Happy Valentine's Day

"Niobe is red, and Morpheous' hat is blue...

Happy Valentine's Day...

To you and you and you!"

 "Hi! I'm Katy Periwinkle... I told mom I needed some bling, so she made me flowers with sparkly beads in the center...Then, I asked for a tutu... she said, 'no.' "

"Anyone seen Gibbs? Where's my caf-pow?! Oh hi! I'm Abby. I told mom I'm not complete without Gibbs... she said I'm not the boss of her... but I saw her ordering yarn... heehee!"

Yes, there's been monster madness going on here. Wooly asked if he left on a motorcycle trip, if there would be 50 monsters when he got back. I said it would depend on how long he was gone. lol! :)

 Looks like the brothers are adjusting well at Mr K & Corey's house

When they opened them up for Christmas, they had the biggest smiles. I was so busy imprinting that moment in my brain that I forgot to take a picture. But, how could you not smile, when a monster is smiling at you?!

 Scary monster

I got the rib done for Anastasiya, and got 3 rows of the plaid done. Decided I need to catch those floats - they're too long. I'm having flashbacks to Whistler. :)

I got Lidiya done (partial view in first picture.) I love it. Will get good photos later.

I messed up my back yesterday and am in pain. I'm blaming the cold weather and stressful job. Moving slow. Hope it's better soon... like tomorrow morning... yes, I'm impatient. lol!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Go Monsters! :)

Christmas Fun

You're never too old for FUN!

Unless you're Wooly.

I wanted to do a fun card this year, but not Wooly.
So, I'm doing it my way anyways, and to hell with him.

Red Queen - Twisted Traditions -Lorraine Condotta

Jamieson's Spindrift

3.25mm needles

"Zion, hear me! I believe... huh? Modeling isn't in my contract. Who's Lidiya?"

"Morpheous thinks he's cooler than me."

"I believe he needs to go back to Zion!"

My knitting mojo has returned. I decided to knit Lidiya and use it as my swatch for Anastasiya. I need a scarf for the next time it snows. I'm knitting 27sts X 30 rows. I need 24sts X 30 rows, so the plan is to knit the medium and I'll end up with a small. I love the colors. Felted Tweed isn't as sticky as Spindrift, reminds me of Dale of Norway Heilo/Falk.

Hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Embrace your inner child... you know I am... I'm eight! lol!

Monsters & Snow

"Hey! Hey! We're the monsters!

And we're just hanging around...

Soon two of us will be leaving...

And heading across town..."

"Hi! I'm Niobe. Like my curls?!"

"Hi! I'm Morpheous. 

Yes, Mom was watching Matrix while making me 

and decided I wasn't complete without Niobe. 

She really likes her crocheted curls."

"Hi! We'll be heading to Mr K & Corey's house soon.

We hope they give us names!"

These monsters are lots of fun to make. I could have made the whole Matrix crew - lol!

You know how I am! *sigh* Sanity, it's a good thing. 

I used Lorna's Laces Green Line Worsted - Pioneer, for Morpheous. 

Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted - Icehouse & Lakeview, for the boys.

Lorna's Laces Green Line DK - Red Rover, for Niobe.

First Snow

November 22nd will be a day I never forget. It started snowing in the morning and started sticking in the afternoon. I was at work, totally distracted. I left at 4:30pm to catch the bus with Lynn. We caught the first bus heading to the Park & Ride at 4:40pm. At 5:15pm, Wooly calls me to see where I am - I'm close to Macy's. He says I should be home by 7pm. I laugh. I'll be lucky to be home then. 

Then, our regular bus pulls ahead of us and Lynn & I jump off and run after our regular bus. At 7:30pm I call Wooly and tell him we're at 8th & Olive (4 blocks from Macy's). He thinks I'm joking. He thinks I'm at the Park & Ride and want him to come get me.

At 8:05pm we finally get on I-5 and there's heavy traffic heading north, so we're plugging along. The temperature is 23*F, not counting the wind chill. It's like we're in a snow globe & very windy. Lynn says we better get across the bride before they close it. There's hardly anyone heading south.

At 8:50pm we're stuck on the bridge. I call Wooly at 9:30 to tell him we're mid span on the bridge going nowhere. The entertainment is that the guys are jumping off the bus & jumping the barrier to push the cars heading west that lost traction. Wooly freaks out and yells, "I DON'T WANT YOU OUT THERE PUSHING CARS!!!" Dude, I'm not. I'm wishing I had my camera so I could document this trip.

At 10:30pm I report to Wooly that we're still on the bridge. The bus died twice. Now we have no heat. My legs are freezing. I'm wishing I had the Sofia Wrap from Rowan 48. I've got to make that.

At 11:30pm we're still not moving! I can't believe we've been here forever! Wooly tells me that according to the news, I'm in the worst spot.

At 12:05am we're moving! Yippee! I-405 is totally clear. Everyone must be home except us.

At 12:15am we pull up to the Park & Ride and I start digging out my car - with no deicer or scrapper. The only good thing is that it's very bright, the wind died down, it's not snowing, and no one is on the roads now. I assure myself that my car is great in the snow and I will make it down & up the huge hills with no problem and get myself home.

At 12:45am I pull into our driveway! Hooray! Wooly is still awake. I'm cold, tired and beyond hungry = me at my worst. Wooly asks how I made it without peeing for 8 hours? 

I'm a camel.

I had the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving, so I just had to make it home. 

Here's Wooly and my car. He thought it would be fun to go out the next day. I stayed home. Someone stopped on the hill on the way home and he had to back down and try going up it again. I warned him of the stupid drivers that ruin your day. He was beyond pissed. It snowed again Thanksgiving day. Good thing we weren't going anywhere. I never left the house until Friday.

 Mr K and Corey had fun in the snow.

 Look out!

So, this last Saturday, Mom calls me and says, "I know we were going out to lunch, but, Mr K called and said he and Corey and Brother are coming over. Why don't you just come over too!" You can see where I rank.

Wooly dropped me off while he went to play with his friends.

Brother said he asked Mr K if he's played Wii at Grandpa's house before. He said, "Yes! Remember, Michele was there!!" Yippee! He knows me! And I was there again!

Notice Mr K's shirt. 

Corey was pointing to Mr K's shirt babbling away and Mr K says, "Yeah Corey! I'm wearing my bowling shirt! And I'm bowling!"

I say, "Yeah! Good call Corey!"

Mr K looks at me and says, "Ive got 2 pins and 1 ball."

LOL!

So, I've been in a knitting funk lately and really having a hard time getting motivated about anything. Wooly asked me what my problem was last night and I did my silent scream and he started laughing. I hope my mojo returns soon... or I'll have to make the whole Matrix crew - lol! 

Happy Knitting! :)

Pie

"I fail to see the humor. This defines exploited."

"So, what happens if we lose these mittens?... we get no pie?!"

"Shut up! We're NOT kittens! Don't give her any ideas!"

Is this what 'pooling' means?

These monsters knit up really fast. Now I've just got to stuff & sew them up.

Speaking of pie...

 Grandpa had a lemon meringue pie for his birthday. Mr K & Corey put on the candles.

 I guess Grandpa is six. Mr K helped blow them out.
Notice the San Francisco place mats, in honor of the Giant's World Series Win.

  Mr K loves pie and wasted no time eating his whole piece.

 Corey was more interested in the edaname.

Guess what Grandpa got for his birthday? Wii would like to play too, but it was all Mr K.
Poor Corey doesn't know the batteries were removed from his remote.

I asked Mr K what is favorite color is. He said, "blue, green & black."
I asked him if he knew what Corey's favorite color is. He said, "Corey hasn't told me."
I said, "Yeah, he hasn't told me either."
Brother started laughing.

We all had fun and Wooly was happy the boys got use to him (after 3 hours) and he got a high-five from both of them when we left. Yeah, Uncle Wooly is pretty intimidating - big & loud... even without his bagpipes.

Wooly has a re occurring dream that one of them asks him to mentor him in piping. Wooly gives him lessons and takes him to all the games and he ends up being really great. I keep telling him not to hold his breath. You know Brother & SIL aren't into piping. It makes me feel bad for Wooly.

 While watching the Giants win the World Series (baseball), I got a lot of knitting time and managed to get the body done for the Red Queen. Now on to the sleeves.

"Mom, you really think your fat head is going to fit through that hole?"
"Smoothie, shut up. That's why you don't get any pie."

geez.

Happy Knitting! :)
I'm looking forward to pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

Unbelievable

Oh, ribbing, how I love thee.
Life has been unbelievable. Luckily, I've got my Red Queen to keep me sane.

Here's the story.

All of a sudden I could no longer visit Jimmy Bean's Wool. Not that I order a lot from them, I just enjoy looking at all the yarn, watching their videos, reading reviews and clicking on Wool Watcher to see what the special is. The sight still worked at my job, so I thought it was strange that I couldn't access it from home.

I mentioned it to Wooly. He said it's because our internet provider left Washington state, so those 'other people' took over.

I called 'op' and was on the phone for an hour. I ended up talking to the Supervisor, who said, "We've exhausted all of our resources on this end. (translated: Woman, get off my phone!)" I asked if they could bring up the sight on their end. He said they don't have access to the internet. (what?!) It's got to be Jimmy having a problem with their sight." I told them it's not Jimmy that has a problem.

He said, "Do you have a smart phone?"

I said, "No, I've got a stupid phone. And a stupid computer. I guess I'm just going to find something else to do besides knitting, since I can't order yarn from Jimmy because there's no server!"

He said, "No, you can't give up knitting! My mom knits and nothing can get those needles out of her hands!"

I felt better. I guess he kinda understood why I was so exasperated.

I emailed Jimmy, to see if they've been having problem. No problems.

The next day, Wooly called our IT guy and spent 1/2 hour with them. It's not your computer. It's your internet provider (op). Wooly called op and spent an hour with them. They finally said they can sign us up for 'super duper internet help' for $15 per month for a minimum of 1 year and no guarantee that they could fix the problem. Wooly told them where they could stick it.

Meanwhile, we got another email from Jimmy saying that they talked to their host & there are 5 people who have reported the same problem... and gave us a link that explained how to switch servers. We thanked them, and explained our fear of changing anything because we're old & our whole computer might blow up.

Then it happened.

Wooly found a bagpipe sight he couldn't access. Now, THIS is a MAJOR SERIOUS PROBLEM!
Now, he knows how I feel!

"UNBELIEVABLE! LOOK! IZ DID IT!

Just call me Wooly, Computer Genious! Wooly, I.T. conqueror of ALL!"

Yay Wooly! He followed the instructions on the link & it worked! Yippee Yahoo!

We emailed Jimmy and let them know it worked for us and thanked them profusely - they gave us real customer service.

I know what you're thinking. Michele, what did you order?!

 I know! Unbelievable! Why? 

Cute monsters for my cute monkey monster nephews! Can you believe this is Corey?! I asked Brother what their favorite colors are. He said, "blue & blue," he doesn't know, I found it very funny...

 Everyone has their favorite! Kamati likes Pioneer. Turtle likes Icehouse. Smoothie likes Lakeview.

Yep, Christmas presents.

Op called us the other day saying that they heard we wanted to sign up for 'super duper internet help.' Wooly told them where they could stick it (again) and that we didn't need their help, so don't call us.

Unbelievable.

 I love my Red Queen. The only sane thing in this unbelievably insane life... and I haven't even told you about my job! Don't worry. I won't dump that on you guys. That's what Wooly is for. :)

Happy Knitting!
Go Monsters! :)

Lotus Rising

I finished my Challenge sweater! Decided to call it Lotus Rising. See the golden lotus fully enlightened, representing what we're all striving for... to be better people.

I also considered call it Coming Out of the Dance, which is a martial arts term that means you're on automatic and spontaneous, breaking free from the kata, doing your own thing. Like no longer following a pattern, but making your own...

Here's the Barbara Bixby lotus pendant this sweater was inspired by. You can see the beads in the background, rising.

 Lotus Rising

Kauni EZ & Evilla natural

size 8 s/l gold AB beads

3mm + 3.5mm needles 

And yes, it was quite an enlightenment. Yes, I like it, but think I can do better. I need to take a pattern making class before I design anything else. Seriously.

On to better things. I casted on for the Red Queen. Isn't that Zodiac a pretty purple?!

And, my cute nephews always make me laugh...

How to wear a bowl... or getting ready for their bowl hair cuts! lol!

I love Corey's shirt - My Auntie is #1! Glad he thinks so. We'll ask him again in 10 years! lol!

Happy Knitting!
I know I'm happy, now that I get to follow a pattern again! Yippee! :)

Two In One

I did a simple neckline for my Challenge sweater. You can see the beads in the background.

I'm doing both sleeves together in the round. Two in one. I like symmetry, and knew doing them separately was too much of a challenge for me. It would drive me crazy...

"Hey! Who are you?! And why do you get sweaters?!"

"She said something about a 'bear burrito' and shoved us in here."

"I thought she said this was two sleeves."

"Hurry and get us outta here!"

"It really does look like two sweaters..."

"Yeah, except that one is two sleeves... or so she says..."

"Heeheehee... I'm the Queen! Take my picture!"

"Poser! Stupid crown! Shut up already!"

Meanwhile, in my real world...

We went to Cameron's house for dinner. It turned out to be Myra's birthday (his wife) and Dave (Wooly's housemate, back in the day) was in town too. So we were killing 3 birds with one stone.

When we got there, Euna (daughter) said, "When Wooly first starting coming over... I was 10!" I gasped and asked how old Wooly was... he was 19! I gasped again. I was born, but not in school. Talk about 'robbing the cradle!' We screamed with laughter. Then Cameron said, "I'm not telling you how old I am!"

Wooly was driving his dark green GTO back then... I would have had a crush on his GTO! :)

I know all the guys because they come over and I see them at The Games, so it was nice to finally meet The Wives. They were all really nice and possessed the 'gift of the gab' so they were easy to be around.

Turns out they really like our photo Christmas cards and keep them. So now the pressure is on for this year's card. Gawd.

Then Neil showed up in his full uniform (kilt), he just got done playing at an event. He's tall, blond & handsome...and my age... let the lusting begin. ;) He's the first of Wooly's piping friends I met. He came to the house and Wooly went downstairs to do something and Neil and I hit it off royal. What a nice guy. We were both young back then. I told Wooly he should be happy I met him first, because, you know, Neil is such a nice guy...

Towards the end, Deb says, "These guys are worst than women... when it comes to bagpipes...can you believe they can go on and on and on about bagpiping?!" It's so true. They're immersed in it. Their whole world is bagpipes. It's all they think about. Vacations are planned around it. It's who they are. Gawd. They're so lucky we put up with it!

Then the pipes came out and Wooly said, "Well, guess we had better stoke these up, eh?!"
Myra, in her perfect Irish accent said, "OH NO YE WON'T!" They all backed down fast. I started giggling because she's this tiny lady. Who knew she could get her hackles up that fast?! So, instead, they did show and tell with their pipes.

We had fun.

Oh, and I was cleaning out my drawers and look what I found! I didn't iron it. It's just a little quilt top I made long ago. I think it's interesting that I still like the colors... deep, dark & mysterious with a splash of orange. I actually thought of making my Challenge sweater in those colors, so it was fun to find this quilt top.

Now I'm really feeling the pressure for our Christmas card. Got to be clever. Got to be a keeper.
Got to get going on my Red Queen...!

But first I've got to get my Challenge sweater done.

Hope to have the armholes & front stitched & cut for next time - so scary!

Happy Knitting! :)
Sure feels like Fall!