It's been a busy weekend. Today we are having our preview inaugural cookout. What the hell is that you may ask? Well we were planning our first BBQ for next week when Ingileif, Linda and the baby arrive but it occurred to us that it never hurts to try something out first. Since Memorial Day cookouts are traditional we decided today would be a good day. We're just having a couple of close friends over so it's not really a big deal and if anything goes wrong these are the type of friends who could care less. Of course Rinaldo and I are already exhausted from getting the yard and house ready for company.

I also took the boys to the zoo yesterday to keep them out of the yard while Rinaldo was working on it. Man it was packed and it was so damn hot. We waited over an hour to get on the Bengali Express and after that Ian was pretty much done. It was still fun though. He got a real kick out of the zebras which oddly we hadn't run into on our previous visits (the Bronx Zoo it quite large). The tigers are still his favorites however.

Remember my contest is going on until Thursday, so there's still time to enter. My cousin has picked up the yarn. Isn't it pretty:


Happy Memorial Day!

I am feeling a bit guilty about the quickie post Tuesday. You all deserve much better. I've decided in honor of A) the Memorial Day weekend, B) my cousin's visit next week and C) the beginning of my favorite month (yes my birthday is in June) it's time I had a contest. The prize will involve yarn of course. I have to work on the details. The contest involves those fun quizzes that have been going around. Go take my quiz and you will be entered in the contest. You don't have to have the highest score. I will pick a random name from all the people who try it. The contest will run for one week. Next Thursday night I will have one of the kids pull a name out of a hat. Then I will announce the winner on Friday.

Added later: You can take the quiz even if you're not interested in the contest. Just leave a comment and say you took it just for fun!

Added even later: My dear cousin Ingileif has agreed to pick up 3 skeins Alafoss Lopi for me to give away. I will also include the book Knit One Felt Too to give you some ideas for your Lopi.

I also realized that Odessa really deserved a better picture:

or two:


It still doesn't quite capture the color changes but it's a far better representation. The beads also show up much better in person. It's still lovely isn't it?

Ann you'll like this
I decided a skimmer might miss this and I know Ann loves embarrassing stories...

Since humiliation is always good entertaiment I will share a small incident that happened to me the other day. I got out early on Tuesday from Jury Duty so I came home around 4. The kids were home with their grandmother and I had a raging headache so I decided to take a shower. Now I like a hot shower, really hot like so hot no one else can stand it. Normally this is not an issue. I finished up, came out and went to my room. A few minutes later the smoke detector goes off. It's the one that's attached to the home security system so I run downstairs and put in my code and turn it off. A minute or so later ADT calls and I tell them it was just the steam that set it off for some odd reason. I go about my business relaxing in my room still in my robe and a towel on my head. When Avery comes running upstairs to tell me the fire department just pulled up outside. I go running downstairs where I have to explain to a whole engine full of firemen that it was just because I took a hot shower there was no fire...in my robe...nice.

My dear husband told me later that if I want to ogle some firemen that badly I should just go to the firehouse...

...at least it's almost Friday...

Miss Me? I'm Back

Yeah, I know I didn't really go anywhere. I just seem to have forgotten to blog. The end of last week was a bit crazy at work since I was trying to finish a ton of stuff before I went on Jury Duty. I also finished those booties:


Kinda cute right? Yes, we are back to camera photos at the moment, lazy, lazy me. There was much familial drama on Saturday that I won't share and Sunday I was out of the house all day. I did manage to start Odessa however:

This picture really sucks, sorry. The color changes on the alpaca look great on the hat. I've been taking it to the courthouse with me, no problems getting the metal needles in at all. It's a really fun project to knit and the beads are a breeze. I'm happy I started it. I'm not feeling the Dublin Bay pattern in STR. The socks are a little big and you can't see the lace panel at all. A trip to the frog pond is in it's future.

Back to work for me tomorrow, whoo freakin' whoo ...

Hey, it's Wednesday, you know what that means? I got nothin'! Ok a couple of booties almost done but otherwise zip, zilch nada...

I saw this a few weeks back at Carla's and I saved it for just such an occasion. A selection of my favorite albums:

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

Steps to Having the Perfect Mother's Day

• Sleep late.


• Have your husband make you corn muffins and tea.


• Rake in the gifts.


• Jewelry, 60 GIG Ipod Video, Gift Certificate to your favorite clothing store, the best gift – a beautiful card made by your youngest son.


• Go to the movies ALONE, to see a pure popcorn movie.


• Go spend your gift certificate on clothes 2 SIZES SMALLER than you bought 5 months ago.


• Get picked up by the husband, go get fed at his grandmother’s.


• Come home and load your new Ipod with the absolute coolest of stuff.


• Finish a baby bolero that looked pretty bad in progress but looks adorable after finishing:



• Call for your jury duty instructions for Monday only to be told it’s been postponed for a week.


• Collapse into bed.

I hope everyone’s Mother’s Day rocked as much as mine!

Requiem

My poor Ipod is a goner. It had a bit of a fall back in August and immediately after it wouldn't play. It also made a lovely clicking sound as it tried to find the music that it was supposed to be playing. That clicking is known as the death rattle of a hard drive. But my little Ipod, named The Edge since it was a U2 Ipod, was made of stronger stuff. I finally got it to reset and it came back to life. I hadn't had a problem in months, then a couple of weeks ago the clicking was back. Sometimes it would play, sometimes not. Sometimes it would stop in the middle of a song and skip on to a song much later in the album. Then the day before yesterday I reset it and when it came back on it simply showed me the address for Apple Support. It's gone, sniffle, sniffle...

Now it has been remarked upon as to how convenient it was that it died just before Mother's Day, but honestly I resent that remark. It's not my fault my husband works for a Computer Store, or that we get an educational discount so an Ipod isn't quite as expensive as it is elsewhere. Should I tell him not to buy me, say a new 60 gig Video Ipod just because it looks bad? I think not.

Now on to the knitting. I haven't finished the bolero but as the mom it is being made for was having contractions when I left work yesterday I aim to finish it today. I was nearly finished on Thursday night. I had one sleeve completely sewn in and the other almost completely done when I noticed that the sleeve I was working on was on the wrong side. Damn. So I ripped it out and put it away that night. I am not overly thrilled with the way it is coming along, particularly the way the first sleeve looks where it is attached. I toyed with just starting again but when I looked at it today it's not as bad as I thought:

Once the edging is done I think it will be fine. I want to try to do some booties to go with it. They should be quick enough to get done by next week.

I have jury duty on Monday, in Federal Court, which is a bit of a bitch. I have to go all the way to lower Manhattan to serve. Normally I serve in the County Court here in the Bronx, which is only about 20 minutes away by bus, 10 by Subway, so it's nice and easy. Hopefully I won't be there too long. I cast on the Dublin Bay sock in STR for my civic duty:


I can't lie I thought I loved the other two skeins of STR that I have knit up but that was mere infatuation. Ruby Slippers you are my one true love...

Have a great weekend everyone!

I am nearly completely over my crankiness. My cousin e-mailed me earlier this week and told me that she, Linda and the baby are coming for a visit in a few weeks, whoo hoo. Yes, it was a bit spur of the moment but who the hell cares. They're coming that's all that matters.

I have also had some productive moments as well. I am making the baby bolero for one of the guys at work. It's coming along:

I am going to attach the sleeves and seam them up tonight. Then work on the edging tomorrow.

Look what I have waiting in the wings:
Clockwise from the top we have the Dublin Bay sock pattern in a pouch with my Socks that Rock. Then the Elsebeth Lavold book with Gyrid that I got from Bron and a ball of Silky Wool being swatched. Finally on the left is dear Charlotte's Web. Plenty on my plate right?

But of course one can never have enough yarn, right? Maribel tipped me off to the fact the yarn shop The Lion and Lamb was closing. I've never gone there. I know it was very pricey and from what I've heard they can have a fairly nasty attitude. This is never a reason to pass up a 50% sale however. Thankfully I was broke so I didn't go crazy.

How many of you could have passed up Kidsilk Haze at half off? Huh? Huh? Yup, that's what I thought. I also picked up some bamboo double points to take to jury duty next with with my Dublin Bay socks.

Ooh ooh ooh, what should I make?

Added later - Me and American Idol are over. Seriously how the hell did Chris get kicked off? I am beyond furious.

A F*****g Felting Fiasco

I've felted a few bags in my time. It has always been fun. The mystery and magic of felting is one of my favorite things about knitting. You do have some idea of what it will look like once it's gone through the washer. Yet it's always a surprise.

This time it was not a good surprise:



Seriously people WTF!?! My good lopi! I nearly flipped out when I pulled it out of the machine. I normally throw in an old water shoe of Avery's when I am felting something. The pair I use seems to have disappeared at some point so I tossed in a sneaker. Yeah big mistake. It tangled itself up in the bag which caused it to felt unevenly in the first go round. I got rid of the sneaker for the next run. It did even out a bit but the bag ended up longer than the flap and the flap had an odd asymetrical tilt to it that sure as hell wasn't there when I was knitting it. I was felting it on Saturday night just before we were expecting people over for a poker game. I gave up on it at that point.

I revisited it on Sunday when I was less frantic and I did some repair work. I sliced out a chunk of the side and sewed it back up. Then I put it through again. Once it was done I trimmed the flap a bit and voila:


There that's the bag I was looking for. A little more work than I'm used to but the finished product is pretty damn good:


So now Nancy is just a little less cranky...

Nancy is a Cranky Girl

Yes, I am cranky today. There really isn't a good reason for it. I mean I got on the scale this morning and I had lost some more weight which brings me up to 41 lbs lost. That's a lot of weight gone and it means that I am only 9 lbs away from my new tattoo. Some of you may remember that I had set a goal of 50 lbs lost by the end of last year. That didn't quite work out. In the end I lost about 15 by December 31st but any loss is a good loss right? I decided that I needed to get serious. I set a more realistic goal of 100 lbs by my 40th birthday (about 3 years away now). I also decided that I needed to suck it up and join Weight Watchers. I've avoided it for years. My mother had hated it and the support group idea is so not my scene, but it ain't bad. The Points Program works really well for me. If I desperately need some chocolate I can have it as long as it's small and I count it in my points. I like that freedom. Portion control has always been an issue for me and this has helped train me to control my portions far better. I've lost 26 lbs since January.

Yet still with the crankiness. I was absolutely furious that basketball pre-empted Veronica Mars last night. It was the penultimate episode and I was greatly looking forward to it but I don't think it has that great an effect on my life. Of course many of my friends would say differently.

I'm still dealing with the Rangers being swept in the playoffs by the Devils. Not completely unexpected I admit but painful just the same. Especially after such an exciting and fun season.

I tried to start a new project last night while catching up with some Alias episodes on Tivo (trying to fill the Veronica void). I want to make the Baby Bolero in One Skein for a guy here at work who is expecting a baby boy at the end of the month but I couldn't get my gauge right. That ticked me off. I was going to grab my Socks that Rock this morning. I've decided to do the Dublin Bay Socks with it but this morning I just wasn't in the mood.

I sure as hell am not in the mood to do any work. I mean really the idea, hmf;)

I guess I have a bad case of the blahs. Nothing exciting going on, everything just sort of stagnant. Certainly nothing horrible going on either. Maybe it's just a vacation hang over. Who knows.

Hopefully I'll have something more upbeat to say on Friday, hell maybe I'll finally have felted the damn bag.

Happy Wednesday all...

Happy May Day/Day Without Immigrants

Back to boring old regular posts. I'm supposed to be at work but instead I am sitting on the couch watching TV with Ian. I was on my way out the door when Ian's school called. His eye was red and swollen and they needed me to pick him up and take him to the doctor before it spread to other kids. Here's the problem, it's not pink eye. I told the nurse that sometimes that happens when Ian's allergies flare up but she would not listen. So I took a sick day and went to get him. Now Ian's school is a good distance away so it took awhile for me to get there. Of course once I got there his eye was completely clear. Oh well that's the way it goes. There was no getting out of there once he saw me so here we are. The nurse also mentioned that she noticed when she was looking at his eye it turned in. Now I have seen that happen on occasion but I never thought much of it. They want him to go see a pediatric opthamologist. I figure I'll mention it to his doctor next time we're there to see if he feels we need a refereral (gotta love HMOs). Anybody have experience with this? Should I add it to my list of worries or is it not a huge deal?

Guess what I have some FOs! Well one anyway, the other still has a bit of finishing to go. First up my new bag that I made with that gorgeous brown varigated lopi. It's just waiting to be felted:


Here's a close-up of the colors:
I really love it. I'm hoping to felt it later today.

My truly finished object is Ian's Red Hot Socks:


Cute right? I was not that successful with the short row heels. I had to sew them up a bit to get rid of the holes, but the second was better than the first so I'm sure it will improve. I still prefer a heel flap but it's nice to have a different option and I much prefer it if I'm doing a contrasting heel.

I think I'll try to get more laundry done since I'm home anyway...ooh exciting.

Have a good Monday...