The weekend is finally here!!!!!

Another 6 day work week has me very excited for a weekend of knitting. I got the kids LOTS of movies so that I can sit on the couch with them and work on my second sock of the Storm Moon Cyndi Luaper. I had time to work on them at the Central Maryland Knitting Guild meeting on Wednesday night, and I finished the first sock that night. Since then I have to admit to hobbling around wearing one sock. I love it so much!

Miss Beth has inspired me to make a pair of Fetching gloves for ane of my Christmas presents this year. Someone had requested a pair of gloves and a scarf in red, and I immediately thought of the yummy item Miss Beth was working on Wednesday night. Thanks for the idea!

Hope everyone has a great knitting weekend!

Monday Night Football with the Steelers playing and Knitting For Me Day all at once! What a great night to snuggle on the couch with my socks that are turning out to be very cuddly. These Storm Moon Cyndi Lauper socks may be my new favorite socks. I think I say that every time I knit a pair of socks. This time it could be taking over favorite sock status from my Online Monkey Socks, which are technically my daughter's socks. They are still my current favorite, though.

Sunday is looking like a knitting day for any of those who are interested in getting some holiday or other knitting done. Let me know if the weekend 'Knitting For Mental Health Day' works and you are interested in joining in. It could be my last until it is officially winter (Meaning January)since I am in the busy season. Perhaps the 'Daily Grind' in Maple Lawn for something new?

Hope some of you can join me! Happy knitting!

And so begins the official start of the 2007 Holiday Season.

To some of you this is the most magical time of the year. You love to shop. Not just for fiber related items. You have that gene that I am missing. You shop in malls- and you like it!

I am missing that particular gene, except when it comes to yarn. Specifically, sock yarn. Shopping and shopping malls depress me. It's just too much.

One of these years I am just going to throw a crafty old fashioned Christmas. Everything I give will have to be made by my own two hands. I have a job that kicks into full gear this time of year, so to be ready for a craft Christmas I would have to start crafting in January. I keep saying I'm going to do it, but I never do.

Perhaps I just need to start a 12 months of Christmas knitting group. Every month we meet and work on Christmas gifts. Couldn't turn out any worse that my attempt to make the Great American Aran Afghan!

Here's hoping we all keep the reason for the season ahead of all the commercialism and hype, and come out the other end with our sanity.

Remember, tomorrow is Monday. Knit something for yourself! Happy Knitting!

Can you belive my daughter made that yummy Pecan Pie?

I stayed at my sorority little sister's house the night before Thanksgiving. I was feeling all sorts of snuggly Thanksgiving morning, so I put on my socks from this year's Sock Wars. After breakfast, my sorority little sister and her husband notice the socks and ask if they are hand knit. I answer proudly that they are, but I did not knit them and proceeded to launch into the story of Sock Wars. I end the story by explaining that the socks on my feet were knit for me by a knitter in Florida, and that it was my second year participating in this event.

My sorority little sister's husband walks up to her, taps her on the back and says, "I sooo do not want to hear another word about how weird my friends are!!!" She shoots back a glare and says, " Your one friend is a Wiccan!" He responds, "Yeah, and this is definitely weirder!!!"

OMG! How is Sock Wars stranger than being a Wiccan?????????????

I decided to research this Wiccan thing to see exactly how weird an outsider views Sock Wars. Wikipedia tells me that Wiicca is the religion based upon practicing magic and that the members identify themselves as witches.

I get the fact that I am a sheltered Christian woman, but how is Sock Wars stranger than this?

Darn those nonknitters! They just don't understand.

Of course there is probably a Wiccan out their saying, " Darn those nonwiccans, they just don't understand!"

Happy Knitting!

Snow!!!!!!!!!!

I'm visiting family, and we actually have snow on the ground as I write! Everyone here is underwhelmed, and say it's nothing. They do not understand that this mistake of a flurry activity is more than we got all winter last year in Maryland! Silly Northerners.

This has been a weird knitting trip for me. The first offense came in the form of a snobby yarn store worker. I wandered into a yarn stor that I had never been into before and was ingnored. OK, I can deal with that. However, upon attempting to purchase a skein of sock yarn I was greeted with, "Is that it?" I was thinking to myself that they were lucky I was buying the sock yarn, but I kept my cool and smiled and announced that that was ideed all for today. This was met with a cold glare over the top of her glasses as she asked, "Have you knit socks before?" I tried to control a fit of giggles errupting inside of me, and the answer that I have knit more socks than she has skeins of sock yarn in this upitty store, but kept the answer to, "Why yes I have." This was not the answer she was looking for apparently. She then wanted to know why I wasn't in her database if I was capable of knitting the almighty sock. I answered that I wasn't from around here. Her look up and down my person indidcated that this was the first statement that she actually believed that came out of my mouth. Tough store!!!!!!!!!!

I'll leave my next story for later. It's even scarier!

Happy Knitting!

I finished my son's socks, so now I can get back to the sock I had wanted to knit for myself. Storm Moon Knits colorway Cyndi Lauper! YUMMY! It is a dream to knit with and I could just lick it it's so pretty.

Too much work, kids, and life have left me with very little knitting time this week. This means I will not be finishing my Tilted Duster in time for my reunion. This also means I have to shop for an outfit. Ick.

So I'm shopping for an outfit at a local boutique and a gal tries to sell me a $128 knit poncho. She tries to tell me how wonderful it is because it's hand knit. It wasn't even a good quality yarn. $128?????????? I didn't even think ponchos were still a trendy item! What do I know?

Happy Knitting

Once upon a time there were some knitters with a dream. These knitters had heard of special cruises devoted to nothing but knitting. These knitters, however, had lives. You know- jobs, kids, bills. There would be no 10 day cruise after flying across the country for them. Who had ten spare days, let alone the money?

And then it happened. The seed was planted. The knitters could indeed have their cruise. They just needed to modify it a bit. Shorter trip, closer to home. Yeah, that's the ticket!

The Lewes, DE to Cape May, NJ Ferry would work! All we would need is a weekend, a place to stay, and we would be set for a 'Redneck Sock Cruise'!!!!!

The idea was a fine one indeed, but as we stated before, these rednecks had lives. Getting a free weekend took a LONG time. Their patience was finally rewarded. Urleen's mother had a condo we could use to celebrate Darleen and Urleen's birthday weekend. Yee- Haw.

Off we went in the pouring down cold rain to a place where it was always five o'clock.

The 'Sock it to Me' was the drink of choice Friday evening and it was served redneck style in mason jars.

The next day was overcast and presented our band of travelers with choppy waters for the cruise. With little to no discussion, our plans were quickly altered and a yarn crawl was planned instead of a cruise. First stop was Bethany Beach to a shop named Sea Needles. Next up was a trip to Rehobeth and Knitty Gritty. Last on the tour was Ginger Moon in Lewes. We would have never found the last stop if it wasn't for Darleen's birthday present Francesca the GPS. Ginger Moon is hidden in the back of an antique shop with little to no signs of yarn to the person strolling by.

After we made sure we would not run out of yarn or needles, we headed back to Fenwick to work on our projects and have a good old fashioned pj movie night. Lots of socks were finished, a cardigan was pieced together, and even a coaster was made.

The trip home on Sunday found the rednecks crossing over the Bay Bridge the same time a Royal Caribbean cruise ship was crossing underneath. It's lights blazed as it headed to sea, and I for one was glad to have chosen the 'Redneck Sock Cruise' instead!

Happy Knitting for yourself day!

What happens when four women take off for the shore for the weekend, assume new identities, and do nothing but laugh, knit, shop, eat, drink, and laugh some more?

Just ask Darleene, Urleene, Miss Kitty, and Flo the members of the '2007 Red Neck Sock Cruise'. Warning: No boats were harmed in the making of this adventure.

I'm off to catch up on vital sleep, and then I'll fill you in on all the Delaware Shore yarn shops tomorrow.

Happy Knitting... and remember tomorrow is Monday. Knit for yourself!

The most unthinkable thing has happened... I have swatched not once, not twice, but three times for my new duster. That's not the only thing... I have achieved the correct gauge. Good thing since I had to use size 7 instead of size 10 needles to get it!

What has caused me to use two words that I find to be knitting cuss words? Vanity!

I want this garment to look Fabu! Therefore, I am sucking it up and swatching and gauge watching and all the other things knitters do when they want their sweater to actually fit for a change.

Shocking, I know.

All of this is due to my new Monday knitting policy. Yeah, me.

Happy knitting

Have you ever had one of those times when you feel like you are only knitting for other people? Between charity projects and gift knitting- I am coming to the realization that I might not even get to swatch that wonderful duster of mine before my reunion that I was supposed to wear it to! Don't get me wrong, I like knitting for others. Right now I just feel like that's all I have been doing for a very long time! Right now I have my son's socks on the needles, but needed to put that aside because I had to finish a hat for a friend that I didn't have time to knit at the end of last winter, due to knitting things for other people. I'm staying at her home soon, so finishing it is somewhat of a priority. Then I get to go back to my son's socks while knitting up brown bag items for the guild, and then do a teddy bear sweater for the guild. My question is...when do I get to knit my socks or start my duster?

Perhaps we need to start a 'Knitting for Me' day once a week. In this time of gift knitting, we need to remember to knit for ourselves occasionally.

Henceforth, Mondays will now be referred to as 'Mondays are for Me' Day.
Here are the rules:
If you want to knit something for yourself, put those other things down and knit for yourself. If you want to desperately finish an item for someone else, then finishing it is doing something for you.
Think of how great the timing of Monday is for this day. Sheep and Wool Festival or Stitches East ends. Well look what day it is! It's 'Mondays are for Me' Day! Monday Night Football Game? It's 'Mondays are for Me' Day! (GO STEELERS!)

Go ahead and treat yourself to some knitting time for you, because today is Monday!

Happy Knitting!

I can't believe I didn't read my newspaper on Thursday! I was calmly catching up on world events last night when I read the 'Today' section of Thursday's Baltimore Sun. Page 5C had an article about a woman who weaves together music and knitting called "Orchestral Apparatus for Musical Knitting", and was perfoming Friday night in Hampden.

Friday night that had both little people at slumber parties.

Friday night that had me watching movies on TV instead of checking out the performance!

Also in attendence was Sabrina Gschwandtner who read from her new book 'KnitKnit:Profiles+ Projects from Knitting's New Wave'.

Did anyone out there go and check this out?