Odd and Ends

1. School started. Job started. Time departed.

Kids are cute--

And getting old. Alex is in junior high and Grace is in first grade. Wow.

2. My job is a lot of fun. Cuts into the knitting and blogging time, but I did actually finish a sock during football and Orthodontist waiting time (that's the other job).

I also have turned in the paperwork to enter the fair. I am entering a shawl, socks, and the chicken. I was a little disappointed that I only have three things to enter. Oh well. I still actually have to finish the socks too. I have 3 weeks. Normally very doable, but with the life crunch going on it is going to be a close call.

3. Ravelry is great. I know I have said that before, but now I have proof. I have for several months now been trying to find a copy of Simply Knitting's March issue to get the patterns for the little barnyard animals by Alan Dart who designed the knitted chicken I made. The issue has been sold out, and the only time I found it on Ebay the bidding was over $20 not including shipping from England. Well, last week I joined in a Simply Knitting fans group on Ravelry and posted on the forum that I was looking for issue. A wonderfully kind Raveler responded and mailed it to me! Without asking for anything in return! Isn't that fabulous? I plan on knitting her a sheep. Hopefully she will find that charming and not weird.

Hopefully the next post will include some mystery stole action. Stay tuned!

Vote for my friend!

So... a few months ago, I nominiated my friend, Cynthia, for a national award. I was thrilled that out of all the nominations, she was selected as a finalist for the Stand on a Better World Awards. If she wins, her organization could get a cash prize that would help her continue the great work she does. If you could, please vote for my friend Cynthia Karraker.

http://www.standonabetterworld.com/vote/index.html

Pops and Alex

Father and Grandson camp August 07 004
Originally uploaded by CareyMW

Aren't they cute?

A Dilemma

I started a new job. I'm going to be a librarian at a small private school very close to home, but of course, not anywhere near the two schools my kids attend. I'm very excited and eager to jump into the new school year.

The faculty and staff went on a retreat yesterday to the foothills around an hour and a half from school. I knew I would be riding in someone else's car, so I brought along a new plain sock to knit (didn't want to waste prime knitting time, especially now that time is at a premium). I realized I would get a few questions about what I was doing, so there lies the dilemma I was faced with:

How much of the knitting self do I expose? I don't know these people very well, and I wouldn't want to steer their impression of me from "Gee, she seems interesting" to "Oh my, what sort of nut do we have here?" Especially after the reception my sock knitting got from my cousin at Good Things. Not everyone gets it.

When the conversation turned to what I was doing I told them I like to knit. True, no? The whole truth? Huh. I didn't volunteer my blog URL for them to see for themselves. Admitting to knitting and blogging is reserved for those who know the level of my, uh, involvement with yarn. I sort of decided that I would wait and reveal the inner knitter a piece at a time.

Meanwhile, I got this far on the sock-

I'm glad I didn't let the time slip by. I'm ready to start the last clue of the mystery stole too. This week is the first week of school for 4 of 5 family members, and all with different schedules that don't blend well, so knitting time will be scarce. Wish me luck, on the job, and on the stress management of home. Yikes!

My soul is refreshed

Two weeks ago, my very good friend, future bridesmaid and co-worker lost her 17-year-old son to a horrible accident. After a week fighting for his life, Zach got to be comforted in the arms of Jesus. I have peace because of that, but I am mourning the death of this great kid. The black days after Zach's accident are a blur now. Busy at work. Worried sick about my friend. Prayer with other friends, church family and co-workers. A huge, huge outpouring of support from those co-workers.

In the midst of it all, I felt the Lord at work. He was there during it all, helping me get through each day. I learned this week that getting through each day means getting back into routine. The Good Things meeting was scheduled way before any of this happened, but after a horrible couple of weeks filled with drama, sadness and a whopper of a cold, planning the projects was the very last thing I wanted to do.


Funny thing, though. It was exactly what I needed. I don't know how, but I healed a little bit by getting my hands in ink and playing with my scissors in the days before the meeting. My soul was refreshed during the meeting just by being with Tracy, Cheri, Lori and the gang. We laughed over silly things and surrounded me love. Thanks for that. I appreciate it more than you know.

We did three projects. Here they are:




Cindy and Tracy show off their hard work.





Lori and Carolyn enjoy strawberry cheesecake squares.

No Longer Behind

I'm officially on clue 6 now! Finished clue 5 today. I like the way the wing is shaping up - very feather like and all, but I don't really care for the dividing line between the main stole and the wing. I'm hoping it will all come together. I also am very close to being at the end of the first skein of yarn, 630 yards have been used so far (give or take a few yards).

I am so tired of knitting this! I am on the cusp (so close I can taste it) of casting on for the twisted flower socks. SO CLOSE! I am using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Blackberry. Project Spectrum! Sock a month knitalong! Summer of socks! I would feel like Tiennie except I won't finish them in one week (she's a super fast and very good knitter, go check out what she knitted for her husband)

The Everlasting Sock

Can you imagine if Willie Wonka ran a yarn factory? The yarn that never runs out no matter how much you knit. Socks that change color depending on the time of day. Sweaters that grow thicker depending on the weather.





These socks were made from Willie Wonka yarn. They seemed to last forever. I worked on them pretty steadily (in my mind anyway) yet they never seemed to be done. UNTIL TODAY!

Hooray! These socks are my first installment in the Sock of the Month Knitalong that starts in August. I sort of started them in July, but we won't talk about that little detail.

Even though these were the socks that would never end, I loved the yarn. So pretty! In fact, I will make a declaration that this is the prettiest sock yarn I have used thus far! It is called French 75, purchased at Ancient Pathways.



Love it!

Nothing at all about yarn, paper, or scissors

Maurice wants you to see what he spent his Saturday doing:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYhfQijuU0

Meanwhile, Grace and I went with Carey and Gram and shopped, lunched, and were ladies of leisure.

Ready for a wing

Big projects do not make exciting blog posts. I have been knitting away at the mystery stole in an attempt to catch up. I have now (on Tuesday) caught up to this week's clue.

Good thing, being that the mystery has been revealed. The stole is patterned to represent "Swan Lake." That sounds so normal and not mysterious compared to the offbeat and sometimes sinister guesses that have been floating around the internet. Anyway, the design is now going to feature a wing, which sounds very odd, but I think will look very nice, although will take most everyone out of their knitting comfort zone. I am used to symmetrical designs, so this will be good for me. And it is looking very pretty on the blogs I have been cheating and looking at.

I am also enjoying ravelry! What a great place to compare others' work and see the difference yarn choices and color make. It is really like a knitting/internet revolution. That sounds very melodramatic, but it has a huge potential that is very exciting. I love it! I haven't said too much about it since it is not open to the general public yet and can't be viewed unless you are a beta user, and that is a giant bummer because it is great! I am telling everyone it is like a Myspace for knitters, but it also keeps track of projects and yarn with photos and you can view everyone else's finished objects and find lots of inspiration, and I could go on and on! It will be great when it is finally up and running. Jesse and Casey are the brains behind it and they are brilliant!

Fun site and a celebration! Hooray!

Busy, busy, busy. With all the wedding planning and a crazy busy work schedule, things haven't actually been going so well on the creativity front. I've got a great plan to do a creative scrapbook album-type thingy instead of a traditional guest book. Actually sitting down and doing it, however, may be troublesome. So, to make a long story short, I found this lovely web site and accompanying blog that celebrates the lives of real women with real schedules and discusses how real women scrap! Looks like I'm not alone on the busy front!

Here are the links.... http://www.realwomenscrap.com/index2.php and http://realwomenscrap.typepad.com/scrapbook_lessons/

And, during the month of August, the site is celebrating blogging as well. I've attached the site's blog-a-bration button so you can click and find out what it is all about. Hope you like it.

On and on and on

I swear I am knitting. I seem to go on and on and never make any progress. Oh, yeah, I know I am on row 263 and all, but it is slow going. I am behind! Tomorrow is the next post, the all-important clue that tells us the secrets to the mystery stole universe, and I didn't catch up like I intended. Big bummer. I still have another 70 rows to go.

I also feel like I need (and want) to do a small project really quickly just to finish something. Part of me wants to do that, but that would just get me even farther behind! Knit faster!

If it weren't for the laptop buying, school supply gathering, uniform obtaining, shoe shopping, class list viewing, and driving in circles across town several times a day, I would probably get more done. Why does life have to interrupt my knitting time?

Yarn Paper Scissors

Thanks to Emily the wondergirl for the blog banner and button. It only took a few bribes and/or pleading to get that done. It is very interesting that I have been trying for FOREVER to get a better banner and coordinate a photo banner with blogger but it took Emily like 2 seconds to do.

Anniversary stats -

177 posts

10 1/2 pairs of socks

17 road trips

465 comments (thank you)

2 graduations

1 blue ribbon

1 engagement

1 wedding

lots of dimples and curly hair (kid shots)

It has been an eventful year around here at YPS, and hopefully the next year will be just as blessed!

Thanks for reading!

Happy Blogiversary to us!

We are a year old! We are trying to do a little blog makeover and year recap in honor of our first anniversary. Stay tuned.

Stitch N Pitch Night

Carey, Alex, and I set out on Tuesday and made our way towards the Bay Area for our second Stitch N Pitch night at AT&T Park.

We took our time getting there, stopping at Continental Stitch in Morgan Hill (lots of Noro but not a lot of friendly from the staff) and a scrapbook store in Gilroy (sorry, they all seem to blur together to me the knitter woman and I forgot the name). We also stopped at Full Thread Ahead in Los Altos (love that store, and lots of good Harlot memories) and tried to go to Purlescence in Sunnyvale but THEY WERE CLOSED! Argh.

Eventually, we landed in the City. It was cold! The game was fun, although we weren't sitting close enough to a lot of other knitters so we saw lots of people with orange tote bags, but didn't get into the same spirit of fun as last year. We still had fun though!

Here is Alex and Carey right after downing some garlic fries-

And here I am with Alex, freezing my you-know-what off while knitting my sock--

Here I am seeing if it is time for the toe--

We left at the 8th inning because I was freezing and the Giants were losing pretty badly. We expected them to take Barry Bonds out like they usually do around that time. When we made it back to the hotel, we saw the bottom of the ninth, with Bonds still in and the score tied! Yikes! I knew if Bonds hit a homerun when we weren't there Alex would kill me! Fortunately for me but unfortunately for the Giants, they lost and we didn't miss any good Barry action.

I finished my sock Wednesday morning, while Carey was reading Harry Potter and Alex was enjoying the Palace Hotel pool.

We then set out for the east bay, and enjoyed Article Pract in Oakland, Stash in Berkeley, and My Daughter's Wish (killer scrapbook store, even I must say) in Walnut Creek. Alex went to baseball heaven with lunch at McCovey's. He took over 25 photos in the restaurant. Cool place.

Now we are home. I feel like the past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Time to catch up with the rest of life!

LIttle House in the Big Woods

Hi! I've missed you! I've been taking a break from civilization.

We lived here for a week--

And spent a lot of time looking at this-

and a lake. A very pretty lake called Shaver Lake in the Sierras. Very nice. I got to experience life without the internet (but with excellent cell phone reception, thank you God), dishwasher, trash service, laundry facilities, or cable tv. You know what that means? Lots of card games, bird watching, sitting by the lake watching the kiddies swim, reading, and KNITTING! Yes, I did that, no technology required! I worked on the mystery stole and finished clue 2 and half of clue 3(had no way of downloading clue 4 so now I was not in a rush) and almost made it to the toe of the first waving lace sock.

I read the latest Maggie Sexton knitting mystery, Killer Stitch, which was fun. I started the latest Bennie Harper mystery by Earlene Fowler. I love that series and have been reading them for years now. I put that aside in the name of Mr. Harry Potter when it was delivered to me Saturday morning by my enabler and most beloved sister. Then I itched to start it while playing hostess to the family, but FINALLY got going on it on Sunday when we got home.

I would have blogged sooner but I was sincerely afraid of touching the internet for fear of spoilers. I had waited to long for the conclusion of story to have it spoiled. I will not spoil it here except to say it was a very satisfying read. Yes, Alex finished it before me.

Tomorrow we turn around and go to SF for the Stitch N Pitch game. Go Giants!

Oooey gooey romance

Want to see my engagement pictures? View a slide show at http://www.cooperimages.net/. The photographer is Perry Cooper, my very good friend Shelly's husband and a freelancer I work with at work. He's a great guy and made Gary and I look quite good... considering it was like 200 degrees when we took the pictures at the park yesterday. OK, not really 200. But it was 100 and muggy. Yuck. As the slide show progresses, my face gets more and more red. Isn't summer fun?

Cable Cars, Windmills and Socks

We hit the big city for a night. Barely over 24 hours, but a little getaway felt nice. I gave the stole a rest (knitting lace in the car with a chart and beads seemed a little akward) and started this--

Isn't this yarn beautiful? I got it at Ancient Pathways, and it is dyed locally for them. The color is "Pink Pepper." I am knitting Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks, and I made it through the heel flap of sock #1, as you can see.

Pretty, no?

We had dinner and Friday lunch in North Beach, but

Maurice and I ate breakfast at the Cliff House and saw the ocean, and then went to Holland, oops I mean to Queen Wilhelmina Gardens in Golden Gate Park.

Then he persuaded me to go to Imagiknit (what a guy). There I came across some Koigu (another chevron?) and some Claudia Handpainted Linen that I had been eyeing for awhile that was on sale. Oh, and some Noro Daria, since I am enjoying the Corded bag I made from it before and it isn't that easy to find.

I made him fight the traffic for the trip back downtown to Artfibers, and they had changed the way they sold the yarn without really explaining it anywhere. Most of the yarns were on cones, but you could wind off any number of balls worth that you needed. I needlessly searched for colors available in balls or partial cones that I liked, and once I was told I could wind from the cones, I had to go back and decide what I wanted all over again. Then I had to wind 1000 yards of Tsuki from the cone and that took FOREVER. I also got some red silk for something fun. (Note Red! Black! Project Spectrum) They didn't seem to have as much yarn there as they usually have. Maybe it was my imagination.

I love going to San Francisco. Next week will be spent with the family at a cabin up at the lake. I'm hoping for a little "down time" and relaxation and family fun. Wish me luck.

Piece of cake, I say...

Wanna know where I'm getting my cake? Imagine this. Melinda, the owner of Dede's Decor and the oh so talented creator of cakes makes a personal visit to my home. She pops open her laptop and shows me hundreds of pictures of cakes she has created (a small sampling is located here, on her Web site: http://dedesdecor.com/Gallerynew/celegallery.htm ) and asks me to point out just what I like about the cakes that are my favorites. I tell her I like a little bit of this and a little bit of that. She gets out a blank piece of paper and a pencil and starts to sketch. Out of her pencil comes this magical drawing of my dream cake. Then she gets out her colored pencils and starts coloring it all in to match the colors I've selected for the big day. How ultra cool is that? And the best part... the cakes she brought over to sample were just to die for. Great looking and even better tasting. Yum. It almost doesn't matter that the cake is costing more than my dress. That's just a little detail. But really, it is so worth it. I'm happy to admit I'm a cake snob. And this cake is living up to all a wedding cake should. What fun.

On to Clue #2

To someone not knitting this Mystery Stole, these photos must be pretty dull. To the knitter, they signal monumental achievement. "I made it this far! Hooray! I didn't go insane or get knitocidal! See my beads?" This is my second official "Piece of Lace Knitting" and it doesn't seem all that difficult. I know I have just tempted fate in the most awful way (if you are knitting superstitious), but I am in the process of installing a lifeline in case of emergency.

The second clue chart looks laid out in a very logical manner, and you know I like the logical pattern. Wish me luck.

The other sister

OK... My silly sister said I must post or else she would take my name off of the blog. So, fine. Here's my post.

1. Wedding planning: How can I fit people into the church for a wedding and then in the exact same space for a reception? I just simply don't know the answer to this question and it is stressing me out just a tad. I'm meeting with the wedding planner tomorrow. Hopefully she will have some ideas because I'm a big blank. Other than that, all is going well. All the girls have dresses or have dresses on order. Grace was a hoot. If it were up to her she would still be trying on fancy dresses in every store in town.

Here's Grace at David's... we ordered one at Luftenburgs. You can see it at this link: http://www.morilee.com/DressDetail.aspx?C=6&D=991&P=1 Her dress will be in ivory with a green sash to match the bridesmaids.

2. The end of an era: I've been a Stampin Up demonstrator for a decade. Yes, 10 years have passed since I did my first workshop. I've loved SU and this month I'm officially saying goodbye. I'm still "active" until the end of the month, and that's it. I still love stamping but I'm so horrible at the marketing aspect of the whole thing that it just isn't working out. I love planning projects and all that, but I just can't be my own best customer anymore. It feels strange knowing it is all coming to an end -- sort of like I'm cutting off my arm.

3. Squish: I'm totally excited that I'm going to be a Mrs. soon. I get to move into Gary's apartment and give it my touches -- turn his bachelor pad into our home together. That's so exciting I can't even describe it. I'm having bittersweet feelings, though. I'm so sad to be moving out of my pretty girly stamping haven. Moss and butter yellow walls, organized shelves, lovely curtains sewn by Nola Mom. I just love my stamp room. I don't want to leave it behind.

I want to make these!

I saw these on Crazy Aunt Purl's blog and had to post about them! Go look!


VeganYumYum » Knit Night Cupcakes

Getting right to the point

I finished chart A. So far it has not been difficult at all. I am not very far into this I realize, but so far I have been able to reach the end of each row without finding myself with too few/more stitches than I'm supposed to have. Hooray.

This marks row 50.

A mystery, some monkeys, and seeing red

It's hot. Ugly hot. Right now the car said 114 degrees, which means it's probably 110. Really.

The good news is I finally cast on for the mystery stole. I'm a week late, since the second clue came out today. But it is looking pretty already! I'm hoping the mystery "theme" isn't anything too strange, but so far the charts look nice. Here is the progress of day 1 -

I am keeping my little beads in my new cute monkey tin I got at Borders. I LOVE the pencil tins from Paperchase. This one has monkeys, which are popular around here at the moment. My stripey one holds my dpns. I would buy others, I can't resist them.

Yesterday I was waiting to pick up Emily from summer school and decided that instead of sitting in the parking lot and turning into a broiled knitter, I would seek shelter and air conditioning at Ancient Pathways. I consulted Meg, the owner, about my bead choices (which led me to Bead Artistry, which led me to choose three new colors of beads, which led me to choose pearl-like beads, but that is another story) and found out that she is trying to raise $$ to fund her trip to London in October to a yarn show. She was selling some of her handspun, and I figured I could sacrifice and get some just to show my support ;-). Isn't is nice? I think it is destined to become something felted.

Now folks take note -- it is red! I have officially found something red to knit for Project Spectrum! Isn't it nice that if you are patient, things have a way of falling into place?

Jitterbugs for June

Socks are done! A little late, but not too bad. I had a little yarn left over, not too much, but a little. I have read about the "not-so-generous" yardage of the Jitterbug, but it was enough for a standard plain pair of Cindy socks.

These socks are being counted toward the Project Spectrum, since I'm not really planning any red, black, or metallic projects for anytime soon. There is a smidge of red in them. And, since we are discussing red, there is not a whole lot of red sock yarn out there. I have looked, and would have purchased some if I had been successful.

I now have NOTHING on the needles. NO WIPS! (Okay, I'm sort of not counting the ancient few things only I know about, shhh) I am about to embark on the MS3. I am stuck deciding on the beads, but I will make a decision and cast on tomorrow. I am also going to start a new sock, either a Cookie A. pattern or a Favorite Socks pattern. I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Summer Plums

I blocked the Shetland Triangle. It grew. It "bloomed". Blocking really brings out the pattern and makes it look like a completely different animal. Blocking lace is a pain, and I wish I really knew what I was doing. But it turned out okay.

I decided that I didn't want the points as pointy as the pattern. I also didn't bind off loose enough to get it that pointy, and I bound off as loose as I could. I should switch needles next time.

I love this color, a deep plummy purple, but it photographs different each time.

My swimmers!

Off the Needles!

The Shetland Triangle is done. I still need to block it and watch it grow (hopefully). It is pretty, even though it is petite and a little lumpy.

Specs: Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style, Dark Plum Zephyr Merino Laceweight purchased at Stitches West 2007. Size 6 Knitpicks Options needles. 13 pattern repeats instead of 8, otherwise knitted as per pattern. Love the pattern, like the Monkey socks, it made complete sense when I knitted it. Gotta love a logical pattern that you can see when you are right and when you are not. Had one little tink episode but other than that, it was a great knit, although it seemed to take forever to bind off the over 360 stitches at the end.

I am now a lace knitter. I had toyed with it before, but I have now knit a lace shawl with laceweight yarn. Stand back folks!

Now I get to start swatching and catching up on the Mystery Stole. And finishing up the sock.

On another note, I won a little blog contest over on the cutest blog Paper and String. She sent me (from England!) a very sweet little piece of paper art that is destined to be handed over to Nolamom the scrapbook goddess to end up in Grace's album. Thank you Paper and String! Go check out her blog, gotta love the cupcake felt goodies. She just posted her ideas for Christmas. Very cute!