done, done done done

DONE!!!! I know, it took FOREVER, but rams and yowes is finally done. here it is baking out on the top of the hot tub yesterday. Blocked and dried all in one day. Good thing, it's raining now.

Now I'm working on getting caught up with the little prince KAL, and, of course, house stuff. Should have a foundation by the end of the week!

happy easter

Cinnamon brown is very excited about easter, as you can see. Yogi wouldn't sit still long enough for the ears, and just wanted to tease the cat and have breakfast. You'll have to know that he's excited too. So, this week, I got the rest of the UK yarn to finish rams and yowes. I'm SO close. Right now, I'm securing the border. It's quite a wrestling match and too scrunched up to take a pic. I'm also working on clue 4 in the petite prince KAL, and the bugga sweater is growing nicely. Our week end has been consumed by big boy toys and a bit of stress as they clear the property for the house. It totally looks like a bomb site back there, and it's been kind of stressful hoping they won't run over the water lines, or cross onto the neighbor's property. (think they'll miss that holly tree that disappeared? probably not), and a bit of worry about how much this is all costing (we DO have a budget for it) It wouldn't be so bad if we weren't one of the previously mentioned neighbors. Up until this point, it was all fun on paper. Now it's real, big, and noisy. I know it'll be super cool when it's done, and it should be better by the end of this week.

Ready to move ON!

The rams and yowes yarn is still in possession of the postal service, so I took the opportunity this week to weave in all the ends and generally finish up where I was so far. Hopefully it'll be here soon and I can wrap that one up. I'm also still working on clue 3 of the little prince KAL. It's really turning out nicely, but too mashed up to take a pic. The bugga sweater saw some action this week too. I'm up to the armpits on the back. I'm getting the urge to cast on something new. Don't know what, thinking socks maybe. It'll have to be stash, though, since I'm trying to whittle that down and not spend too much on yarn. In house news, the permits are bought, the bulldozer will be here on tuesday! See that kind of leaning over tree to the left in the pic here? That's just about where our garage will be.

in a holding pattern

It seems like everything here is in a holding pattern......
the house is in city hall hell, the rams and yowes is down for the count waiting for more yarn, and, even though tuesday was the first day of spring, that's waiting for some better weather too.

The moral of the story is, not much progress on anything this week. I'm waiting for more yarn to come from the UK to finish rams and yowes, and I didn't have time to work on any of my KAL's because we decided to take advantage of the non-raining or snowing weather and do a yard sale. TONS of work, but we did make some good room, and get rid of some stuff that would just not have a place in the new house.


This week.....it's all going to break loose. I can feel it in my bones.

slogging along

well, the rams and yowes part of the blankie is finished and I'm slowly slogging along on the border. I'm sad to say that I'm going to run out of yarn, and will have to order more to finish. I had to use a slightly larger needle, and it made just enough of a difference to matter. That's OK, though, because I'll add some extra for another project and probably make a rams and yowes pillow as well. I'll have to take a break, though, while the yarn comes from the UK.










The little prince KAL started this week....
I love this color, it just looks SO happy!













I also got my yarn to continue with the flight path KAL, and finished the second clue. It's starting up again tomorrow, but the clues are small and easily done.

In house news......well, there is no REAL news. Still waiting for the city to finish up. Hopefully this week things will cut loose. (and it won't snow)

spring is sprung

for one day, at least.....
Last thursday it was 65degrees and sunny here. The crocus decided to make an appearance and it was wonderful.

Now it's 40 degrees and raining. Welcome to spring in the pacific NW. It'll be back, I'm sure.
By the way, have I ever said how much I HATE spring ahead? When you have to get up at 4am, it just hurts.

Not much progress to report on rams and yowes, I'm afraid. My time was sucked dry by house stuff this week and shopping for it. I bought a faucet for the laundry room, and all of the towel bars, as well as shopped for lighting, plumbing and house numbers. The good news is, the permits are only waiting for one more thing. We expect them to pick them up this week and get digging probably next week. Check out my rant over on squiggi builds a house if you dare.......

I do have to share this awesome fountain. This is just the bottom piece of it, which is about 5' across and weighs about 1000lbs. (seriously, we had to get it out of the truck). It has 3 more large stacking pieces and 2 matching benches. It'll be amazing in the new landscaping and I'll guarantee I'll be the only kid on the block with one of these!











Today I finally got the rest of the yarn to keep working on the flight path KAL, and on friday, the little prince will start. Busy, busy.......

yowes and rams and a few more yowes

this week, most of my knitting efforts were focused on rams and yowes. I'm obsessed and loving this little blankie. I'd LOVE to make a bigger one, and maybe make one for my sister for christmas. It's just SO MUCH fun!

The flight path KAL is still on hold, waiting for more yarn, and the Little prince KAL doesn't start until the 15th, so, I'll just have to knit sheep!

Kind of a holding pattern week........

I DO have to share this, though....
Ozzie Ozzborne on a rock. My incredibly talented sister made this from a picture of him. I'm so glad to see her wanting to do some stuff and get back into it after her terrible injury. I think she's on the mend. (and, I'm not sure, but for the right amount of $, she might just be inspired to take orders, ya never know.....It's hard to find good smooth rocks, though.)










I think THIS Ozzie is much better behaved!

rams and yowes

If you think you love this blankie, KNIT IT NOW!!!
It's a really, really fun knit and the yarn is amazing.
As you can see, I now have a few rams joining my yowes and I'm about 1/2 way there.....
Love it!











This week, we should be getting the rest of the yarn to finish the mary scott huff KAL, the little price KAL starts on march 1st, more rams and yowes, and possible some progress on the bugga sweater.
All in my spare time when I'm not shopping for the new house and getting a new crown.
(funny how that works out, huh, although I'm not laughing!)

well. I couldn't just come home empty handed now!

I've had the pleasure of spending the last 2 days knitting at Madrona. Our local knitting retreat that actually draws folks from all around the world and the country.
It never ceases to amaze me when I hang out with knitters. The sweaters! The options!
The talent!

On friday, I took a wonderful class from Gail Roehm on reading japanese patterns. I've been intrigued by this since I saw it at the first sock summit, but not able to get in. This time I was lucky. Very lucky. It was a day FULL of information, great handouts, knitting and learning. I highly recommend this to anyone who's interested. It also makes me feel pretty good to sit in a class that was probably half knitting designers (they take classes too, you know), and keep up. I did have to buy a stitch pattern book, and I'll keep my eyes peeled now for other books as well. (they're really expensive - shipping and all) It just opens a whole new world of knitting, and the japanese designers have some pretty amazing ideas. Oh, and on saturday, I learned intarsia. I'm feeling like I can tackle anything now!











The rest of that was my impulse buy.(like I NEED more yarn) Some nice abstract fiber. (It was in the clearance bin, OK?) and the grey is for some man-socks. This time I'll try to keep it away from the thieving devil cat.

Next up, some rams and yowes (I have the rest of the yarn now), working through the principles of knitting - THAT was waiting on my doorstep friday when I got home, the bugga sweater, and whatever catches my eye.

this was the week to finish

This week I decided that I needed to finish a few things before starting anything else. I finally got the yarn I needed to finish the violets, and I was waiting for that to be done to steek both the violets and the sweater.
I can happily say that the violets are steeked and done.........












and the sweater only needs a bit of the button band and some blocking.











I'll probably finish the button band today, but wait until the end of the week to block. It's going to smell like a wet sheep for quite a while. It's REALLY thick and heavy.

This week.......MADRONA. I'm taking 2 classes, japanese stitches and intarsia. I've wanted to learn both of these techniques for quite a while, so I was lucky to get in.
I'll need to spend some time getting my supplies ready.

I'd also like to start rams and yowes, and continue on the box jellyfish bugga sweater. We'll see how THAT goes.
Stay tuned next week for the madrona haul.

working on it

someone commented this week that there haven't been too many knitting pics on here lately. Well, I'm WORKING on it! Between the snow and no power, I lost about 2 weeks into the twilight zone, and I'm finally getting caught up. Now it's 60 degrees and sunny here. Who'd have thought just 2 weeks ago we were literally buried up to our butts in snow!

I started a sweater.....this is leaving by anne hanson in some beautiful bugga box jellyfish. The original plan didn't work, I think this one will. The pictures just can't do the color justice.














I'm finally finishing the violets scarf. Thanks to Mary Scott Huff, rockstar knitting designer and awesome person, I scored the yarn I needed to finish. It's almost ready to be steeked. I'll do the sweater at the same time. It's a lot of work to dig out the sewing machine.













I also started this fun little KAL, again thanks to Mary Scott Huff. Isn't it cute?











This week, squiggi goes to the flower show. (my other obsession - gardening) I always come home with the WORST case of spring fever and then it snows. ARGH! Last year, I didn't get to go because of the white stuff. We've had enough already, so keep your fingers crossed we're done.

In house news, the financing came through this week and we'll be closing in the next week. Let the games begin!!!!!!!

Over on squiggi builds a house - designing woman.......

Getting it all back together

After the power came on, late monday night, after 5 LONG days, I had to spend a couple of days last week getting it all together again. Tuesday was spent cleaning, shopping, and just basically getting my stuff together. There was a brief moment of panic tuesday night when the lights went out again durning a big windstorm. All I could think about was the $200 in groceries I'd just bought. Luckily, they came back on about 2 am and the groceries were fine.

I did do a bit of knitting before it all went to hell.....
this is sothia, with some gorgeous alpaca/silk from a little farm in oregon, zz alpacas. I could even tell you exactly which alpaca this came from and pretty much their whole life history. They're pretty cool critters.














I really, really, wanted to make water and stone for my next project with my box jellyfish skinny bugga, but, there seems to be some issues with the pattern. I don't know if it's just me, or the fact that it's european and loses something in the translation, but it just wasn't working out. The yarn was beautiful and had gorgeous stitch definition, but the instructions were weak. I'll have to find something else to do with the bugga. I'm thinking a vitamin D.

Next week, the mary scott huff colorwork KAL starts, and I'll hopefully get the rest of the yarn needed to finish the violets scarf. I've been holding off steeking the sweater because I want to do that and the violets at the same time. (gotta dig out the sewing machine). Maybe by the end of the week.

In house news, STILL waiting on the financing. They'll be a post about it over on squiggi builds a house.
Doggies are very happy to be warm and dry with no snow!

radio silence

also known as buried up to my butt in snow and no power for 5 days!
Along about martin luther king day, (was that only a week ago?) it started to snow.
Now, keep in mind, if we get about 1/2 inch here, the schools close and everyone hunkers down with soup for the long haul. This is what it looked like on monday.













On wed. It REALLY started to snow, like, blizzard whiteout kind of snow. We got nearly 21 inches in ONE DAY! This is what it looked like wed am.













Then, just to make things fun, we had an ice storm, the first one in 20 years, that deposited about 1/2 inch of pure ice on top of 2 feet of snow. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, or, in our case the power grid. I got to spend the next 5 days with no power huddled with 2 boxers (they ain't got no hair ya know) and trying to keep some semblance of warm. I'd like to tell you that I knit 4 sweaters or something like that, but, really, it was too dark and too cold to do anything.
FINALLY, yesterday, my bestest friend brad pitt turned the power back on.
(I say that because, after 5 days, ANYONE who can turn your power back on looks EXACTLY like brad pitt. I don't care if he has a belly, plumbers crack or 3 heads)

Today, I'll spend the day cleaning (looks like a bomb went off in here), refilling the fridge - had to throw EVERYTHING away, and basically getting back to business.
A hot shower never felt so good!

snow makes us psychodoggie

and pretty much shuts down the entire world here.
We woke up this morning to about an inch of snow, with more to come. I'm mentally watching my whole week go down like a house of cards. Pilates clients will cancel, especially the ones that come from a ways away, weight watchers meetings will close. (although I'm going to tough it out and go this morning), and, basically, the world here will shut down.

The doggies have a love/hate relationship with the snow. It makes them psychodoggie, but it's COLD, and we don't DO cold too well. (ain't got no hair, ya know)

The only good news is, more knitting time. I finished the sweater, except for the blocking, steeking, and button band. I'm going to wait until I can finish the violets scarf and steek both at the same time. (it's not so much the steeking as it is the getting out of the machine and sewing)
















I've set my sights on the next project. A lovely Sothia shawl with the 2 colors of alpaca. It really DOES knit like butter!












This week, I fell in love with the rams and yowes blankie. So much so, that I priced out the yarn. It'll cost about $130 for the whole thing. I'm SO trying to be on a yarn diet, but a girl needs a treat once in a while, right? I'm considering putting up a destash on ravelry for some of the yarns I'll probably not use too soon, and maybe some mags and straight needles too, trying to declutter a bit before the move. That would justify the blankie, which, would look awesome in the new house.
Maybe that would be a good snow day afternoon activity. This IS the year of the purge, after all.

In house news, we're in a holding pattern, waiting for word from the bank. The appraisal was due on friday (I hope that it was friday the 13th isn't some kind of sign), and now tomorrow is ANOTHER stinkin' holiday. Hopefully something will shake loose by the middle of the week, if the snow doesn't shut everything down!

Later, on squiggi builds a house, "the evolution of a plan".

some new year's progress

This week, knitting-wise, I worked on my sweater. Thanks to a completely boring 2.5 hours at work on new year's day (no, folks didn't come running to weight watchers on new year's day - go figure) I got quite a bit done on my sweater. Don't tell my weight watchers boss, we're not supposed to be doing "personal" stuff while we're working. I've now knit and attached both sleeves and I'm working on the colorwork top. Yes, by the way, that is a steek!












I also recieved this wonderful alpaca this week. See that pic there? That's the actual alpaca it came from. It's much less yellow than it looks here, and my friend Pam says it knits like butter. Honestly, I just want to pet it for a while.












I also purchased the kit for the mary scott huff KAL that starts in feb. (like I don't have anything better to do), and made NO progress on the violets scarf. I'm still waiting for word on some extra yarn to finish. I might just have to break down and buy it. ARGH!!!

In house news, we're still waiting on the bank to finish the appraisal, so keep your fingers crossed. I also started a second blog....squiggi builds a house It will chronicle the process of designing, building, landscaping, furnishing and decorating our dream home. I've posted the story of how we got to this point over there. Hopefully there will be more soon, so please join me as we progress.

I sad news, my sister had to have her right hand ring finger amputated yesterday from the result of a very serious dog bite on thanksgiving day. Please send her healing mojo, keep her in your thoughts, whatever works for you. She's got a long road to recovery.

I'm not really much for resolutions.......

I think they mostly end up by the wayside before march. But, there are a few things that 2012 is going to bring our way. The biggest will be our new house. (more about that later). I'm also looking forward to taking a japanese stitch class at Madrona in feb, and, of course, the garden show in seattle. I proclaim this year the year of knitting from stash (less to move later) and gardening. We'll see how that goes.....

In knitting news, the violets scarf is dead in the water, having run out of yarn. I've emailed the designer (she's such a sweetheart) and she said she'd send me some extras that were leftover from the class last year. I'm just waiting for those to appear in order to finish. Thanks to Ozzie's help, I didn't get nearly as far as I'd hoped......he's EARNED his new title of "eater of yarn".

I'm moving on and working on a sweater. The minute I saw this on knitty, I was in love. I'll be working on it today while I'm supposed to be working. (don't tell anyone) For some reason, weight watchers thinks that people will come STREAMING in the door this morning with their shiny new resolutions. (now, keep in mind, they didn't advertise we would be open, or tell anyone for that matter), so, it's going to be sweater knitting for me. Fine by me for time and a half!













Ok, for the house news. In a frightening moment this week, we signed a contract with our builder. Right now, we're swinging wildly between total excitement and complete terror. They're saying once we break ground, it'll be all over in 6 months. We will be in our new house by next christmas if the bank approves the financing.

We're meeting with the landscape design person on monday to see her preliminary plans, and this weekend, I fell in LOVE, LOVE, LOVE with THE most gorgeous custom kitchen cabinets. We'll know by the end of the week if we can afford them.
Let the games begin!!
By the way, here's the site of the house.....we're lucky, it's in our own back yard! See where that big tree is, right in the middle? that'll be our garage.












The doggies are unaffected by all the excitement, except they did get new redbones for the new year. We LOVE our redbones!.

PHEW! glad that's over.......

For anyone who knows me, you know that I am more "bah humbug" than happy holidays.
Maybe it was all those years in a retail environment, listening to mickeys clock shop, maybe it's the fact that the holidays truly bring out the "best" in folks. (sarcasm intended) Don't know. I'm usually just glad when it's all over and we can move on to spring.

I did get some goodies, though, a large and very cool yarn bowl, filled with some alpaca silk from zz alpacas. The yarn is a dark grey/almost black and I think I'm going to go and get another skein of whitish to do a two color something, probably shawl. The cool thing is, if you go to their website, you can see the exact animal your yarn came from. www.zzalpacas.com Love it!

I also got this cute little guy from my husband. A couple of years ago, I discovered the metal art of henry dupere and fell in love. I had a large hanging bat shipped home from santa fe and he hangs by my back door. I've loved the owls ever since, so here ya go. He'll look cute on the new house.













I've been working away at the violets scarf too. See those two tiny balls of yarn at the top there? That's all I have left. Not enough to finish. POOH! I already pm'd someone on ravelry who's also made this and she gave me the scoop. All the kits were short and when they had the class last spring, they handed out "extras" so the folks in the class could finish. I bought mine at sock summit as a leftover. I'm a bit disappointed that blue moon KNEW they were all short, and didn't include the extra in the kit I purchased. I've emailed the designer (she's awesomely great), hopefully she'll have a couple of extra ones kicking around from the class. If not, I'll have to invest $40 more and buy 2 skeins of STR I really wasn't planning on purchasing.
POOH! Again.















I'm also working on the knitty sweater, the one with the donegal tweed, but there's not much to show there yet.

In house news, we spent last week gathering up financial records and filling out loan applications. The contractor was ON his part and got it done within 24 hours. (they're a little hungry around here) Things are progressing nicely, but at a standstill due to the holiday today and our loan guy being on vacation this week. Now it's just a waiting game for the money, which I don't think will be a problem, just stressful.
Better go buy that alpaca!

A much better week

Along about wednesday, the planets went back where they belong. No big fanfare, but I definitely felt them shift back into place with a quiet little "snick", and things calmed down considerably. Thank goodness. Enough was enough already.
So, I did what any good knitter would do. I bought yarn.












The pics can't even BEGIN to do these justice. When I opened the package, it caused me to suck in my breath, they're so beautiful. The 4 similar ones are bugga box jellyfish, purchased for the water and stone sweater, the more blue ones, which are really a gorgeous color of burple in real life, just sort of came along for the ride. They're skinny bugga. I was feeling a bit guilty for spending $ so close to christmas, but not now.

In other knitting news....I finished my irish hiking scarf for the neighbor. Blue's her favorite color, ya know










and started working on this fun little colorwork scarf/table runner that I bought at sock summit last summer. You can't quite see them yet, but it's tiny little violets.
It was love at first sight when the designer flashed it at a class this summer. I was lucky enough to find one of the few leftover kits at the blue moon booth.










In house news, last week the contractor told us we had already done the hard part by picking out everything. I totally disagree. The hard part is making the decision to go to the bank and borrow the money. Up till now, it's been a fun activity in "wouldn't THIS be cool?", now we have to make the commitment and figure out how to actually PAY for it. The other scary thing is that once we get the financing, the contractor is ready to start NOW. Like, RIGHT NOW!! (they're a bit hungry around here) We could be celebrating next christmas in our new house.
Exciting and frightening all at the same time.

I'm blaming the planets

I usually consider myself a pretty even keel kind of person, not a lot of drama or bad days. This week more than made up for it. No real drama, but one crappy incident after another.
It all started when I went to work on sunday. The place was supposed to be prepared for the day and it was not, by a far cry. We had to scramble and make things look nice before the members came in and we were still scrambling after we were done to make it better for the next day. I should have taken the clue there and stayed in bed the rest of the week. It was just one crappy thing after another, the Y front desk person disn't show up monday to let us in, 3 our of 4 clients cancelled monday, tuesday, way worse, still feeling bad about that one. Wed, woke up with a sore throat and LOOK! Here's the territory manager there to evaluate me. Sure, why not...
By thursday, the best buy gift card I bought STILL didn't work (note to self, never buy anything from best buy again), and my sore throat had turned into a raging cold.
It IS getting better, though.......
My friend johnette says it was the a convergence of the planets. I'm kind of prone to believing her. I should have taken her advice and gone back to bed on wed and stayed there.














Darned plants! They're supposed to be un-converged (is that a word?)
by the middle of this week, and I'm ready for it. So I did what any good knitter would do in times of trouble.

I bought yarn.......
The winter knitty came out, and it was love at first sight for the skyisle sweater. I immediately went to WEBS and bought the required yarn. Now if it would just ship!
I also joined the newest Mary Scott Huff KAL, a colorwork "thing". I only had to know it was Mary to be in.
And...I'm seriously considering the unique sheep little prince KAL that starts in march.

The only good things this week? The hummingbirds are back!
















The landscape designer is working on our house landscape plans...and, we got the price tag on the house. The fact that I'm even writing this says that I didn't have a heart attack. It was somewhere between $1.98 and $1,000,000, a little higher than expected, but not unexpected. We want this to be NICE, and that costs some money. It will be the house we retire in (we'll probably be paying for it at least that long).
Next step, talking to banks about getting some money. That's the scary one, because it really means "commitment".
Next week....
hopefully scoring some bugga and finishing christmas knitting.
(gotta build up that stash, don't cha know)

damask is done

really, it's been done for a while, but I finally pulled it out and blocked it yesterday. The pics don't do it justice, it's much more burgandy than pink, and it's beautiful.....











Now I'm working on my elizabeth shawl. It's pretty scrunched up, but here's about a half mile of this cable pattern. It should go pretty fast now, since it's all stockinette short rows......



and, by special request, here's the doggie brothers. They're going to a couple of other brothers that are 1 and 3.... I hope they like them








In house news....we'll be meeting with the contractor on friday to go over the price.
EEEK!!! Keep your fingers crossed it's somewhere south of what donald trump could afford. I should also be hearing from the landscape planner soon as well. I'm really excited to see what she'll come up with for our little acre.
We'll also be hanging out around the house on friday because they're delivering our new hot tub. We had a little (ahem) shopping spree on black friday and decided to trade in our old hot tub for the new racing model. No worries, we'll take it with us when we move......

Here, by the way, is my kind of christmas.