The Return of LOST

WARNING:

Friends and family,

I love you dearly

BUT

if you call my house tonight

you will be in a world of hurt.

WHY?

Need I say more!?

Juliet Update

So the goal for the weekend was to garter stitch my ass off. My friends, I did just that. The goal was also to start the lace for Monday. I was well into the lace pattern come Sunday!! Woo Hoo!! When I am on a mission you don't want to get in my way.

I am going to do a few more repeats and then call this baby done!

I think I can I think I can I think I can

Tag....I'm It

I've been tagged by my friend Ruth!

I am to open a book I am currently reading to page 161 and copy the fifth sentence on the page.

It reads: "Heck began to hope."

The book is "Articles of War" by Nick Arvin. Heck is the main character. His real name is George but he is nicknamed Heck because of his reluctance to swear.

I am supposed to pass this on to five people......

My victims are as follows: Sam, Michelle, Jerry, Kim, and Stephanie

Award Ceremony

My friend Sam (thanks Sam!!) gifted me with the "You Make My Day Award". First off, I'd like to thank the academy.........oh sorry. Got caught up in one of my academy award fantasies there for a moment.

The rules are as follows:

“Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.”

Sheesh!! It's hard to only pick ten but those are the rules.

Drum roll please.......

sticks, strings & crafty things

Knit Eat Sleep

StarSpry

Sittin here Knittin

Sheep in the City

Babycocktails and Knitting

5elementknitr

S-Knitting

Yarn Goddess

Wanda Woman Knits

Damn that was hard! I read several blogs and love them all. It's not fair to make a person only pick ten.

OK now back to my academy award fantasy.

I'd like to thank the academy.........

Rock'em Sock'em

After a loooooong night of playing Candy Land with a 3 year old and a 5 year old, I returned home to find a package with my name on it. After seeing who it was from there was loud squealing and several moments of dancing. The package was from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The contents? Oh just some kick ass stuff that comes to you when you sign up for........

Rockin' Sock Club 2008!!!!

and now for the........Eye Candy

The colorway is called "Dragon Dance" and it is awesome!!!! Oh and dance I did when I saw that little beauty. The colors are amazing......love them!! I also got two buttons. One says, "Got Gauge?" and the other says, "Swatch Me". The wrapper on the cute little mini skein says it's emergency sock yarn and that you should never leave home without it. Super cute!! I can't tell you what's in the binder because it is top secret. Not really. It's notes from the dyer and lots of other cool info. Plus the sock pattern that comes with the super awesome yarn. I am not going to show that until I start working on it. I can just hear the moaning and groaning already. Patience people.........patience!

Ok must go and fondle the yarn some more. MMmmmmmmmm yarn.

Juliet Revisited

Juliet is back on the needles and progress is S-L-O-W going my friends. I enjoyed knitting this the first time. The second time......not so much. I really am fighting the urge to tuck it in a corner somewhere and forget about it. I figured I would go all out and get it done right away. HAAAA!!! Wishful thinking.

What's the goal?

To garter myself to death this weekend. Hopefully I will be ready to start the lace section on Monday.

Love Revolution

Last night Jeff and I went to see Lenny Kravitz at the Paramount Theatre. All I can say is this is one of the best concerts I have been too. Lenny is AMAZING!!! If you ever get a chance to see him.....GO!!! Until then......go and put on your favorite LK music. Now crank it as loud as it can go. Is the hair on your head vibrating? Well than it's not loud enough. Turn it louder. How about now? Good. Now sit down and close your eyes. That should tide you over until you can see him live.

Dear god the man is SEXY!!!!

Start of the Tour

The tour officially began today but not where we had hoped. We were supposed to be in Estes Park but the weather was foggy, cold, and snowy. Not a good combination. So we decided to stay close to home. We still managed to hit four local stores. Two of which we had never set foot in.

Our first stop was at Yarn Arts in Parker. This was one of the shops we had never been in before. We were told we were not allowed to take pictures.......so I have none to show. Oh well. Trust me......your NOT missing anything.

The skein I purchased is from a local alpaca farm.

From there we headed down the road to The Knitting Habitat in Aurora. This was also a new shop for us. First impression upon opening the door....AWESOME!!!. I highly recommend stopping in and checking them out.

I purchased the pattern to make the cute slippers above. The skein of yarn I grabbed from here is Colinette Skye in the Summer Berries colorway.






From there we headed on down to one we usually shop in.....Colorful Yarns in Centennial. They are open on a Monday so we decided that was good enough for us. I have nothing but good things to say about this shop. It's on my list of favorites. The selection and service here is outstanding!! This is another one I highly recommend stopping in if your in the neighborhood.

The skein I got from Colorful Yarns is one of my favorites so far. It is Fleece Artist Sea Wool. I don't know the color but I am calling it Chocolate Cherry Jubilee. Mmmmmmm. I also grabbed two new books by Erika Knight.

Then it was on to our last shop for the day. We headed on over to String, A Knitting Boutique in Highlands Ranch. I have only shopped there two times. The unique thing about this store is that they display their yarns by color. They also have a large sale area with some really good finds.

The skein I got from here is Noro Kureyon. I also managed to grab a skein of Unikat to add to my personal stash. The colorway does not have a name but it is gorgeous!! I also grabbed a go knit pouch. Sam has one and for some reason I always think of stealing it when I see it. LOL!! Now I have my own.

Overall the day was a huge success. We were able to get a skein from each shop. I think the toughest part is choosing a color scheme. I seem to be leaning towards berry colors. I am thinking shades of reds, purples, blues, and some browns thrown in for good measure. I do have to say after seeing the Unikat skein I wish I had seen that first and then picked my colors based on that. It has sea foam, copper, chocolate brown, dark green, and yellow.

End of the Day Haul!

Sad Day in Knitsville

We all know that knitting can be a very cruel mistress at times. Today she was just a real bitch!! I finished my Juliet sweater two days ago. Last night I had the time to sit and start weaving in the ends. That is when I came across the problem. When I was knitting the sweater I came to a knot in the yarn right on the boob section. There is no way I could have hid it, so I was forced to cut the yarn and rejoin with a clean section. This would be the death of Juliet. Last night I was having trouble weaving in the ends on that spot. It looked horrible. I kept fiddling with it and managed to make it look even worse. I decided to have my friend Jen take a look at it. I knew if anybody could fix it......she could. So I went down to her yarn shop and handed over Juliet. My very good friend Jen who I LOVE.....operated on Juliet for two and a half hours. Did I mention that I LOVE her!!! THANKS JEN!!! I knew it wasn't going to be good when I heard things like....."What the hell!?" and "How did the stitches get turned sideways!?" OOoohhhhhh my poor Juliet. Jen worked on her and worked on her. The news is not good my friends. We are going to have to rip rip rip.

Here are some pictures of me smiling and modeling my beautiful Juliet. This was before I knew there was a problem. Isn't she pretty? I love the color.

THE PROBLEM

See Below

R.I.P Juliet

So this is by no means good bye. I am tossing her in the frog pond tonight and should have her cast on in time for Stitch N' Bitch tomorrow night at Purls of Wisdom.

Stay tuned for the new and improved Juliet.

Hittin' the Road

YARN TOUR 2008

Pack your knitting and get your road mix tapes.....errrrr......cd's. I meant to say cd's. Better make that ipod. Oh you know what I mean!!! Because the girls are hitting the road for Yarn Tour 2008. What is Yarn Tour you ask? Well, Nachaele had a great idea.......What if we visited all the yarn stores in Colorado that we have never been to? The rest of us screamed sign me up!! So how many stores you ask? Well......last time I checked there were 28 to be visited.

Our journey begins on Monday, January 21st. We will be visiting The Stitchin Den in Estes Park.

The plan is to purchase a skein of yarn at each shop to make a Colorado blanket.

Stay tuned for pictures of our adventures, info on the stores and the skeins of yarn I purchase.

Baby Got Back

*Artwork by Dawn Tarr - www.dawntarr.com*

So after a rough summer at work and all the food inspired holidays I have joined Weight Watchers for the third time. Because not only do I have junk in the trunk.........people I am pulling a trailer!! Holy big booty batman!! I heard someone say the other day that spring is only a few weeks away. Spring? Spring!! The season that makes you shed all the layers you have been hiding under all winter long and expose yourself. ICK!!!

So all the junk has been cleared from the pantry. Salty chips have been replaced with fruit and 100 calorie snack packs (those things are a godsend). The spot where my friends Ben & Jerry used to take up residence in the freezer is now vacant and for rent. My good friend caffeine threw me a going away party. It lasted three days. Three days of sheer intense pain from withdrawals of coffee, soda, and chocolate. Damn you Caffeine!!!

So when you see me power walking down the street feel free to honk and wave. Maybe even give a thumbs up. A few cat calls would sure be nice as well. Just don't throw food. That wouldn't be good.

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight,

because by then your body and your fat

are really good friends.

~Author Unknown

Tale of the Tote

Look Chic at the Farmers Market

The other day while browsing through the November 2007 issue of Self magazine. I stumbled across this picture of Catherine Zeta - Jones carrying what they called a "cute basket." The title of the article was Look Chic at the Farmers Market. I sat there open mouthed and stared at the "cute basket." That's my knitting tote....... I exclaimed to the girl sitting next to me. She looked at it and said.......I think it's for groceries. Ummmmmm yeah. Where are my knitting peeps when you need them!? One of the girls in our knitting group had a basket like this. We all went crazy over it. She said a friend that lives in Germany sent it to her. I thought great who do I know that lives in Germany (Hi Stephanie!!!). A couple of days later I am shopping in my favorite store T.J. MAXX. I take a wrong turn down an aisle and what do I come face to face with.......the cute tote bag from Germany!!! I grabbed everyone they had. Then shared them with knitting friends. Then I went to another location and bought every last one they had there as well. Catherine Z's cost her $30.00 if not more. I got mine for $9.99 at good old T.J.MAXX.

This one (lime green) is currently stuffed to the gills with my Einstein coat. The black one I have is holding my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I also have two red's and a pretty sky blue. Grab them while you can......unless I get there first.

Lorna's Laces Hodge Podge

Inquiring minds want to know.........

"What were you working on at the hockey game?"

I am calling it.........

My Lorna's Laces Hodge Podge Scarf

This skinny scarf is made from several skeins (all different lengths) of Lorna’s Laces tied together. It was given to me three years ago as a Christmas gift from a friend. I knit on it when I go somewhere that requires a small project and no brain cells to be used. Since knitting on it at the basketball game and then at the hockey game I have become determined to finish it.

Here is what I did: I cast on 33 stitches and am doing a knit 3 purl 3 ribbing. If you wanted your scarf wider just cast on more stitches. This is a great sampler scarf. There is no rhyme or reason to the color changes. Yes some colors clash but it all seems to work out. It's just a very simple but fun to work on project.

This would also be a great way to use up some of the yarn you have left over from projects.