Rainbow Chills

Just thinking a bunch of things:
Pregnant Dooce is even funnier than regular Dooce. Check it out if you have a chance.

New knitting blogs on the side bar. Knitting Curmudgeon is crazy. I have been to this blog briefly a few times before but today her humor just agreed with me. Getting into this whole knitting thing has been a really interesting experience. I love that she calls people KnitDweebs. Michelle and I talked about this when we first starting going to Sophie's. Inevitably, every time I go there, some lunatic tries to talk to me about how gorgeous so-and-so yarns are or how wonderful such-and-such a pattern is. One thing you need to know about me- I do not talk to people I do not know. I don't mingle. I don't make small talk. I don't say hello to people on the street. It is just not my style. Adjusting to the knitting world has been odd. I went to the Knit Out on Sunday and essentially, did not speak to anyone. I thanked the lesson instructors when I moved to the next area. I responded when someone asked me a question. But I did not start any conversations! I just don't really do that. Anyway, the Knitting Curmudgeon seems to think that most of these online knitting people are nuts. She talks about the craziness that exists on the knitting lists which I chuckled at because I have only been subscribed to the knitlist and socklist for a few months and I already am bored by the same questions and topics that come up again and again. It is brutal!

Sarah at the Handknitter blog is hosting a Knit-a-long for people doing the first level of the Master Knitter class starting in January. I had a moment where I thought this would be cool but I don't know. My thought is that doing this would give me a structure in which to improve my knitting. The knit-a-long would provide support for this structure. I imagine I would need to do some research and there would be practice involved which is good. It is not an option right now for me anyway because there is a $25 fee to join The Knitting Guild Association and a $30 fee for the class. The knit-a-long is not starting until after the holidays though so I have time to think about it. And time to ask for this for Christmas!

It is a gorgeous Fall day in Philadelphia.

As I walked to work this morning, it took nearly no effort at all to put myself back in time four years to my junior year at Rosemont. I am in navy blue mesh shorts and a white long-sleeved t-shirt from Founder's Day 1998. Walking across the Green to grab some breakfast at the T before going to Lawrence Hall for my 9:00 English class. 19th Century British Novel with Murphy or Literature from the Restoration with Macartney. Nikes and ankle socks- dew from the grass wetting the laces and my ankles.

I have always loved the Fall but being at Rosemont clinched it as my favorite season. I am a city girl and as a result, the change of seasons is evident but not obvious. At Rosemont, the trees whisper the change of seasons so loudly that you can't help but notice. When I close my eyes, I can feel the wind blowing and the orange and yellow leaves falling around me as I walk from the T towards Connelly Hall. It is beautiful and peaceful and soft.

I miss those moments of being so at one with the changes in nature. I love city life, the bustling, the stores, the people, the buses, the street cleaners and dog walkers and construction men. But I miss the quiet, the crunching of leaves, the sound of the wind in the trees, the trickle of water into the pond, the light on Rathalla at 4:00 on a Thursday afternoon in late September.

I am so excited to return to my favorite tv small town tonight- Stars Hollow, CT. That's right folks, the Gilmore Girls' Lorelei and Rory are returning from their summer in Europe and little Rory is off to Yale. I can not tell you how excited I am about this premiere. This show is in the running for the wittiest on tv, neck in neck with tomorrow's small town return- back to Stuckeyville on Ed! More about that tomorrow! Be sure to watch tonight as I am sure we will laugh, cry, and become better people...heehee.

Last night I went to the City Institute branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia to see Jennifer Finney Boylan speak about her memoir She's Not There. There were a good number of folks there, plus tv cameras from 48 hours. JFB is a male to female transexual who just happens to be the co-chair of the English department at Colby College in Maine. Talk about a different image of trans people. Forget those lunatics on Jerry Springer. We are talking about a 100% academic. Laughing at her own jokes, making obscure literary references, wearing a long flowered skirt and black flats. The reading was wonderful. You can read the excerpt we heard last night on JFB's website. I can't wait to read this book.

There was some controversy last night. An African American woman who just so happened to be trans asked JFB, in a rather nasty way, why white men get married, have kids, and then go through the transition. The questioner basically told JFB that black trans people know that they are trans when they are 3-5 years old, never date women, take responsibility for themselves, go through the transition at a young age and don't rip families apart in the way white mtf trans people do. Needless to say, JFB and the audience were rather taken aback by the anger this woman showed. JFB kept her cool and did her best to answer but eventually the yelling woman was escorted out. JFB said the most astonishing and respectful thing. (I am, of course, paraphrasing here.) She said as the woman was being led out, "She is very hurt and angry. She is also right. This did hurt my family. This is tough on them. But I tried as hard as I could to make this not true. I did not want this to be true. I wanted to be, and I know this sounds corny, but I wanted to be normal. I lived that life until I could not live it anymore." I was glad she validated that it does hurt people. JFB also said though that she knows trans people across cultures and races who have gone through transition late in life and have done so after starting a family. It certainly is not only a white thing.

The experience was a good one and I am glad I went. Looking forward to Joyce Carol Oates in November with a girl I used to work with who is a HUGE JCO fan. Wishing I could go to see Toni Morrison in November but I will be at a conference out of town. Bummer.

No knitting last night. I was beat! Am wishing I had Elizabeth Zimmerman's books Knitting Without Tears and Knitter's Almanac. I am putting both books on my Christmas list.

Good morning folks.

Emmy thoughts: boring snoring! Not so much excitement going on last night.

Funny people: John Stewart and Ellen DeGeneres. That was pretty much it.

Well dressed people:

Helen Mirren was the most beautiful woman there. I would like to say that I wish to look that good when I am her age, but to be honest, I don't look that good now!

Allison Janney looked gorgeous! So did Dule Hill- he is so adorable!!!

Debra Messing looked better than usual.

I wouldn't have known Jennifer Aniston was there if she had not been nominated. They did not pan to her at any point during the show. She was not on the red carpet. What's up with that?

Poorly dressed people:

Kim Catrell- I can not stand her anyway but her dress was bad.

Sarah Jessica Parker- bad!

The whole thing was a let down.

Knitting thoughts- The Hoover blanket is going a little faster but by no means is it going quickly. It is so soft though that it is totally worth the effort that is required to double knit.

Alison at the Blue Blog is hosting a ponch-o-long. My Mom crocheted me a poncho two years ago. It is in three shades of blue and has lots of fringe. I have been thinking about doing a more modern one for myself- love the Villa pattern in the new Knitty.

Blog issues:
Why are my buttons not coming up? I have changed free hosting service where they are housed but that has not fixed the issue. Is it a cookies issue? I sometimes can't see the pics over at the Blue Blog so I go to alisonhansels.net, then click on the Blue Room, then click on Blue Blog and then the pictures appear. But I don't know any trick to make mine appear. I figure that if I can't see them, other people probably can't either.

Any thoughts?

Hey kids! Happy Sunday.

Went to the Philly Knit-Out and Crochet today in Rittenhouse Square. What an
f-ing madhouse. You would never know I have panic disorder with agoraphobia...sane and healthy people would have had anxiety at this place. It was a mob scene with new knitters on the first floor and technique mini-lessons on the second floor. I enjoyed lessons in cables, intarsia, and modular knitting.

I have done cables before, thanks to Wendy's mouse-a-thon but I got a good handout at this lesson which gives me confidence to now read cable patterns.

Modular knitting, or domino knitting or any of the dozens of names that this goes by was interesting. I have seen some cool scarves online over the past few months (I think Amy over at IndiGirl was working on one a few weeks ago) that are made up of a series of triangles. This technique seems like it would be good in that instance. No seams to do. Just picking up stitches on the previous shape.

Intarsia was the highlight for me. Rachel and Latin boy whose name I still do not know from Sophie's Yarns taught this. I think I could do a little color work after this mini-lesson. No handouts here but I totally think I could read an online tutorial to refresh if need be.

Because I taught myself to knit, I don't have a great deal of confidence about it. I feel good about how I knit socks because I took a class. I am a little nervous about knitting in public though because even though I am finishing projects and they look good, I wonder if my techniques are wrong. Oh, for goodness sake, poo on anyone who judges my knitting. I am having a grand old time!!!

Last note on the knit out: I wore my chicKami (picture still to come) and a pair of khaki shorts. I figured people would be wearing things they had knitted and boy was I right. There were some very unattractive articles of clothing at this event! Not one person asked me if I had made my top. I think I should take that as a compliment. Every person who was asked if they made what they were wearing was in something that was so obviously hand made that it made me want to cry! I am not saying my chicKami is some piece of knitting art that everyone should admire. I am just saying that it does not look like a dress made from scrap yarn, or a sweater with alternating rows of eyelash yarn. Dear God, people, use the eyelash yarn as an accent, please!!!

Am excited to watch the Emmy's tonight. Hope Friends wins big. To be honest, I have no idea who or what shows are nominated so I am off to do some research.

Knitting:
I had to frog back to the border on the Hoover blanket last night. I was planning on doing variation 2 (striping) but did not read the directive under variation 1 that said that when you slip 1 as though to purl, do so with yarn in front. Oh, now I get it.

So at that point I had so many issues that I frogged back to the border and moved ahead, only now, I am doing variation 3 because that's the one I wanted to do in the first place. I just did not think I would have enough yarn. I will. Not a big deal. So, if you want to see the version I am making, just scroll down to variation three. The colors are closer to those in variation 2 but you get the picture. I am so excited about this blanket.

Here is my issue though: I hold my yarn in my right hand over my index finger. People say that holding your yarn with your left hand can be quicker. With color work, being able to hold yarn with both hands can be really good. I kept trying last night, but I can't do it. When I hold the yarn with my left hand 1) I am slower than molasses, 2) my stitches wrap differently. I wish learned to knit from a person but I didn't. I taught myself from a kid's craft kit and a few books and online tutorials. I keep saying I am going to go to knitting groups. I was supposed to go to one on Saturday and another on Wednesday. I RSVPd yes to both. And then I stayed home and knitted on the couch and watched a movie. Part of the issue is that I have a cold. Part of the issue is that I am a little nervous to meet new people. I don't know why. But I could definitely learn from other knitters so I am making a vow to go to at least one knitting gathering in October. Michelle and I are already planning on going to the Philly Knit Out and Crochet on Sunday. I can not wait. There are going to be goody bags!!!! If nothing else, I am going for the goody bag!

We are also going to see Jeffrey Eugenides speak at the Free Library on Saturday. This man is an incredibly brilliant writer. I LOVED Virgin Suicides. And then I read Middlesex. Unbelievable. I don't know where he came up with this story but it is phenomenal. Amazing. Complex and detailed and loving and horrifying and unreal. I can't wait to hear him speak.

I cast on for the Hoover blanket from Knitty last night. Finished my three inches of border this morning (I am at home sick) and am a few rows into the striping. Very strange! I think I am getting it. This seems to be a pattern where one bad stitch will make a BIG difference. In the first row I striping, I knitted two stitches next to each other, rather than knitting a stitch and slipping the next. It seemed like no big deal to me when I noticed what I had done but after two rows, I realized that I was not, in fact, knitting two right sides and no wrong sides. My two sides were connected and one was definitely wrong. Any self-respecting knitter would have frogged those rows and started again. Not me, I have no patience for all that while sniffling away with my cold. I simply started knitting it the right way. Now it seems to be working. I think. More tomorrow.

I hate being sick. I had a two day training last week for work and the facilitator had a cold. Three days later, so did I. I have spent all week trying to fight this cold. Nights have been brutal. I have been taking Tylenol Cold PM and it has been making me super jumpy and a little violent at night. Michelle says I have hit her (accidentally of course) several times and just can't keep my hands still. She said it looked like I was swimming on Tuesday night. So I quit taking the crazy-inducing meds. This morning, I just could not do it anymore. So I called out sick and went back to sleep- until 11:30! My poor body was definitely sending me a message.

So I have waded through most of the new Knitty. I loved looking through it but only feel compelled by two patterns. The one that will not leave me alone is for the Hoover blanket. This blanket was designed and knitted by Lou Henry Hoover, wife of President Herbert Hoover. I am planning on going to a Philadelphia Knitting meetup tonight and am itching to make a yarn run on my lunch so I can cast on for this project tonight. I need to run this idea by my financial advisor, also known as my wifey! Heehee.

Michelle and I never say "wife." We use partner in most cases although I abhor that word. Wifey is fun in light hearted instances though so I use it.

Had dinner with Michael and Michelle last night. Had not seen Michael in weeks. It was good to see him. It is weird to see someone nearly every day for two years and then not see them for weeks at a time. I think it is the same sort of adjustment most people go through after college, or even after high school. Things just change and it seems odd.

It sounds like things are going well with Cathy, Rob, and the kitty. I am glad, although I have to admit that a teeny-tiny part of me wanted Rob to be allergic so maybe, just maybe Michelle would say we could take this tiny baby sweetie kitty. Cathy called on Sunday night to tell me and Michelle that someone had given them this kitten and that she wondered if we would keep her if she bothered Rob's allergies. I heard Michelle saying to Cathy that if the cat was long haired, she would probably bother Michelle too and so we would not be able to take her. I talked to Cathy for a few minutes and told her that if Rob was allergic, and we could not keep her, I would definitely help her find someone who would. I know my Mom would. I actually talked to my Mom on Monday and I could hear in her voice that she would love to take a baby kitten. When I got off the phone with Cathy, I did not even talk to Michelle about the phone call. I could not bear to have that conversation again. I know we are both tired of having the same old arguement week in and week out. She knows I want a kitten. I know that she does not think it is practical in our current apartment. As each week goes by though, I know that the shelters will have fewer and fewer kittens. The likelihood of my getting a new little one to love is getting smaller and smaller. In my heart, I have still not given up hope.

The new edition of Knitty is up. I have not even looked at it yet. Just wanted to get the word out to the masses. Amy over at IndiGirl posted a few days ago that Knitty would be live very soon. Since then, I have been checking the Knitty site, oh, about 72 times a day! Heeheehee!

Enjoy!

More about life, love, and the eternal quest to get a kitten later.

Nearly three hours at the neuro-opthamolgist this morning with Michelle. She does not have psuedo-tumor cerebri. I am shocked. Just like I was shocked that she does not have a tumor. Try as I might, I have been worst case scenario girl throughout this entire experience. All weekend I had plans about going to the hospital on my lunch breaks, knitting chemo caps in case she should lose her hair. I have spent the past 36 hours convinced that Michelle was going to go blind and trying to figure out if there was such a thing as a seeing eye-kitten. Argh. I don't usually think of myself as a worrier (strange for someone who has an anxiety disorder) but throughout this whole ordeal, I have been worrying nonstop.

Back to the drawing board. The next step is a heart workup. The newest theory is that her heart is not pumping enough oxygen (in her blood) to her brain which needs alot of oxygen to function correctly. Her blood pressure has been okay with simple testing but if there is uneven pressure or if the pressure is changing significantly when she sits, stands, etc it could be depriving her brain from the right oxygen levels, thus her brain is not performing correctly. That's how I understand it anyway. Take what I say with a grain of salt. I spent an hour trying to figure out why he wanted her to get her colon examined and then I realized that he was dictating a letter and was indicating that the punctuation colon (:) should be used before the listing of the tests he wants her to get. Yikes. I think he should have checked my brain!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I thought I was going to panic in the waiting room. My anxiety is just crazy right now. Took a xanax last night- I was so on edge. I could feel the attack creeping in and it took everything in me to breathe through it until the xanax kicked in. I hate it. I am glad though that I am able to use my skills and resources to hold off the attack. It takes effort to work through it but less effort and significantly less time than trying to recover after an attack. That can take hours.

Knitting news:
Check out the new design of At My Knits End. I loved the old design and this one is cool and funky too.

Check out the amazing greeting card at Fluffa. Yesterday's entry has a picture of this amazingly creative marriage of knitting and hand made cards. Michelle and I have been making cards using stampers and embossing for a few years. Never would have thought of knitting a design for a card. Love it!

I get paid on Monday and am thinking about treating myself to a new project. Rosie's Yarn Cellar's September project of the month is the Landscape Shawl. The kit with the Zephyr yarn is only $20!!! This would be a big project for me and my first real shawl. The triangle shawl I am working on in ribbon yarn is incredibly simple and only requires increasing by two stitches every other row. This looks like it would definitely be more of a challenge. It would also be something easy to keep in the office and just throw on over any outfit.

I am glad I have knitting to distract me!

Michelle's MRI was clear. Thank you Jesus and my dear Blessed Mother Mary. I am so grateful I have to put it in writing. I know it seems strange and over the top to read that sentence but it is how I feel. When I was a little girl and would have a bad dream, my Mom would give me "a magic kiss" and send me back to bed to say Hail Marys until I fell asleep. When I am scared or sad that's what I do. Still. What gives more comfort than a beautiful Mother who can take away pain? Nothing.

The news is not all good. Michelle has to go to a neuro-opthamologist. They want to investigate/ rule out the possibility of pseudo-tumor cerebri (Latin translation- false brain tumor). From what we have read online, this is fluid around the brain that acts like a tumor. It presses on the optic nerve specifically and causes vision problems (blindness if not treated early and well), dizziness, nausea, clumsiness, memory loss, and other symptoms you would expect from a tumor. Michelle has had all of these symptoms. Treatment options are insertion of a shunt or repeated spinal tap and high doses of steroids. It is mostly found in young women (25-45) who are overweight. Weight loss can help put PTC into a kind of remission. The strange thing- Michelle has lost 75 lbs in the past two years. She is less than 20 lbs over the recommended range for her height. I am more overweight than that. Very strange.

Thanks for all the support and prayers especially from my sisters and my ENcourage gals. A girl could not have better friends that she has never met than the girls over at ENcourage. This online support for people who suffer with anxiety has been a God-send for me in the past year. I love my ENcourage gals!

Not much knitting news. Working on the triangle shawl and the Regia socks. Someone posted to the Socklist today that the rumor about Regia ending its contracts with the local yarn stores is false. Thanks be to God. I love me some sock yarn!

Had a great walk to work this morning. Sometimes I get frustrated with my neighborhood. I hate walking out my door in the morning to be greeted by protesters at Planned Parenthood. I don't like seeing junkies that have obviously been out all night and are coming down from their high. I hate being asked for money by homeless people.

Today, I saw art students everywhere I looked. Ballet dancers with shorts over their leotards and tights. Painters carrying large portfolio cases. Shaved heads. Boys wearing lipstick. Girls with beautiful posture from years of dance class. I got an iced coffee from an independent coffee shop and smiled and the counter boys who were obviously artists themselves and were complaining about the evil that is Starbucks. I know this is because a new Starbucks is opening only a block away and they are worried for their morning jobs that allow them to pursue their painting or poetry or rock star dreams.

I love my neighborhood.

I can hardly believe the weekend is nearly over. I spent a good deal of it knitting, albeit I was knitting at the hospital.

Michelle's MRI was yesterday morning. For a full report on the experience: Michelle's blog. We won't have the results for a few days. In the meantime, she is not driving, is trying to take it slow, and just generally trying not to worry.

Michelle's mom, aka Tinkles, is doing okay although her legs look so sore! They are very swollen, seemingly unrelated to the cellulitis. Very strange. Michelle's mom has always been very proud of her very thin calves and ankles and can not believe that these reddish-purple swollen feet and legs are hers. I hope the swelling starts to decrease soon.

I finished the first sock of the Regia pair I am working on. I read something weird on the knitlist or socknitters (can't remember which) in the past few days. Someone posted that Regia has ended all of their contracts with local yarn stores and is only selling to Michael's or some other big craft store. I don't know if that is true but I am bummed if it is. Regia is the only sock specific yarn that Sophie's stocks. I guess Rosie's has some others but I have yet to visit there even though it is only 10 blocks from my house and 5 blocks from my work. Sophie's is only 3 blocks or so from home so I am just more prone to go there. Anyhoo, if that is the case, it stinks. I am good at finding things on the internet but I have no idea how to find out if this rumor is true.

Looking forward to going to my first Philly Knitters event next Saturday. I have no idea what I am going to bring. I am working on a triangle shawl in ribbon yarn but I just don't think it will travel well. Maybe the 5 hour baby sweater that I am going to make from the yarn I was using for the VBB. That's right...I frogged the Very Boring Blanket! I just could not stand looking at it any more. I was home from work on Thursday- having an anxiety pity party (poor me, I can't leave the house) and I just ripped the whole thing out. So I figure I will make a sweater and maybe even a hat and booties to go with it.

The anxiety is at about a 6 out of 10. There is a man in the room across from Tinkles in the hospital who just yells and is generally disagreeable to the nurses. When we first got to the hospital, he was yelling for about 10 minutes and I could feel my anxiety increasing. I thought I was going to have to bolt, but we just closed the door to her private room, a nurse came to get him to quiet down, and I settled. I am not feeling great going into the week but am hoping that relaxing tonight will help.

Michelle is making chicken pot pie- it smells delicious. We joined Netflix on Thursday and got all three of our initial selections yesterday. We watched Arsenic and Old Lace last night and will watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding or Shop Around the Corner tonight. Hopefully, relaxing with my bunny, some good dinner, and a funny movie will help lead into a low-anxiety week.

Knitting news:
I was supposed to take a Baby booties class tomorrow at Sophie's but it got cancelled. I am blue. Oh well.

The socks are coming along well. I am doing gussett decreases on sock #1 and it is moving along swimmingly! I love to knit!!

Family stuff:
Michelle's mom is in the hospital. It sucks big time! I hope that she is okay.

Michelle has to have a test done tomorrow. A big one. She has been blacking out. More specifically, she has been losing her sight and hearing and getting very dizzy. ALOT. So she is having an MRI of her brain. I am doing my best not to over react but it is very hard.

My sister Cathy had a classmate who had a brain tumor. Kim is okay now but was at death's door for, I kid you not, years. It was terrible.

My sister Angie's best friend George had a brain tumor two summers ago. He fell off his bike one day. When they did a test to make sure he did not have a concussion, they found a tumor. He is super now. You have never seen a healthier kid. But it was scary there for a bit.

I don't want to be next. I don't want to be the one who has someone close to them (and in this case we are talking about the closest person in the world to me) to have one of these. I can't even think about it. It is too big.

Culture news: (trying to be light here)
I just filled in a ton of dates on my calendar for authors who are coming to Philly through the Free Library:
Joyce Carol Oates
Toni Morrison- I won't be able to go to this one but it's on my calendar anyway
Ursula Hegi- loved Stones in the River!
Jeffrey Eugenides- this man is the most brilliant writer! Both Virgin Suicides and Middlesex are in my top 20 books of all time!
Jennifer Finney Boylan- I saw her on Oprah. She is amazing. A Male to Female trangendered English professor at Colby College.

Also, check out www.215festival.com for cool literary and music events in October. Jennifer Weiner (who I love!) is doing a reading at a Moveable Feast through the Italian Market. Cheese steaks, water ice, soft pretzels, and books. As my Mom would say, you can't beat that with a stick!

I really want to go see Thirteen. I have been reading reviews for weeks and I think it looks amazing. Evan Rachel Wood is the most talented young actress. She is phenomenal. She was so incredible as Jessie in Once and Again. I can not get over how dead on her reactions were to Mischa Barton's Katie as a young girl exploring her sexuality. I totally felt 15 again. All wrapped up in my best friend and not understanding anything I was feeling. So amazing. I even liked E.R. Wood's performance as Kylie in Practical Magic. She was darling in that movie!

I am off. Hoping to have some fun this weekend despite the new dosage of medicine I am starting tomorrow, despite Michelle's tests, despite Tinkles (my name for Michelle's mom) being in the hospital.

These are the first pair of socks I did. I used Therese Inverso's generic pattern- sort of. I made the cuffs shorter mostly because I was bored and wanted to get to the fun part. I also cast on more stitches because Michelle has big feet. Heehee! Okay, they aren't that big, but the girl is 6 feet tall. She needs big feet or she would topple over! Anyway, I think I cast on 84 stitches. The heel flap is inside out- the purl side faces out which makes the sock look sort of odd. And the toes are way too pointy! I have been looking at lots of pictures of knitted socks, mostly picture trails of people from the socknitters yahoo list. They all have these lovely rounded toes. Do they not decrease as many stitches as I did? I went down to 16 stitches total. Should I not have decreased that much because I cast on more stitches?

Oh, I don't know! The socks keep her feet warm. I guess that is all that matters.

Almost a week since I blogged...horrors!

Knitting news: Finished the Cleo. It is a bit too saucy. Hopefully blocking it and putting in elastic will help. I have no idea where I am going to be able to wear this thing! So funny!

I bought some Regia this weekend for my second pair of socks. This pair I am making for myself in a lovely blue. Blue is totally my favorite color! I broke ANOTHER of my Brittany size 1 double pointed needles! Luckily they are guaranteed. I sent my email to the company and can expect my replacement needles in 2 weeks. I can't believe I have 2 sets of these and have already broken two needles!

I also picked up some ribbon yarn this weekend, very similar to Eros. I am making a triangular shawl on size 15 needles. It is a very easy project, except for when I drop a stitch! Luckily, it knits up so twisty-turny that you can barely tell where I lost stitches and had to go hunting to get them back on the needles! This project should be a really quick one.

When I was at Sophie's Yarns this weekend, they were totally turning over their stock. Having just started knitting in the Spring, it is so great to see all of the Fall and Winter yarns. It is also totally overwhelming though to see the price of it and to think about how much yarn is required for a project that has sleeves! Luckily Michelle is supportive and has encouraged me to pick a good fall/winter project and get the yarn for it. I am about to complete my frequent buyer card at Sophie's so I will definitely be using my 10% off on the big project. I am leaning towards the Give the People What They Want cardigan from The Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits book. I love that book.

I am also thinking about starting the Suki bag really soon, but think that I will buy the yarn for this project at AC Moore. No need to spend a fortune on yarn that I am just going to felt the heck out of anyway!

Non-knitting news:
Seeing my Uncle Danny, Aunt Franci and my cousins for the first time in 9 years was totally crazy. Michelle met them for the first time and can not get over how alike my Dad and my Uncle Danny are. It is really funny because they see each other so infrequently. 3 days this year, 2 days last summer, before that, they had not seen each other in 8 years! My Uncle Dan and my Grandmom moved to Puerto Rico when my Uncle Danny was 15. After that, he went into the military and lived in Korea, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and New Jersey. The two years or so that he was stationed in NJ was so much fun for my Dad because they got to see each other fairly often- but that was 9 years ago! Still, they talk alike, laugh alike, everything. It is so funny. They are even aging the same- they both are getting a little gray around the temples. I think it is a little less obvious on my Dad because he keeps he hair shorter but still, you can see it. So funny. The little cousins, Brian and Francine, whom I had never met are just precious. Francine and I totally bonded, pretty much because I just picked her up and put her on my knee. Kids know who likes kids...I am telling you, they can sense it!

My Dad's godfather, my great-uncle Bill came over with his wife, my Aunt Lin. Uncle Bill is a riot with kids. Every year when I was a kid, my Uncle Bill came over dressed as Santa on Christmas Eve. I have pictures of me and Cathy in matching Christmas nightgowns, holding candy canes, on my Uncle Bill's knee. Both Francine and my darling nephew Joshua had so much fun with Uncle Bill on Saturday. He is just a totally silly guy and kids love that. Michelle and I bought the twins (who live next door to my parents) a bubble blowing machine for their 4th birthday which was Saturday. Uncle Bill liked the bubble blowing machine as much as the kids did!

The weekend was not what we expected at all. Michelle's mom is sick and needs major medical care. I hope the doctor she is seeing today admits her to the hospital. My sister Angie has been going through some stuff that sort of threw me for a loop. I am glad Michelle and I were able to talk to her and share our experiences.

Much work to be done. So glad it is a 4 day work week. Looking forward to knitting away my evenings!