The Crafty Lizzard

This past Sunday my mom turned 70. My brothers and I knew that we had to do something special but what.....we started to think what about her own computer. We should've run with it when we first thought of it but we didn't.

This is where the comedy of errors only begins.

We also knew that we needed to get their house wired (ok, wireless) to effectively use the new computer. We let all this go until about the week before her birthday. The brother that took charge lives in Maryland. He made the contact to get DSL hoping to keep the whole thing a secret. Alas, the technician showed up at their house (when he didn't need too), the router was sent to them (when it should've been sent to my brother), and he ended up spending 2 1/2 hours on the phone trying to get the whole thing situation straightened out.

Friday night, after Mom went to bed, we (meaning my brother, my niece and I) set about setting up Mom's new computer. I decided to put a big "stickie note" on the desktop with "Happy Birthday Mom!" on it.

In the morning, Mom grilled all of us as to whose computer it was. The 6 year old even nonchalantly told her it was hers. After a few minutes she finally realized it was hers and was SO excited.

The way she has accepted this push by her children and jumped into trying to figure everything out it amazing!

My brothers and I then had a dinner to cook for the afternoon's party so we left Mom on her own.

Well...not exactly. We left her in the capable hands of the 19 and 6 year olds!

We ended up having a wonderful dinner, a wonderful party and a birthday complete with 70 candles (and a fire extinguisher that Dad brought out!).

Mom got not only a new way of staying in touch with the family, but a handmade set of windchimes, a sentimental gift that her dad use to do (from her sis) and a cane (from her little bro)! And she also got an amazing day with her whole fam!

I have had this hank of yarn wasting away in the bottom of my stash for over a year patiently waiting for me to make it all color-y and pretty. I finally did it this past weekend -- I dyed my first hank of yarn. If you don't count the few times that I have tie-dyed, this was my very first foray into dying and I think I could VERY easily be hooked!

It took most of a Sunday, but here's how it went:

1. Re-skeining the yarn. I decided to double the length of the hank that the yarn came in and, lo and behold, my dining room table was basically perfect. Granted, I do recommend keeping any curious furry-little-creatures-who-hunt away from this process!

2. Soaking. Not very exciting, I admit. But it was kinda a cool pic so I had to include.Looks sorta like spaghetti, no?

3. Ahhh....the color. The first attempt at anything should always include your favorite things, right? Hence, big, bold, red! I used Wilton's Red-Red gel food coloring -- a lot of it. Over the course of the afternoon, I used 1 and a half containers!

4. Straight from the pot, before the rinse.

I tried a combination of dip-dying and what I guess is called the hot-pour method. When I was about halfway through the yarn in the dip dying fashion, I poured more dye over what was still heating in the crockpot to achieve a really strong kettle dye effect. Hard to tell in this pic tho.

5. The Finished Product.

I'm incredibly anxious to see how this actually knits up. But that's an entire different story! Must finish current projects first.

High photo content ahead

The past few days have been knitting/yarn overload.

Thursday was the usual crowd in the usual place but the energy was UNusual. Knowing that we had new goodies there for us to take home, a field trip the next day and just the general end of the week was enough to make grown women positively giddy.

Since the Ravlympics had just finished, everyone had lots to show...

These were the finished Ravelympic projects that present on Thurs. night.

Let's see...clockwise from top left: J's Twilight Mitts, K's Twilight Mitts, My iTARDIS, my socks for mom, M's Bella's Mitts for her daughter, and J's So-Called-Scarf (which only took her a mere 4 years to finish!)

Then the moment where I think we were all dumbfounded by the secret cast-on ninja skills of Karen. So much so that we made her demonstrate the next day...

it's extremely fast and she doesn't even watch while she's doing it.

Then we had Kate's first pair of socks. Well, at least the ones that now have her totally addicted to socks! (Yes, another one into the fold!) A year ago she wanted handmade socks so badly that she wanted to pay someone to make them for her. Now, she's come a little further to the dark side and will be making socks forever.

Friday...after getting up much earlier than I thought I had to (stupid work meeting!) we all met again but this time for a wondrous yarn field trip -- but that's another whole story.

But now we saw Cat's Endpaper Mitts that added to the Ravelympics haul.

All this colorwork REALLY makes me want to start my colorwork project. Must finish current ones first. Must finish current ones first. Must finish current ones first.

Then after all this, some of us went to see "Alice in Wonderland." We missed seeing it in 3D but all the same in was still a wonderous movie. Even if the music was just a tad disappointing to me. (not bad, just not stellar)

Now, I'm going to leave you with the latest yarn that I acquired form the Merc when I 'happened to pass by' last week...Mmmmmm....

I feel like I haven't had one of those in a LONG time. Something always seems to happen. Bleh.

Well, apart from having to shovel my driveway yet AGAIN, today was one of those days. WOOHOO!

After having all morning (I did wake up at 7am without an alarm clock) for coffee, Olympics and knitting, I finished the Ravelympics socks! The first time ever that I have finished a pair of socks in under a month -- let alone 2 weeks! It was a little rough around the heel of the second sock. I SO wanted to put them down and work on something else for a long while. But I persevered and once I got on the leg it was easy sailing.

Then after much shoveling and some laundry, I met friends for dinner and a night out with Jim Gaffigan. We went to Claddaugh's downtown for dinner and I had an AMAZING meal -- a Bass ale-breaded pork loin resting on mashed potatoes (which were topped with bacon) resting on a bed of cabbage, all topped with a white wine mustard sauce. Mmmmmmmm......

Then as we were leaving I happened to notice that the door mat was a Jameson Whiskey Welcome mat. I happened to say in passing that I needed that for my entryway. The manager guy told me to take it and I didn't think he was serious -- but then he said "don't let me change my mind" so..........I grabbed and ran. My friends and I laughed all the way to the car!!! I now have this as an entryway (see how perfect it fits? Although, I will have to clean and febreeze it!).

Then, of course, on to Jim Gaffigan.....funny, funny man. What an end to an awesome day!

except for saturday (during the day, when I had to work) the past 3 days has been a wonderful weekend. I have accomplished a lot --

clean the house -- really really needed to be done and I think I set a house record on how fast I did it!

work on projects -- both Ravelympics and non-Ravelympics.

This is the back of what will eventually be a vest to keep me warm. The pattern is Honeycomb (little hard to see in the pic) and the yarn is KP's Telemark in Garnet Heather -- LOVE!

research new ones -- happened to see the new Knit Picks kit Mr. Roboto and immediately knew that I had to let the robot-woman (i.e. Charlie's mom!) know. After a few emails back and forth, it's definitely on the to-do list now.... Also, I'm really itching to start a colorwork project. Must hold out and finish Ravelympics first...

socialize -- yes, believe it or not, I do still have somewhat of a social life and saturday night consisted of good food, good friends, and good conversation! Always a great combo in my book!

I now leave you with a gratuitous kitty shot!

It's not just humans that love when Knit Picks delivers!

After a wonderful cast-on party (thanks Kim!), I've been knitting like a banshee! I decided that I would try to complete a pair of socks (not super-duper-crazy-hard socks like Ann but still not-so-simple socks). Usually it takes me about a month to finish a pair so to make it to the finish line in 17 days is pushing it.

I also usually have a big project going at the same time and now is no different but that's a different story...

Ever since I was a kid I have been an Olympic junkie. Maybe it was because this was one of the few things we were allowed to watch on TV during the week, but I think mostly it's the atmosphere, the challenges, the highs, and the lows. I've also always enjoyed the winter ones much more than the summer ones...don't know why. I remember watching Dan Jansen crash and burn and then having to wait 4 long years to watch him try to win. I remember watching the ski jumper nicknamed "Eddie the Eagle". I remember Bonnie Blair becoming one the most decorated athletes -- and thinking it was really cool that it was a "she" that did it. I remember watching snowboarding slowly become such a big event (side note: don't worry Jackie, it was still amazing to watch!!). And, of course, the one sport I think would be fun to try -- short track speed skating and all the drama that seems to go on there!

With this background, maybe you can understand why I've been a little quiet this week. Having the ability to tape all of them and watch it all, I've done almost nothing when I'm at home except watch Olympics.

However, this has allowed me to be much further on in my Ravelypmics project than I thought I would be. I finished up the first sock this morning and will cast on for the second tonight.

These are the Vinnland pattern and will go to mom. I'm hoping they fit as I think my foot is a tad bit smaller than hers and it fits pretty good on mine. It is a little long so.... It's a little hard to see but the yarn is Stroll Kettle dyed...it didn't look like there would be much variation but I'm liking it knit up.

Halfway there!

So...

I decided to add a project. A small one. But another one. I've wanted to do this one for a little bit and I'm using it as a Colorwork101. If you don't know, I'm a little bit of a nerd and am a big fan of Doctor Who...I saw this pattern and when I read that the ipod could be considered Timelord Technology (it is "bigger on the inside") I knew I had to make it -- a TARDIS ipod cozy. One of my other challenges this year will be colorwork so this was an awesome intro to that! And it's fun!