I rarely ask anything of my readers......

ht tp://bibliofreak blog.com/great-kindle-giveaway?ref=b1b2ce7642

She is giving away a Kindle II. Please go visit her and sign up. Or at least go tell her you saw it here. I'd love to win one for Mark.

Is there such a thing as knitting furniture?

I think there is. Behold, the new double swift made by my wonderful husband. I re-skein yarn for a friend who is an indy dyer known as Big Bad VooDoo Mama - http://www.etsy.com/shop/bigbadvoodoomama - this involves winding from one skein to another to make a finished product.

That is not my house in the background. Not at all. My house is never such a mess. (It is the Jedi Mind Trick - tell me it worked)

We went to Florida last Saturday and came back on Wednesday. Had two days of hell getting caught up at work. Mark was off the whole week so he caught up on 7 loads of laundry yesterday. Fun and stuff.

On Saturday we landed, got the car, ate lunch, hung out, and then went to dinner at Bonefish Grill. It was good, but life is hard for the girl with the late life shellfish allergy in Florida. I love crab and shrimp and now I can't have it so it just makes me mad.

Sunday was my knitting class. I got to meet Wendy Johnson of Wendy Knits (wendyknits.net) and thoroughly enjoyed my class. I had my "aha" moment with socks and now think I can move into doing bigger and better things with them. We came back to Grandmas and then went to eat at TJ's Italian Cafe. To top off the lovely day, we crossed the street and stood on the beach looking at the gulf, listening to the tide and watching the lightening. I recharged my batteries then.

Monday we went to the Reddington Long Pier to fish. I rented equipment and bought a bucket of live shrimp. I baited my own hook (except the once where Mark showed me how with a live shrimp) and I removed my own fish (except twice, once to watch it done and once when a particularly spiny bugger arrived and I couldn't get a grip). In 2 hours out there I caught about 10 fish - mostly Jacks (with a yellow tail) and a pinfish and a small ladyfish. Great fun. But my sunlight limit is 2 hours. That afternoon we went book shopping and also stopped at a bird store where I held 4 month old baby blue front amazons. It made me feel better as I have been missing my boy (he comes home tonight). We had leftover pizza from the night before with grandma and then played Park and Shop and cards.

Tuesday we went to the beach, took a nice walk and visited the wild bird sanctuary. Then we played in the water some and went home, where I took a swim in the pool. We stayed at the house for a while and puttered around and then we took off back out for a round of Adventure Golf. I was not going to be near the water, so I took a camera.

Mark holding his ball:



Me sunning myself


After golfing we went home for a shower, then had dinner at Olive Garden. Went home and played more cards with grandma. Because we are exciting people you know.

Wednesday we got up, got packed, and kind of hung out until time to go for the plane. Mark wanted to detour to ANOTHER bookstore on the way. Easy flight home, and we were back. Yaay.





One thing we took photos of.... lizards. Tiny wee lizards everywhere. We were the paparazzi.





And when we went to play Adventure Golf - they had bigger lizards. They called them Baby Alligators. See if you can find the ex-baby-alligator-chew-toy in the photos.





All in all great trip, total blast, give it a 10.

More knitting

These are some socks in progress for my friend Aimee. She dyed the yarn - it is Big Bad VooDoo Mama Lindy (BFL Superwash Sock) in Canyonland colorway.


These are for my boss, Richard, for Christmas. They are Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids in Tangerine. These are to be "hunter orange" socks ;)

Both of the above are using the basic short row heel pattern from Socks from the Toe Up.

And this is Ulmus. I started it last night. The yarn is Wollmeise in Honigtopfchen (that's the gold) and I'll do the lace edge in the Ebenholz (brown) left from the shawl I finished yesterday.

Yes, we have knitting

It has been a wild and crazy summer. Ok, maybe not so much. Nothing to report at least. We've been working on the house some, but nothing exciting just painting doors. Well, there is a new back door that I should post about sometime, but I was waiting until we had a matched set.

There has, however, been a bit of knitting.

Ishbel Shawl (small size) - yarn is Wollmeise Ebenholz.

Sorry, it's been a while

Not much has been going on. Well, a lot has been going on, but not much has been blog-worthy.

However, I have a few things for an update now. Let's start with knitting:

Slip Up Socks - Cherry Tree Hill Sock Yarn
And the March Sock Club Kit from The Loopy Ewe - Under the Sea with limited edition Casbah yarn. The first picture is without flash and shows what it looks like in the normal light of a room. The second is what the yarn looks like in bright light and shows off the beauty of the colors.



OK, now for the update on me. I went to D.A.R. State Conference this weekend. Here is my picture from Friday night at Opening Ceremony. I paged again for Ms. Patricia Rhoton and had a BLAST. If you ever wondered what the Daughters of the American Revolution is all about, or if you are interested in becoming a member or doing further research on your ancestry, please feel free to contact me about it!!

And now for the final pictures - both cats and the bird. I know you've all been waiting to see the bird again!



Bogart says "bye bye bird"

Been doing stuff

My lack of posting is no reflection on my readers, if there are any left.

I finished the Colts socks for my father-in-law. Please note the self-striping yarn self made an I and a C on the bottom of one foot.




I started new socks with Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn - these are called "slip up socks":
And my darling project of the moment, the Clapotis, aka the Clap. This piece is so beautiful. The yarn just glows. It sings. It was spun by unicorns and dyed by elves. Or something. It is both expensive and hard to get. VERY hard to get. This was a trade for something I had that was hard to get. I feel very lucky. (For any yarnies, it is Wollmeise, Wild Thing Suzanne 80/20 Twin)
Now, the fun in this is that you drop stitches. On purpose. And pray a lot that the whole thing doesn't fall apart when you do. If you did it right, then you are ok. I have done it right, so far.
And because he cannot be left out of an photo shoot, I give you the bird.