Updates.

Well this time last Monday, a few of my friends from SnB and I took a road trip up to Osgoods Textiles before heading to Northampton for lunch at Noodles and a trip to WEBS.

Osgoods was H-U-G-E!  They had every conceivable fabric that you could possibly want along with lace, zippers, etc.  It was very overwhelming to me.  I just walked around and took it all in.  Let’s just say that I didn’t fair very well in the sewing portion of home ec during junior high school (with this in mind, I never bothered to take it on high school).  In fact, there was one time where the sewing teacher had to sew my final project for me!  Just before we were leaving we all went down this one aisle that had some interesting prints.  Get a load of these fabrics…..

Those are some steamy fabric panels! Boom-Chicka-Wow-Wow!

I encourage you to enlarge the picture from above.  That is Archiknist, Jennsquared , Denise and Beth representin’ for the steamy delivery men in brown (*wink*),  police officers and firefighters, respectively.   We had a good laugh about these fabric panels.

We met up with Costumechick and her husband at WEBS after lunch.  I poked around the front of the store for a bit, checked out the new Spud & Chloë yarn (so pretty)  and then headed back to the warehouse to see what I could find.  This is what I ended up buying:

10 balls of Wisdom Yarn Fair Isle - enough to make a sweater!

3 hanks of Misti Alpaca Lace: 2 in red and 1 in natural

2 hanks of Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet - undyed

I’ve made my decision about the sweater pattern I’ll be working on during the KAL.  I’ll be using the Fair Isle yarn above to make…….drumroll, please……. Mr. Greenjeans!  Thank you all for participating in the poll.  Costumechick and Jennsquared both made a very good point in their comment to that blog post.  My Lady has lace and I think I will really need a break from lace for a bit.

This past Friday was Ya-Ya’s surprise 30th birthday party.  The party should  have been for both Ya-Ya and her twin, Patrick, but Patrick chose not to participate.  Every family has a little bit of dysfunction to it…in my family his name is Patrick.  My mom puts it best when she says that “Pat marches to the beat of a different drummer.” Always has, always will and I’ll leave it at that.  During the party, I also found out that my sister, Chris, reads my blog during her downtime.  I was really flattered.  Hi Chris! 

Ever since the car show, DH and I have been scoping out the next WifeMomKnittermobile.  My little SUV currently has about 68,000 miles on it from all the traveling I did with work and because we use it as our main vehicle whenever we go anywhere (It gets better gas mileage than DH’s bigass truck).  We both liked the Jeep Wrangler (4-door model) at the car show and when one became available at our local car rental place, we rented it.  That way, we can actually tell, better than an hour long test drive, whether this vehicle will be right for us.

It’s not.

The first thing that we both noticed was that the dashboard was extremely close in relation to the front seats.  What was even better was that the brake and gas pedals were extremely far away in relation to the seats.  In other words, we both had to adjust the seat extremely close to the wheel of the car in order to drive it.  DH is around 5 feet 6 inches; I’m 5 feet 3 1/2 inches. 

We took the Jeep out for a long ride on Saturday with the soft top down.  We got off the highway in Branford and cruised all along Route 1 to Old Saybrook and then turned around.  On the way, we stopped at Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tales in Madison for clam strips and fries (as well as a twist cone for me!) that were out of this world!  By the time we got home, I noticed that I had developed a passenger tan (or burn in my case)…let’s just say you could tell where the seat belt cut across my chest.  DH did offer to stop so that I could pick up some sunscreen.  I told him that I would be fine.  I was so angry with myself when I went to go grocery shopping this morning and what do I see at the bottom of my purse……you guessed it!  My damn sunscreen!  D’oh!

Yesterday, I took the Jeep to meet my mom, sisters and nieces at Friendlys for breakfast.  After breakfast, Chris and Princess Paige asked me to take them for a ride in the Jeep, which I happily obliged.  DH called me during his lunch (like usual)  and asked me what I thought of the Jeep.  I told him that I was not won over and with the steering wheel being that close to me, I could never see myself driving this car while I was pregnant.  I would never be able to reach the damn pedals!  I also told him that every time I would go to adjust the volume knob on the radio, I would shut the damn radio off because I’m not used to being that close to the dashboard!   I’m so glad that we found this out before potentially buying this car!

 After I got home I did absolutely nothing but read horror stories on Etiquette Hell, my newest obsession.  I have no idea why, but I got sucked into reading all about tacky invitations, wedding horror stories and tacky thank you notes (or lack thereof).  I couldn’t stop reading!

So far today I have accomplished the following:

• Got up and dressed
• Checked my email and google reader
• Made a grocery list and went shopping
• Stopped at Starbuck on my way home from shopping to get an ice coffee since I was out of milk this morning and didn’t have my morning coffee (the whole reason why I went shopping)
• Wondered why it took three women to run one register at Starbucks, but yet there was only one barrista making the coffee orders (Does it really take 10 mins. to throw some cold coffee, ice and skim milk in a cup? Geez!)
• Made a strawberry and blueberry trifle with pound cake and vanilla pudding/Cool-Whip (Yum!)
• Made some European Cheese & Herb bread in my bread machine (I haven’t made bread in my machine for so long!)
• Made Creamy Parmesan Pasta Salad (Suddenly Salad mix) with grape tomatoes for my lunch for the week

What I still need to do today:

• Eat lunch (pasta salad and maybe a slice of bread)
• Laundry (UGH!)

So that about gets you all up to speed in the continuing story of my life in yarn and dog hair.  I’ll post a picture of the swatch I did for Mr. Greenjeans when the batteries for the camera are charged up again. 

Hello Readers,

I’m sure that you are wondering why I haven’t posted in a couple of days.

I, unfortunately, received some very sad new earlier in the week about a friend and I need some time to process my feelings, which I can assure you are very sad.

I will be back to resume the trials and tribulations of my life in dog hair on Monday.

Thank you for your understanding,

Jen (a.k.a. Wife, “Mom”, Knitter)

Hey look! It’s a lobster….Oh no, wait. It’s just Jen.

I got burnt to a crisp on the 4th of July despite wearing sunscreen.

The worst place that got a sunburn was the back of my neck (shudder).  By the time we got home from the picnic at DH’s cousin’s house (my FIL’s side of the family), my arms were lobster red as well as the the back of my neck and on either side of my collar bone.  This is unfortunately what happens when you are so pasty white that you are clear.  I’m mostly English and Irish…hence the pasty white skin.  Sleeping was a bit uncomfortable that night.

The picnic was interesting.  There was the 40-something year old wife of one of DH’s cousins walking around in her string bikini with more jewelry than Mr. T (this woman also has quite a few children, some that may actually be her husband’s!); the husband (I think or boyfriend…I can’t keep up) of DH’s cousin who literally made me sick to my stomach for the rest of the day by walking around shirtless with his extremely hairy chest (yuck!).  This guy also creeps me out like nobody’s business.  I was just thankful that DH had the day off and I didn’t have to attend this function by myself.

My neighbors were having their usual fireworks display in their backyard and the dogs were going bananas.  I didn’t get to sleep until midnight.  They let me sleep until 7:30 yesterday morning, interrupting a dream where some guy named “Paul” was trying to lure me away from DH.  I kept telling “Paul” that I love DH and I am with him.  Aw! Even in my dreams, I’m faithful to my DH!

It wasn’t too warm in my house yesterday, so I worked one pattern repeat on the Lady and did a couple of rounds on my socks while listening to a couple of podcasts on my mp3 player.

Today will be an exciting day.  I’m going up to Massachusetts with a couple of my friends from SnB.  We are going to Osgoods Textiles in West Springfield then we will be making our way to……WEBS!!!!!  We also plan to stroll around downtown Northampton and hopefully, eat at Noodles again and go back to the great ice cream shop in the mall.

I do plan on wearing more sunscreen today.  I’m still a little red.

I Need Your Help.

Even though it’s a bit early, I’m hemming and hawing over the pattern that I want to work on for the Sweater KAL.  I am torn between Mr. Greenjeans and Summer’s End (for those of you on Ravelry, here’s a better link)

So I need your help.

Please vote for the sweater pattern that you like the best.  I will end the poll next Friday, July 10th and post the results.

 Thank you for helping me out.

Blog Award and Cute as a Button Patterns

 

My friend, Martha, bestowed upon me the “One Lovely Blog Award” (and she definitely deserves one as well!).

Thank you so much!

And in the spirit of paying it forward…..I give this award to all the blogs I have listed as ” Blogs I Enjoy Reading – Near”.  I consider all of you very dear friends and you always have such interesting things to share.

Speaking of things to share………….

As I have said in the past, I subscribe to “One Pretty Thing” which features all types of free crafts from all over the blogosphere.  The Daily DIY from yesterday contained the two cutest knit toy patterns that I thought I would share with all of you:

•  Teddy Bear (pdf download) from All About You 
• Ribbit by Susan B. Anderson as featured in  Spud & Chloë

As you can imagine, these patterns quickly made it on my queue on Ravelry.  As my friend, Knelley, would say, “They are stinkin’ cute!”

Friday Fill-In #131

And…here we go!

1. When I heard that Jon and Kate Gosselin were getting divorced I was not surprised.

2. Laughter truly is the  best medicine.

3. It’s late, but I still haven’t gotten my nephew his birthday gift.  Eep!

4. Live life to the fullest and love always.

5. My eyes have seen some really strange crap .

6. Hug strongly.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to date night with the hubs, tomorrow my plans include a 4th of July picnic at DH’s cousin’s (Oh joy!  Not!)  and Sunday, I want to catch up on my knitting!

More FO and/or Progress Needed..

I am terribly sorry that I have not had a whole heck of a lot of progress, or finished objects for that matter, to share with you lately.

The weather here in Connecticut has been horrible.  When it hasn’t rained, it’s been unbelievably hot.  I’ve barely have the energy to do housework, let alone try to knit, which is why I’ve been able to catch up on some reading.  I did manage (on the rainy days) to knit at least two pattern repeats on the sleeves of my Lady at a time.   The weight of the  sweater and the fact that it is made of 100% wool prevents me from doing this (unless I’ve broken down and put the A/C on) on hot, sunny days.

In her book, “Free-Range Knitter”, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee does a chapter called “Glory Days” where she discusses the Furnace Wars that her and her extended family enter into each winter.  Basically you try to go as long as possible without turning on the furnace.  I feel that same way about the air conditioner in my house, just because I dread that ginormous electric bill in the summer months.   Most days I can make it until around 5:00 P.M. before I just have to turn on the A/C because I can’t take the heat anymore.   Meanwhile, I  notice both Rion and Lourdes collapsing repeatedly on the hardwood floors throughout the day, a surefire indication that they are warm.  I provide them with plenty of ice water and ice cubes (they love ice cubes!) , but there are times when I just have to break down, for Rion’s sake, and turn it on.  Rion’s breed (pug) does not handle heat and cold very well.  I know when Rion has reached that point when he starts to pant and smile….a lot.

It’s another hot day today so my goals are as follows:

• vacuum the living room and my bedroom
• fold and put away the laundry that I have been putting off since Monday
• unload the dishwasher and reload it, as necessary (And I even scrubbed the sink with Comet!)
• actually make myself something to eat for lunch (If it gets too hot, I don’t feel like eating.)  Leftover marinated turkey cutlets with Near East Mediterranean Curry couscous.
• contemplate cooking something for dinner
• knit something  I completed one pattern repeat on the Lady and two rounds of 1×1 ribbing on the cuff of my second sock.

You’ll know the I have accomplished these goals for today if you see that there is a strike-through on that particular bullet.

Wish me luck!

Book Review

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was told about this book back in 2005 (by one of the college girls that was working at the accounting firm at the time), but had not gotten the opportunity to read it until now. I think that the release of the movie, based upon the book, was the nudge that I needed.

To me, a book is good if it triggers a strong response in me. This one did.

The book revolves around the Fitzgerald family. The middle daughter, Kate, has been battling cancer since she was diagnosed at the age of two. When various treatments fail, the parents are advised by the oncologist to look into trying to have another baby in the hopes that he/she will be a match for Kate.  Anna is genetically engineered to be Kate’s perfect match and so begins her saga to be the “spare parts” for her sister, Kate.  Until the day that she decides that she has had enough.

The strong response was my anger toward the girls’ mother, Sara.  Throughout the course of the book, she is so wrapped up in her daughter’s illness (and preventing Kate from dying) that she fails to see the damage that she is doing to her other children.  She also fails to see the truth that is as plain as the nose on her face.

Since I don’t want to give away the ending, I will say that the most important lesson I took away from the book is learning when it’s time to just let go.

View all my reviews.

Random Thoughts

• I noticed that I had an awful lot of leftover navy blue yarn from various projects, so I picked out three stitch patterns from my Harmony Guides and I’m going to try to make enough square to complete (possibly) a baby-sized blanket. 

Blue Yarn in German pottery

Sample squares after blocking

 

• My supermarket was having a sale on berries, angelfood cake and Cool-Whip so I made a kick-ass Triple Berry Trifle today with sliced strawberries, raspberries, blueberries.  I also had some vanilla pudding at home, so I mixed the prepared pudding with a tub of fat-free Cool-Whip.  Voilá!

Yum!

 

• This was the first time I’ve ever purchased fresh raspberries.  I have no idea why I’ve never done so in the past.

 

• Fresh raspberries are so g-o-o-d!

 

• I love to walk down the “Baby” aisle of grocery stores.   They always smell like baby powder.

 

• I make Peyton laugh with my chipmunk laugh (as my mother calls it).  I got together with my mom and sisters for lunch yesterday at TGI Fridays and I was taking great pleasure in making Peyton laugh.

 

• I love to hear her laugh.

 

• I think it’s the funniest thing that she immediately turns to watch TV when she hears the opening song for “All My Children”.

 

• I almost started to cry when I saw that five people had queued my Siren Song Scarf on Ravelry.  Thirteen people have “favorited” the pattern. 

 

• I am incredibly grateful that people like my little ol’ pattern.

Sweater KAL

As I mentioned in a previous post, a bunch of my friends at SnB thought it would be a fun idea to do a sweater KAL. 

Doesn’t matter what sweater you want to work on.   You just knit whatever sweater pattern that you want and it would give you an incentive to finish it.  So we were talking last night and decided that the best thing to do was to set up a blog specifically for the KAL.  That way, members have the opportunity to post their progress and pictures, and everyone can oooh and aaahhh over them and tell them, “Way to go!” all along the way.

The blog is set up and you can find information about it here.  I encourage anyone who would like to join to go ahead and do so.  It should be a lot of fun.