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***Sigh*** my grandchildren left this morning to get a 6 a.m. flight back to CT.  The silence is deafening.  I miss their voices, food crumbs, toys around, attention.  Ryan wore her new socks home this morning under her crocs. 

I am posting after spending 3 hours reading my SNB blogs and some of the others and then getting lost on Ravelry and joining a knitalong.   The KAL suggests that you not use your stash for the March socks, but go out and buy bright colored sock yarn.  What a novel idea!  I’m into it.

 Amy made me a friend today on Ravlry - Thanks Amy!

On a completely different knote note you have to go and read this post with video on Stationstops!  If you have a cat door, don’t miss it!

WHAT ABOUT THOSE OSCARS?  I saw all the movies except Juno.  I voted for No Country For Old Men.  There is one scene where he asks a little gas station clerk to call heads or tails, and that is the scariest scene of all.  Your life on the flip of a coin.  I just finished a book entitled Trouble by Jessee Kellerman.  The antagonost is a woman who stalks a graduate medical student.  I thought some of the things Jonah Stem  did were a little crazy, but who knows what you would do when Eve Gones is stalking you. 

While waiting for my Miss Ryan to arrive and try on her socks, I started a Spa Cloth as seen in the only knitting magazine I brought to Florida, Creative Knitting, March 2008.  I just happened to have thrown in my bag a skein of cotton.  I guess I don’t want to continue on that sweater.  The spa cloth is  an allover cable pattern.  I haven’t done a lot of cables so it’s good practice.

 I was surfing bologs and Etsy this morning.  On Pam’s blog, I admired her photography (nice smile) and found a link for socks!  Since that seems to interest me the most these days I went there.  At The Loopy Ewe they have a sock club and frequent buyers prizes~!

 Then I went to Etsy to look to see what Kris had at The Painted Sheep because when I went to Etsy without the link on her site I couldn’t find her.  I looked on shop local and No TPS!  What gives.

My Grandson (age 9) just called and they are on the way to the airport and he wanted a weather report!  They won’t be here until late.  God, I miss them.  I’m going to bore everyone to death with pictures.

 My Jakie has been worried about our cat Fluffy.  He wants to know why we didn’t bring her down.  “why Fluffy no on the airplane?” I finally explained that she was not alone at home but that I had a friend staying with her, and that seemed to satisfy him.

It’s funny here weather wise today.  The sun is out now and it’s 73 deagrees, and then out of nowhere it rains.  Like someone turns on a “rain switch.  hey, who’s complaining about a little rain.

I got the skein of yarn I need to finish the toeless socks, and a couple other skeins for my stash.

We’re watching the second season of 24.  I want to say, and I hope I don’t offend anyone, that I think, it’s my own personal opinion that Vice President Dick Cheney hired Jack Bauer.  My husband says that he think Kim Bauer planned our response to Iraq.  Do Blonds have more fun or are they just easier to spot? (Toby Kim lyrics)

P.S. Can wait for Raven News!!!

That seemed to be the name of the directions I was reading yesterday when I was knitting socks for my Granddaughter.  I tried and ripped for four hours … yes, FOUR hours, and I couldn’t get it.  I searched the internet for wrap and turn directions.  The directions seemed to be telling me to decrease stitches but how, I couldn’t figure out.

A couple of post ago I started these socketta socks  

as toe up and got frustrated with the *wrap and turn* so I ripped them out and redid them as traditional socks. 

Fine, that worked well.  So I bought the Lion-brand wool-ease on line  to make some lace socks for my daughter in Hoboken.  Fine, that worked,well, fine until I ran out of yarn.                                                                                  I could have used a different color for toe, but I didn’t have any other color that would work.  I bought more stash instead!!! 

 Then I looked on the Lion-brand site and found stripped and two color socks for children.  I found this:

 It looked simple enough.  I had the yarn and the pattern and cast on.  Actually I did a gage and went down a needle size.  I ribbed and did 4 inches of stockinette and THEN . . . THE HEEL WAS *WRAP AND TURN*.  AAAAHHHHH, I know, I know, you are supposed to read the pattern first!  Well I ripped that heel out at least 25 times.  Then I had a epiphany!  I did  a traditional heel and finished in a few minutes.

I now have 2 finished socks, just in time for her arrival on Monday.

 Now, with Ravelry looming over me I have to finish the sweater I brought down here to Florida.

 Happy knitting

 Thirty-two - the number of oranges my husband squeezed by hand yesterday to see how much it would take to make 2 quarts of orange juice. 

Three -A trip to the mail box resulted in 3 packages!!!!  It felt like my birthday.  I got stash, 3rd season of LOST and my microwave egg cookers.  One egg cooker is to make 4 hard eggs ( I guess you can’t call them hard-boiled) in the microwave.  The other is to make 2 poached eggs in the Microwave. 

1.  Package One had two microwave egg cookers from Nortic Ware.  One for poached   and one for hard cooked eggs.                                                                                  We tried the poached this morning and worked wonderfully, with no cleanup fuss.
2. Package Two had the third season of LOST.  We watched the first disc of LOST last night.  Since it’s started, we’ll have to wait for the next season on DVD so we don’t ruin it.                                         
3. Package Three was from Lion Brand.  I got 3 skeins of wool-ease for kids socks, and one Addi Turbo size 5 circular needle to make two needle socks.  One fore each grandchild.                                         

It’s so much easier keeping up with stash when it come into my life here.  I keep pretendng I don’t have those bins at home full of stash, WIPs and UFOs and things that I am definately rip and reknit.

SEVEN - The number of days until my grandchildren arrive!

I found this on the DIGG site
If your gramma had game, would she knit like this?

I finally got my sock yarn from The Painted Sheep.  I bought it online and had it shipped to my home and my friend, Dianne shipped it and some ebay purchases down here after we finally got an address. 

 I saw this right after Kris put some stuff on her Etsy site and fell in love with the primary colors.  I took the picture with my camera phone inside and it doesn’t do justice to the colors. 

and now it looks like this:

The thing is that I did this by memory.  I am a sock knitter now.

Ultra frustration.  Remember this?

Well now it looks like a ball of yarn! 

 I carefully followed the directions and got to the heel and couldn’t for the life of me understand what a wrap was.  So I frogged and started top down sock. 

(more…)

6:30 on 2/2/08  I just finished reading todays New York TImes and I have this to say about Given Reprieve, N.F.L. Star’s Dogs Find Kindness:  I hope they tread Michael Vick just like a dog in jail.

I finished my excel spread sheet on fiber and related items for the year.  The total is $ 55.53.  I wonder, do you count shipping? 

Noon on 2/2/08  I just got away from doing some ravelry editing and read 1 article “You spent HOW MUCH on yarn? “  Up to this point I don’t know and really don’t want to know, but being compulsive I’m going to start a spread sheet (especially since I’ve only bought  1  3 5 skeins so far this year.  2 online, or maybe it was one (I haven’t received it yet) and one at The Black Sleep. The winner (with $15,000/yr) made me feel free from guilty fiber and supplies spending.

 Enough about that.  I’m in heaven, I have knitting and 2 new software sites to learn my way around (Ravelry and WordPress).  I’m trying to upload some add-in for stats and just having a little trouble.  Ravelry is easy enough but I keep geting lost (figuratively speaking) in something intersting and before you know it an hour has gone by.  If I worked I’d be fired by now.

Last night I cast on from the skein of Plymouth Italian Collection Sockotta yarn for a toe-up sock. Nice color don’t ya think? Actually looking at the photo the color didn’t come out that great.  I took it on the patio table in the sun.