InsanKnitty

We’d like to interrupt your regularly scheduled blog surfing to announce a new swap…

The Hot Cocoa Swap!

Hosted by your’s truly, and Lesley.

We’re beginning our swap with a YELL IT OUT contest… please please please… spread the word. The contest runs from Dec. 1 - Dec 15th, signups start December 16th and run through the 100th swapper or Dec 31st whichever comes first.

You get entries in the contest by

1. Posting to your blog about the swap and contest, and then commenting on the swap blog post that you’ve done your part.

2. Referals get you a second entry. So please, if you see the swap posted somewhere, acknowledge that blogger in your comment on our swap site so he/she can get additional entries!

By the way… we need buttons… If you’re so inclined.. please send us some

Ok… you can return now to your regular blog surfing…

I swear.. this is really the last post for today… see… one of the not so ‘good’ qualities of mine is this thing… called overreacting… and being hypersensitive… I read things on the internet, or in an email and I read them wrong.. not in a dyslexic sort of way, but I read them with the wrong inflection or just in the mood that I currently have… and I get a huge dog bite to the butt often…

Donna, a sweet Dogs on Thursday gal was commenting ‘back’ to the Extrapreneur guy by saying ‘what does this have to do with Dogs on Thursday’.. but I read it as a comment directed at me…  and got miffed.

Sorry Donna… sorry blog surfers who  had to bear with my rant…  I’m off to do some good… I’m going to knit!

Ps.. the pancakes were awesome (at least that’s the consensus from the Littles)

I think that most of you who read me often enough know that I sometimes blog multiple times in a day if I am so inspired, and sometimes I skip a week at a time.. as my crazy hectic life might dictate…

I have never received unappreciative comments before today… and to get one that was mean and one that was questioning me about my blog posts just has me in a totally pissy mood…

For the folks out there keeping tabs on making sure you actually post every Thursday for Dogs on Thursday.. here’s my post..

I don’t have pics… which is totally peeving me even more because I spent much of my day looking for a particular picture I wanted to scan in.. so instead I’m giving you the  really wenchy quick post…

With Murphy being 13, and having just said goodbye to Chewy a month ago tomorrow, … I decided to start collecting the Murphsters shedds.. I mean.. beautiful fur, so that I might have it spun into yarn that I could one day when I have my whole boring life to commit to knitting… knit into a memorial item… a pillow or something…

Murphy NEVER ceases to give a full brush of hair (or 30) every time you bring the brush out… and his fur is just long enough to not be a huge pain in the arse when it sheds onto the floor or furniture .. which truly isn’t often since he LOVES being brushed and we have kids that fight over who gets to brush him NOW…

So there.. that’s my DOT post.. I hope that the knittinggal likes it… I’m sure she’ll be back to check on me…

Sorry friends for my totally bitchy mood right now.. I’m probably blowing the whole DOT thing totally out of proportion but sheesh.. I’m being ultra sensitive today and I hate when I get like that.. I think I’ll go make my pumpkin pancakes now and then knit a few pairs of mittens… see you tomorrow

Cass has some interesting gross things too… go see..
8 Gross things you wish you didn’t know about me…

1. Once while running (in winter) in the golf course, Murphy found a dead fish. He rolled in it… ground it into his collar… I had to get him home, on leash and therefore had to touch the ground in rotted dead fish on his body… the smell as I approached him made me wretch. I threw up all over my running shoes and lower leg. I walked home with this nastiness on me, and continued to throw up at the smell of the dog. While that’s gross… this is even worse… I tried to wash his collar to get the smell out… three times… and still couldn’t the second washing still produced wretching moments.. literally!

2. I like the smell of my sweat after a hard run. Salty, body odor yumminess… (weirdo!)

3. I like the way my mouth tastes in the morning.. enough that I often put off brushing my teeth until later in the day. (oh the poor soul who visits me early in the day)

When I was in grad school I taught Anatomy and Physiology as part of my graduate work. There are two gross things to share from this experience…

4. I liked the smell of the formaldehyde (actually it wasn’t formaldehyde but at the moment the preservative’s name escapes me)… that the cadaver was preserved in.

5. The soleous muscle of the human leg when preserved in the formaldehyde relative I mentioned above looks remarkably like those huge turkey legs that they sell at the Renaissance fair’s of the world, which I previously found to be rather tasty…after this teaching experience I am amazed that I didn’t become a full vegetarian… though I did strongly consider it…

6. I like smelling the containers in the fridge that get moved to the back and forgotten about to see if they have truly gone ‘bad’…

7. I loved having my braces tightened back during those 5 not so glorious brace faced years… For some reason I liked the feeling of the pain when I clenched my teeth together the few days following a tightening.

8. I like to clean out ‘gross’ things.. like the lint filter in my washer, or the area around the sink faucet that can get nasty… the only gross thing I don’t like cleaning is the toilet.

There you go Cass… let’s get the ball rolling with this one.. I’m actually going to tag for once…

Anne, Lesley, Chan, Jessi, Amanda, Kris, Monica, Wendy, and Courtney,

have at it girls… share your ‘gross’ side…

extrapreneur
November 29, 2007 at 12:58 pm

yawn… name me one person that blogs about knitting or knits as a hobby that actually has a life. Thought not. Check out my blog at www.extrapreneur.wordpress.com

I’m sure this guy is expecting me to rant over what he has to say about my hobby, and my friends’ hobbies…

but that’s not what I’m going to do…

Here’s what I’m going to do…

I’m going to tell you NOT to visit his site, I have, it’s NOT in my area of interest, and therefore, boring, in my not so humble opinion… but the reason I’m really telling you NOT to visit his site is… He’s narrow minded and thinks that people who do a craft as a hobby have nothing better in their lives and therefore must stoop to the level of a craft for entertainment.  He doesn’t deserve our attention or ranting…
Here’s my description of the guy…

Young, obviously very young, twenties, I’m guessing. Maybe a few years post college graduation… He’s does not have a job he’s happy with because he’s starting something new (that’s what his blog is about)… I feel like he’s lonely, he didn’t have LOADS of comments from friends and he isn’t very nice… he even has a blog post about how he doesn’t intend to be mean in his comments on other blogs… and besides.. what on earth is a young guy doing surfing to my blog about knitting??? He’s BORED…

I feel like he’s young because he is at a point in his life where he’s not yet able to look back at his mother’s hobbies and realize the love and attention to detail she may have put into one of her hobbies, like baking, gardening, crafting, cooking.. whatever… but he’s old enough to rebel against it enough to take a few seconds of his very important and busy life, to comment on my blog that I and my crafting friends have no life…

Mister entrepreneur… I think you need to remember that in life, it’s all about who you know… and if you are pissing off all the people in your path, you aren’t going to get far…

We’d like to interrupt your regularly scheduled blog surfing to announce a new swap…

The Hot Cocoa Swap!

Hosted by your’s truly, and Lesley.

We’re beginning our swap with a YELL IT OUT contest… please please please… spread the word. The contest runs from Dec. 1 - Dec 15th, signups start December 16th and run through the 100th swapper or Dec 31st whichever comes first.

You get entries in the contest by

1. Posting to your blog about the swap and contest, and then commenting on the swap blog post that you’ve done your part.

2. Referals get you a second entry. So please, if you see the swap posted somewhere, acknowledge that blogger in your comment on our swap site so he/she can get additional entries!

By the way… we need buttons… If you’re so inclined.. please send us some

Ok… you can return now to your regular blog surfing…

 I finished one family of knits and they’ve been received, and loved by the family Big guy even got some photos for me of the happy recipients modeling their new knits..

So.. onto the next family.. one that needs to be mailed…

My nephew is only 2, so I’m knitting him some fun washcloths for the bathtub that I’ll send with a bottle of bubble bath… I couldn’t find just what I was looking for so I made up my own patterns, which I actually wrote down and will post later if there seems to be interest

Here’s what I got done yesterday…

Ok, I know the last one isn’t ‘Christmasy’… but it was well liked by my Fall Dishcloth swap pal and I thought I’d make one more up so I could write down the pattern… it fits the ’shape’ theme

I have not been as good as I should be about getting the question of the week posted

What is the ideal setting for enjoying the perfect cup of coffee? Who would be there - or would you be alone? Inside or out? Morning or night? With food or just the steaming cup of joe?

For me in general a cup of coffee is good wherever I have it…

but the IDEAL… well… now we’re talking about my secret wishes and desires.. of which there are two scenarios…

1.  I’m out with my knitting friends, at a fun and funky coffee shop, sipping hot mugs of the elixer of life, chatting, knitting, chatting, knitting… just a great girly get together!

2. I’m sitting in my big fluffy oversized chair in the window of our office, Murphy is curled up at my feet.  It’s snowing outside, and there’s some soft and gently George Winston playing on my central house sound system (it’s a dream that we did actually have in our NC home)… the house is EMPTY other than me and the dog,… I have a knitting project on the needles, that is for ME…

Hey, we can all dream right!?!

I knew what I needed to do… but it helps that others gently shared their thoughts with me… even if y’all were laughing at the keyboard… it’s ok… because I cast on at 3:30 (yes… it took me that long to start.. I had a LOT of cleaning to do from hosting 8 extra people for the Holiday)… and I just took a photo at 8pm of the big girl wearing her cousin’s hat.. (and yes I stopped to eat dinner)… I tried it on too for good measure.. and certainly this bugger should fit a 12 year old boy!

A closer shot of the wave pattern

And… to recap…

Swell, knit on size 7 needles (DPNs and 16″ circs), in Moda Dea Washable Wool, Black and True Red

Yahoo! One family of Christmas Knits complete Now, only 5 more bags, and a few hats and scarves to go 29 days … hmmmm

I thought that this would be a post about making a Gingerbread house with the kids today.. but unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to be about a lesson in Gauge…

Here’s the hat I started yesterday for my nephew… modeled by sweet little girl, who willingly claimed this hat as her own… and she can keep it.. because it’s actually a tiny bit small on her, and is far from fitting her 12 year old cousin Connor!

why oh why do I refuse to check gauge?  I mean really… I’m crunched on time as it is with my Christmas knitting… this hat needs to be in the Big Guy’s suitcase for his trip to MN tomorrow… and while it was a quick knit.. and I can surely knit a new one before his trip…  I’m just peeved at myself for not stopping part way through when I was thinking.. hmmm seems small…

See.. I’m a gauge snob… really.. I have rarely knit something that wasn’t the exact size it needed to be… honestly… the yarn called for in the pattern was Cascade 220… worsted weight… with a gauge of 16.5 stitches, 27 rows = 4×4″ on size US 5 … and I substituted with Moda Dea Washable wool in a medium Worsted Weight…  when I checked the gauge on it this morning, I had 10 stitches, 26 rows for a 2×2″ swatch…  Every time I’ve substituted before which is hmmmm EVERY time I knit… I’ve not had any issues…  so now, in my rush… what do I do?  Do I go up a needle size and do a test swatch? Do I stick with the needle size, and double the yarn?  UGH… my gauge friends out there, please come to my rescue… I have a gingerbread house to bake with my kids and a hat to knit before tomorrow REALLY early …

on the plus side, I’m pleased with how the hat turned out.. I haven’t done any color work in ages…