?, Michelle Branch
25. Landslide, Dixie Chicks
26. The Remedy (I Won't Worry), Jason Mraz
27. (There's Gotta Be) More To Life, Stacie Orrico
28. I Know What You Want, Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey featuring The Flipmode Squad
29. It's My Life, No Doubt
30. Clocks, Coldplay
31. Stacy's Mom,Fountains Of Wayne
32. All The Things She Said, t.A.T.u.
33. Bump Bump Bump, B2K & P. Diddy
34. Get Busy, Sean Paul
35. Rock Wit U (Awww Baby), Ashanti
36. If You're Not The One, Daniel Bedingfield
37. Headstrong, Trapt
38. Bright Lights, Matchbox 20
39. Fighter, Christina Aguilera
40. Perfect, Simple Plan
41. '03 Bonnie & Clyde, Jay-Z featuring Beyoncé Knowles
42. Mesmerize, Ja Rule featuring Ashanti
43. Intuition, Jewel
44. Ignition, R. Kelly
45. Drift Away, Uncle Kracker featuring Dobie Gray
46. White Flag, Dido
47. Work It, Missy Elliott
48. Miss You, Aaliyah
49. Invisible, Clay Aiken
50. Senorita, Justin Timberlake
51. Addicted, Simple Plan
52. 21 Questions, 50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg
53. My Love Is Like…, Wo Mya
54. Don't Mess With My Man, Nivea
55. Angel, Amanda Perez
56. She Hates Me, Puddle Of Mudd
57. I Want You, Thalia featuring Fat Joe
58. Blowin' Me Up (With Her Love), JC Chasez
59. Girls & Boys, Good Charlotte
60. So Far Away, Staind
61. Swing, Swing, All-American Rejects
62. Magic Stick, Lil' Kim featuring 50 Cent
63. Don't Wanna Try, Frankie
64. Sing For The Moment, Eminem
65. Hell Yeah, Ginuwine
66. Through The Rain, Mariah Carey
67. Breathe, Michelle Branch
68. Right Thurr, Chingy
69. Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous, Good Charlotte
70. Calling All, Angels Train
71. Gossip Folks, Missy Elliott featuring Ludacris
72. P.I.M.P., 50 Cent
73. Air Force Ones, Nelly
74. I'm Glad, Jennifer Lopez
75. Low, Kelly Clarkson
76. I Drove All Night, Celine Dion
77. Into You, Fabolous featuring Tamia
78. Stuck, Stacie Orrico
79. So Yesterday, Hilary Duff
80. No Letting Go, Wayne Wonder
81. Stand Up, Ludacris featuring Shawnna
82. Big Yellow Taxi, Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carlton
83. Losing Grip, Avril Lavigne
84. Never Leave You, Lumidee
85. Why Can't I, Liz Phair
86. The Boys Of Summer, The Ataris
87. Bigger Than My Body, John Mayer
88. Get Low Lil', Jon & The Eastside Boyz
89. Running, No Doubt
90. Spin, Lifehouse
91. Something, Lasgo
92. Superman, Eminem
93. Pretty Baby, Vanessa Carlton
94. Come Into My World, Kylie Minogue
95. Me Against The Music, Britney Spears featuring Madonna
96. The Anthem, Good Charlotte
97. Deliverance, Bubba Sparxxx
98. Misunderstood, Bon Jovi
99. I'd Do Anything, Simple Plan
100. I Can Only Imagine, MercyMe

Long Overdue

Wow…I can honestly say that I have not had the energy in me to blog. Blogging has been the last thing on my mind. Ever since mid-August, around the time TS Fay was here, my life has been turned upside down. I know I really don’t have a reason to complain because we are still alive and still have a roof over our heads and food on the table (if we had a table…nevermind). It just seems like everything happened at once and my mind is still trying to catch up. First of all, we got through the storm fine. My area did not flood (but unfortunately some of our friends did) but we discovered after the storm, when we thought it was over, that water had been seeping in through the concrete blocks and slab of the 2 bedrooms on the East side of the house. So that weekend we tore out carpet in one bedroom and were able to steam clean the other. Fortunately the room we tore up the carpet in was where I wanted wood floors anyways so it wasn’t a total loss. We will just have to live with the beautiful Terrazzo for a while. On the very same day that we discovered the water damage I had a “meeting” at work about my hours. As some of you may know, I had been cleaning the boss’s house for 10 hours a week to keep me at 40 hours. Well since it was widely known that I didn’t like doing it, I was told I was no longer going to and my hours were now cut to 30 hours. I even had the weekend to think about if I still wanted to work there. Gee Thanks… At least I still have a job, and I now get Fridays off. I am definitely keeping my options open for anything else. We can live with me working less hours but that pretty much stops our debt snowball. We are back to the minimums on everything. This sucks.

Well, I don’t want to dwell on all that, but speaking of our debt snowball, I got to see Dave Ramsey live in Tampa on Saturday. I had to drive alone and meet my boss there, but that’s another long story, and I did have a good time. He is so fun to watch. I even got to stop by Knit and Knibble to check it out and left with some pretty Colinette Jitterbug in Summer Berries. I also stopped by Knit & Stitch on Friday and grabbed some Dream in Color Smooshy in Nightwatch. Yarn always makes me feel better! I didn’t do a whole lot of knitting over the weekend, but since the hubby was out of town on business, I got a ton done around the house. I actually want to go home now knowing I can relax because I am caught up on housework, at least for now. It’s amazing what a clean house can do to my mood. I have been in a funk for a while so it really helped. I can’t believe that I have been so weird lately. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open at Knit night on Thursday. Joe from SWTC came by our knit night and gave us samples and we had a mini fashion show in the middle of Starbucks. It was a blast and he is fun to hang out with. It seemed like as soon as he left I was ready for bed.

I do have knitting to show off even though I have avoided blogging. I didn’t knit very much, but I did knit all day when my office was closed for the storm. I was able to finish the first Pomatomus sock and I am almost done with the ribbing on the second.


I love how the sock came out. I don’t know if it is the yarn, the pattern (Cookie A. is a genius), or both, but it looks amazing. I couldn’t wait to get started on the second sock. I also got around to reattaching the yarn on the Dream Swatch. It has been a year almost to the day since Diana ate the bamboo needle out of it. I forgot how much I like the yarn. I am using Lorna’s Laces Sport in Jeans. There are pictures here. I went through my knitting bag and decided to narrow down my WIP. I frogged the Boobholder since it was really small. I love the Malabrigo and would rather have something that I can wear. I also decided to put the Sweater Bag aside because it is just too hot to have all that in my lap. I decided that a sweater would be a whole lot better, I know I am weird. I cast on for Central Park Hoodie in Caron Simply Soft in a soft grey color. It is Acrylic, but it feels ok and I needed a bargain sweater. I think it will be perfect for when the weather does get a little cooler, whenever that is. I am only a few inches into the ribbing so nothing interesting to show.

That’s all I have for now so here’s the view I had while I was paying bills yesterday:


Isn’t she sweet!

Oh Crap...

So I guess this storm is really coming for me. I have not been too worried about it since it was hitting land on the west coast and was likely to cross north of us but they changed the path today to cross right over my area. Now it isn’t a huge hurricane or anything but it can still do some damage. I really am only worried about the tornadoes that keep popping up along the coast and the risk of flooding. It has been raining non-stop since about 7:30 this morning. It still has a few hours before it gets to my area, but we have already had 5” of rain. I am glad we no longer live in Merritt Island, but we are still within a mile from the river. I got to stay home today (when the schools close, my office does too) but the hubby is out working. I am worried about him driving in the heavy rain and wind so I will pray he gets home safe.

In other news, we got to spend the weekend with T’s grandparents on the west coast. As usual I came home feeling like I inhaled a pack of cigarettes and had to febreeze everything that we took but we had a good time. By the way, spraying febreeze on yarn does get the smell out and doesn’t seem to harm the fabric. I wasn’t going to spend the whole weekend without anything to knit. I worked on the Pomatomus Sock over the weekend and am about to turn the heel today. I didn’t knit as much as I wanted to but I had a good reason. We decided to take Diana with us this time. Surprisingly she did great. Within minutes she was playing with the two poodle mixes and Chihuahua mix. The Chihuahua, Lucy, was only 9lbs the last time I saw her, but this time she weighed 13lbs! She looked like a little spotted sausage! I was so proud of her behaving so well. She didn’t even shred anything! We will definitely be taking her with us next time.

I have a couple of new skeins to show off today. The purple yarn is merino/cashmere/nylon sportweight blend that Alyson sent me. The color is Eleanor Rigby and it is gorgeous! It is such a pretty deep semi-solid purple. It even came with an amethyst and pearl zero marker, and boy it is soft. I could cuddle with this all day! The other skein is Crazy Monkey’s Monkey Toes Sock Yarn. The color is Clay Pit and it is superwash merino. I can’t believe that it was only $13 for 490yds! It is gorgeous! It was definitely an impulse buy but it was worth it!

Oh good, the hubby just called and said they sent everyone home early. Now I can stop worrying. When did I become such a worrier?

An Interview

I saw this around the blogs and thought it was cute. I sat down to ask the hubby the questions while he was sitting at the computer after work. I should have known that the he would never answer me seriously. There was a lot of eye rolling, and “come on hun, just answer”.

Me: What is your favorite thing about my knitting?
Hubby: That you don’t make me anything.

Me: What is your least favorite thing about my knitting?
Hubby: That you don’t knit me socks.
Me: Hun, you’re feet are huge. Would you even wear them? Ok, ok, maybe soon.

Me: What is something I have knitted that you recall as being good?
Hubby: A Swatch
Me: Come on, I don’t even swatch most of the time. Seriously…
Hubby: Ok, the turtle.
Me: Do you even know his name? (stares blankly at me) It’s Sheldon.

Me: Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?
Hubby: No. My hobbies cost more.
Me: Have I mentioned that I want a spinning wheel?

Me: Do you have any hobbies?
Hubby: Duh, I just said mine cost more.
Me: Give me a break, I’m just asking the questions.

Me: What are your hobbies?
Hubby: (rolls eyes) You know this…Cars, audio…

Me: If we compared money spent on hobbies, who would win?
Hubby: You
Me: You have bought cars before. And your stuff is really expensive. We will get to your hobbies soon.

Me: Has my knitting in public ever embarrassed you?
Hubby: No, I think it’s funny.

Me: Do you know my favorite kind of yarn?
Hubby: Worst weight?
Me: (laughs) You pay more attention than I thought, but no.

Me: Can you name another blog?
Hubby: Hmm…
Me: You can’t Google it, that’s cheating.
Hubby: Then no.

Me: Do you mind that I want to check out yarn stores everywhere we go?
Hubby: No.

Me: Do you understand the importance of a swatch?
Hubby: Yes, to count stitches within an inch, and to gauge the size of the needle.
Me: Wow, close enough.

Me: Do you read my blog?
Hubby: Nope
Me: Do you even know the name of it?
Hubby: No. You don’t know the names of my car forums.
Me: Fair enough.

Me: Have you ever left a comment?
Hubby: How could I if I don’t read it?

Me: Do you think the house would be cleaner if I didn't knit?
Hubby: Yes, and dinner would be on the table.
Me: I cook dinner! And do you really think I would actually clean if I didn’t knit? Yea right.

Me: Is there anything you would like to add in closing?
Hubby: No.

And for those of you that read to the end, I have a sneak peek at the boobholder in progress:

Bad Kitty

Today started off just like every other Monday until I discovered that my keys were nowhere to be found. Turns out the hubby had them in his car and he was on the way to an appointment in Melbourne. So I called the boss and let them know I wouldn’t be in. Seems like I would have a nice day off right? Wrong, I had plenty to do, and most of it I could work on from here. So I have been working off and on today (not too hard though) and I figured out that while it is really cute, it is quite hard to work with a cat walking back and forth across the screen and occasionally stepping on the keyboard to be pet. This little kitty in question (Tipper) is in big trouble right now. Yesterday morning I found my Zune (a little 8G one we bought in July) in the bottom of the water dish. Apparently he wanted to play with the headphones and knocked it off the counter. Needless to say it’s not turning on. That means that most of my music is gone too since I use my work computer to sync it and I erase most of the stuff after as not to make the computer slow. I’m not too pleased with him right now, but then he curls up and goes to sleep, and this is my view. How can I stay mad at him?

So before I got to work this morning, I finally finished the soaker. It only took me a day to finish it, but I lost the pattern a little over a week ago so it was set aside. I do like how this came out, but it seemed so fiddly. There are just so many parts to it. I don’t know if I will make any more, or if I do, I don’t think I will do all the I-cord detail.

Baby Hat and Soaker Set
Yarn: Moda Dea Vision in Karma
Needles: 5.0mm Knit Picks Circular
Pattern: Baby Hat from Easy Baby Knits and Snapdragon Soaker
Date Finished: 8/11/2008

I also started a pair of socks since the Kindness socks were frogged. This is my Pagewood Farms Sock yarn that I got at the Orlando Needleworks Show last year. Hmm...I wonder if there is another one this year? I will have to check on that. I decided to knit the Pomatomus Socks since the Monkeys were such a big hit. Cookie A is a genius! They look gorgeous in this yarn since the color variations are very subtle. And if you noticed, the sock is on a wooden sock blocker. These came from Chappy’s Fiber Arts & Crafts. They did not have a beagle in the shop so after emailing the store, they were nice enough to draw one up and even send me a proof. I love them, although I didn’t expect them to be as large as they are. They fit my socks, but they just look smaller in pictures. So now I better get back to work (yea right).