Big Sky Mind

Well last night was the big night. Stephanie Pearl McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot was here in town to give a speech to promote her latest book, “Things I Learned from Knitting … whether I wanted to or not”. Her talk was great, more intellectual than I thought it would be. She talked about how knitters have mental advantages over other people. It was both funny and fascinating. I think that I saw my friend from the comments Melissa from Banana Migraine. Melissa, I was too shy to come and talk to you, you looked like you were having a fun time with your friends. I got The Harlot to sign my book and had some pictures.
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My personal highlight was after she handed me my book she said she really liked my sweater I had on that the flames “rocked”. That was awesome! The Harlot liked my sweater!! Wow!!

Now on to my knitting, I have photos for you. I finished the first Earth Day sock for Mike B. I started on the second, but am running low on yarn. It takes a lot of yarn to make socks for a size 14 foot on size 0 needles! Here is my progress so far<a href=”http://“>
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I worked on the second version of the hemp socks while I waited and while The Harlot spoke. I got a lot done. It is pretty rare that I just sit for a few hours and knit without interruption. Here is a shot of where I am and I tried to get a close up of the pattern for you.
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I also have some new yarn to share with you. At the coffee shop we had “fun sock day” last week. That made me think that I would like some socks that match my uniform I have to wear. After much searching on The Loopy Ewe, I decided that Numma Numma Baby Boo in Spinach and Brown Rice was the perfect shades to match my apron and the coffee.
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I have been trying to “go green”. Mostly in my cleaning and personal care products. It is really unbelievable when you look on the back of most facial and body products how many chemicals they have in them. I’m trying to avoid products that have anything with paraben in them. It is almost impossible. I have found some things, but it has really opened my eyes. You think because companies know you put these products on your face and body that they are safe, but I’m not sure that is their first concern.

I’m gonna go downstairs and watch last night’s Idol. DHC said that David Cook was the best. Have a good week everyone!!

I’ve written a long post twice this morning and it’s disappeared both times.  I give up, I’ll try again maybe tomorrow.

The computer and camera decided to play nice.  Enjoy!!

Here is what it looked like out our office door last night before we left work.

All in all, I think Peyton and the boys are better off in Hawaii.

Before I start telling you about my socks in progress, let me give you a baby update. Reece Merrill was born Friday afternoon. He and Mom are both doing fantastic and the whole family got to go home in time to see the Colts win the Superbowl. Here is a little photo for you:

   Now on to the knitting portion of the program:

This a crummy picture of the first completed camouflage sock.  Second sock is well underway which for some reason unknown to me you will not be able to see a picture of.  But trust me foot and heel are already finished.  Nervously watching the Superbowl provides lots of knitting energy.  I also did a little yarn stash enhancement this weekend.  I went to the sale at the Knit Stop and bought some of the Noro yarn. 

I also bought black felting yarn to make David a felted messenger bag.

I know you are all just totally excited about a picture of black yarn.  Maybe David is excited, I forgot to tell him I bought it! 

Weather Update:  It has just started snowing, we are due to have 4-7 inches today.  Yes, I did manage to drive the Jeep today.  And I will have David with me as my co-pilot/navigator we we go home later today.

Back to the Superbowl for just a minute.  Troy really covered the spirit of excitement over at his blog,  Growing Sense, but I just wanted to say how wonderful it is for the good guys to win one, not that the Bears are the bad guys, although they do have one player that had to get special permission to leave the state due to some legal issues.  I read something online where they called Peyton Manning “whiny”.  I have never heard him whine, EVER!  He has taken more crap about not being able to win the big game than anyone since Steve Young and he never once rubbed it in.  I don’t think I could be that classy.  I’d be all “How you like me now, HA!” 

So Peyton, enjoy Hawaii, you’ve earned it!

Quick post update:

My friends Jason and Beth just had a baby boy!  Mother and baby are both doing well.  No name yet! 

In January/February, it seems like the weeks take forever to get through.  Maybe it is the endless slog of gray days with scattered snow.  Anyways, tomorrow is Friday and that means the weekend is almost here.  I don’t have any hard and fast plans for my weekend yet, I am going to have dinner with my bestest friend in the whole world, Georgianne on Friday night.  Even though we only live 15 minutes apart, we don’t really get to see each other as much as we would like.  She is very busy with her family life and I’m pretty busy too, as much as I try not to be.  It will be really nice to be able to have dinner with her and catch up with the goings on in our lives.  There is a yarn sale at the Knit Stop that I would like to check out on Saturday after yoga class.  They have absolutely gorgeous yarn there, but it is on the expensive side.  No, I don’t need more yarn, I want more yarn.  I recognize the difference.  Since my friend David and I agreed (foolishly in my opinion) not to buy any new clothes in 2007, that leaves more disposable income for yarn for me, and it seems like home decorating items for him.  Watch out Williams Sonoma Home, he’s headed your way!  The only thing that I’m looking for is some Noro Silk Garden yarn to use for a hat.  This yarn is somewhat hard to locate, I would rather see it in person than just buy it off the internet.  Of course on Sunday, we will watch the Colts beat the Bears (hopefully)  in the Superbowl.  My friends Jason and Beth still haven’t had their baby, even last night’s yoga class didn’t help.  If the baby isn’t born before Sunday, they are going in to the hospital, after the game, to induce labor.  I’m not crazy about the word induce, it sounds kind of mean to me.  They are going in on Sunday night to gently encourage labor to begin.  Much better.  I know Beth would like for things to get rolling as soon as possible.  Cara came back to work yesterday and everyone was so excited to see her.  I’m so happy that she is feeling better.  Oh and I guess I’m not the only one who can’t figure the weather out.  They predicted big snowfall last night, never happened.  How many days is it until Spring?

As you may or may not know, I am not a fan of the cold, snowy weather.  I am so lucky as to have a “winter” vehicle to drive when the roads are bad.  Unfortunately for me, I cannot seem to guage when I am going to need to be driving it.  Sunday night I threw a big hissy fit and moved the Jeep (aka The Hoop)  into the garage and my Mini Cooper (aka Mini Pearl) out into the cold.  Roads were totally clear yesterday morning.  So last night, I put Mini Pearl back into the garage and The Hoop went back out into the cold of the driveway.  This morning I look out to see the roads completely snow covered and I had to truck out into the freezing morning to get the poor old hoop fired up and running.  I need to just  drive The Hoop, it looks like it might snow every day this week.  I really don’t like winter.  On a happier note, I got the promised photo of my Saturday morning yoga regulars.

Sorry that the photo is a little blurry, totally my fault.  Seated left to right are Peggy, Bonnie and Karen.  Standing are Jane and Anne, with Marilyn hiding in the back.  Marilyn doesn’t come to class, she just usually meets us for coffee afterwards.  It is a really good thing we took this when we did, Peggy is off to Florida for several weeks.  Yes, I’m a little bit jealous.  We do have a fun time, lots of post yoga laughs.

I also have new socks I’m working on.  They are for Carl for Valentine’s day.  I only bought the yarn last July, why are you snickering?  One is almost done and I have visual proof:

The yarn is called Camouflage by Lorna’s Laces.  I am using a toe up sock pattern and knitting them on size 0 bamboo needles.  I started them last week, and as you can see, they are going much more quickly that the ugly socks did.  I took another spinning class this past weekend, this one was to do hand spinning.  It was fun, it seems like it would be a relaxing thing to sit and do, but it would take a really, really long time to spin enough yarn to actually make anything with.  I bought silk to spin, it is called silk hankies.  That is sort of what they look like, then you stretch the heck out of them, and you can spin them into the finest yarn, it’s almost as thin as sewing thread.  Very cool.  And just because I want to, let me post a picture of the boys for your viewing pleasure.

For those of you that don’t know them, Oscar has the white paws, and Simon is the one guarding his favorite Christmas toy.  They are not from the same litter, Oscar is about one month older than Simon.

UPDATE:  Still no baby for Jason and Beth.  Keep thinking happy new baby thoughts for them.

Sorry everyone, no pictures with this post, just some random Friday thoughts:

We’ve been thinking about/singing a lot of 70’s soft rock here at the ol’ CO lately.  What is that all about?  Why are we thinking about “The Best of Bread”?  Since the roads were potentially slick this past week, I drove our old red jeep, “Jeepy” or “The Hoop” to work.  It only has a cassette player, yes it is THAT old.  I noticed when I was in the basement looking for a cassette to play that I had “The Best of The Guess Who” in my collection.  I have no recollection of owning this.  By the way, I ended up choosing Smashing Pumpkins “Gish” as my jeep music.  It made my drive much more enjoyable.  I have to give props to Mr. Carl for discovering the Smashing Pumpkins.  He picked them out and decided they were cool long before anyone else I know.  They sort of lost their allure for me after “Siamese Dream”.  My favorite new music are the Shiny Toy Guns.  Their CD is called “We Are Pilots”.  I really like it.  Very Europop.  I’m also excited about the new Fall Out Boy CD “Infinity on High”.

I have another spinning lesson tomorow.  This one is for hand spinning or the drop spindle.  I spun some yarn last night, I can see improvement, but there will have to be lots of practice. 

My good friend Cara, who has been very ill since before Christmas, may be coming back to work next week.  I’m very excited about this.  I love my mantourage, but a little girl power is a good thing.  Everyone that reads this, think good healthy thoughts, so she will be able to come back next week.

UPDATE: I also want everyone to send happy thoughts to my friends Beth and Jason. They are expecting their first baby any minute. Hopefully by Monday, we will have a new baby.

I guess that is all I know for now, everyone have a fantastic weekend.