it's almost done so...time out!

I've been working like crazy on the crochet dress and today I'm just feelin like I need a bit of a break. After figuring out my checkbook, gah! and doing a bit of innernet surfing I thought I'd throw this post up of a couple of things I find interesting.

First off, Rena's bad-ass little dog, Winston, hangs out at my house on Saturday while we're knitting elsewhere. Who knows why he finds it necessary to carry Max's dish around when we come in the back door.

The other day he even carried it up to his favorite neighborhood watch location.
That would be my white leather sofa he's resting his little doggy butt on.
Some people's dogs...I tell ya!

And today I was taking a couple of pictures for a swap over at the MultiTasking 9 to 5 group on Ravelry and thought I'd snap a picture of these cute guys that hang around outside my windows at work.

There are 4 of them. They look sort of like Tiki statues. I work in a very old building. If anybody has any idea what purpose they are supposed to serve could ya let me know? Thanks

I'm so close...just a couple more evenings bent over the hook...


now, please let it look as good on me as it does lying on the couch, lol.

a new knitter

Last night our Grand-daughter, Jasmine, came to spend the night. We went to our favorite restaurant, Little Mexico Cafe and it was very tasty as usual.

Jasmine enjoyed her virgin strawberry Daiquiri and our dinners were fantastic.

Her first request upon returning home from dinner was that I teach her how to knit.

We sat down on the couch, I cast 20 stitches on size 10.5 aluminum needles with some leftover Ironstone and in about 15 minutes she was reciting a little stitching song to herself and knitting her own stitches.
While I worked on my dress she worked on her swatch. This afternoon after a bit of gardening we got back to the knitting. I decided some bamboo needles and kitchen cotton might work out better. I cast 30 stitches on size 7 needles for her and told her whatever it looked like when she looked back just keep knitting. We can figure out what all the holes and floppy loops of yarn are when she comes the next time. She's a natural, I'm looking forward to our next session.


Thanks to all my friends for stopping in to say hello. And I want to know how you peeps get your picture to show up on your comments. Any advice would surely be appreciated cause I don't like being left out, hahaha.

Gotta go, The Saint has fixed Jambalaya for dinner, and he's ringin the bell, mmmmm....

Have a great week! See you in a couple of days, maybe with a finished dress...if I don't run out of yarn, eeek!

ETA:
Oooo, I almost forgot, I got to meet Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish fame) this week and hear him sing, like, 10 ft away in a small room with about 15 other people...it was awesome.

He's got a new album coming out of country songs...I'll be buying it. Last time I saw him in concert I was so far away from the stage he looked about an inch and a half tall, lol.

he's home with some loot...

So...totally off the knitting topic but this subject has been the focus of my life since April 7...

How do you like my new Obama-wear? [you can click on any of the pictures to big-a-size them]
Please ignore that long pale expanse of arm, it's been a long winter.


After a long two and a half weeks The Saint has returned to Chez B. I am so glad! It's not that I didn't have elevendy-zillion things to keep me busy, I just missed him being here driving me crazy on a daily basis. That's his favorite thing to do, be annoying to me and the dogs. And we miss it, don't you find that a bit strange?

He came bearing loot from the campaign trail...shirts, buttons, placards and even an Obama version of the terrible towel financed by his new best friend Franco Harris, drool,

this is my fav...they worked very hard and forged some new friendships, The Saint is the really handsome man 2nd from the right, next to my fav Steeler of all time, Franco Harris.

he says there's no place like home...

Max went to the groomer for her spring hair styling today...I know she's a happier dog now. Wouldn't you be too?

before and after

And for all of you who came wanting to see some knitting, here ya go!

I've been invited to a baby shower for a co-worker tomorrow after work. This is what I made for her "bun". Thanks everybody for keeping me company the past couple weeks. I really appreciate it.

The Saint is off to a meeting for a couple of hours so I'm headed to the deck for some more quiet time (like I haven't had near enough, lol) with a nice glass of pear wine and my crochet dress that I haven't worked on in several days.

Thanks, again, for stoppin by. Have a great evening!

sorry if you missed it...

my home away from home...

another super fun Late Night Yarny Party has come and gone...seemed like there was a record number of new folks there. We all had a great time and I have photographic proof...

I really was crocheting, between sips of Merlot, he he

Lorilee was giving a little instruction...

there was spinning...






and knitting... and more knitting...









and let's not forget the snacks...and our resident genius, with his newly felted bag...hey Patrick!

Yes folks the grass is getting green...finally

and Max is still miffed that she can't get into the big part of the yard yet. Oh well, she'll get over it.

Yes, spring has finally arrived here in W Mi. I'll have to get The Saint's short sleeve uniform shirts out of storage this weekend. I'm sure he's gonna want them when he returns from the campaign trail next week.

He got to spend the time during the Obama/Clinton debate in an adjoining room watching on a big screen tv. Guess that's better than being at home watching it on tv.
Better proximity or something... Interesting video here just click on the camera above Pittsburgh on the map if you want to see it. The Saint is the handsome one with the earring about 1:10 into the video, lol.

The 23rd can't come too soon, that's for sure. This is the longest we've been apart in 10 years. He goes on that week long fishing trip every year but that's only 1 week for goodness sakes! Tomorrow he'll be hangin out with a group of retired Pittsburgh Steelers...like my all time fav, Franco Harris!!!! I told him to make sure the camera batteries were fully charged cause we can't miss an opportunity like that...The Saint and Franco together, I think I'm feeling faint, lol.

Kate Jacobs update: Did everybody read The Friday Night Knitting Club? which is now available in paperback I liked it, a-lot. The author of that book, afore mentioned Ms. Jacobs, will be appearing soon at a blog near you! Yep, right here...her new book is titled Comfort Food and will be released on May 5. I've been reading through my advance copy and I'm finding it very interesting. Completely different than FNKC and of interest to me since it's about Foodies. I think I've probably mentioned here before that my son-in-law Chef Wes happens to be - a chef! So stay tuned for that...

I'm hooking like crazy on my summer dress. I've got 2 repeats of the lace done on the skirt. Whatchu think? If I could sit still for a few hours I might get more done.
I'm just having a bit of difficulty concentrating. Livin alone bites!

Heeeeey to all of you that faithfully stop by!
Good traveling thoughts go out to Cass and her girls as they make their way to Raleigh and back this weekend. Congratulations to Gnat on her new job.
Jump over and see Nichole...I'll bet she's havin another contest, lol. And you have to go see Grace's fabulous lace! It's amazing! And you can usually find some yummy Food on Friday at Amy's place. And we really should try to motivate Rena to post to her blog more often, hehehe. Love you Rena! See all you peeps on Ravelry!
And if you have an appreciation for pretty papers go check out Charles' Etsy store. Some good stuff there.

knitter identification and some politics, sort of...

I guess anyone who saw these would have a clue I'm a knitter...


what is it about belonging to a particular group that makes us feel more secure in ourselves?

I've been a member of a lot of "groups" of people in my lifetime but no other has given me more satisfaction and an elevated sense of self like being a knitter. I'd like to give a big thank you to all of you who have boosted my self-confidence and expanded my circle of friends. I'm different and hopefully better person than the one who started this blog almost a year ago.

With this new found confidence I'll be making an attempt at writing a speech tonight for The Saint. He's scheduled to speak at a meeting in the morning. He's been in Pittsburgh for almost a week now working with other Teamsters on the Convoy for Change. Next week they'll be working the phones and shaking hands promoting our candidate. It's an exciting time.

And before I run off to City Knitting for the afternoon I wanted to show you what is drying over my tub...

my new felted loafers designed by Lorilee at City Knitting and knitted by Rena. Aren't they just too cute?! Rena thought I was crazy when I chose her leftover red and green Ironstone as a color combo for these slippers. I guess I showed her, huh? I LOVE THEM.















And a shout to all my faithful following, lol...you're the greatest, thank you for hanging out with me. Especially you, Wildflower, don't work too hard. I love that Coral Pink yarn. Those socks are going to be amazing!

Ok, gotta go! See you later, happy knitting everybody!

Better Late...you know the rest

Phew! It was a busy weekend at Chez B. Knitting, raking, packing...

Packing - The Saint left this morning for his stint with the Obama campaign in Pittsburgh. He'll be gone a couple of weeks, I told him it would be worth it if he brings me back a picture of him and our favorite candidate, lol.

Raking - Spring finally got here and there was much to do outside. With two medium size dogs you know what was waiting for me in the backyard after a long very snowy winter, lol. Well, that's done and the grass is starting to green up a bit. Gives me a new lease on life.

Knitting - with all this new found energy, I started a new project...no, I'm not finished with the 4 other things I'm working on but that's beside the point, isn't it?

This is Nani, she's gonna be a my new companion when the weather is chilly in the evening, or the morning or whenever. I bought this yarn [Sirdar Evita] on eBay a long time ago, forget about it and the other day when I was rooting around in the closet, aha!, guess what I found. It is pretty ugly yarn but I like how it is knitting up. Crazy how that works sometimes. This yarn is not looking anything like the model but I'm doing it on a smaller needle in the larger size stitch count so I'm hoping it's gonna fit when I get it done. I am really only after the shape anyway so we'll see.

Looking at this picture it reminds me of the orange plastic lei I had when I was a very small child, I think it came from a carnival. The Sirdar is actually a bit darker than the picture shows. My camera skills are still not what I would like them to be.

I've been crocheting too, progress is being made on my spring dress...

this is the upper back and the beginning of the front. It's a bit slow going since I can only crochet for short periods of time. gah

I love all these perfect rows of stitches...

I guess the dogs and I will go knit and watch some Food Network, actually they're probably gonna continue to lay around like their doing right now.

After causing me endless headaches trying to create this blog post, Norton just informed me that I have no viruses or spyware so I'll be able to sleep soundly tonight, lol. I wish it didn't decide to run a scan just as I'm trying to get started here. I'll have to get Jared over here to change the schedule on that thing. Or I could try to change it myself...nah, gives me an excuse to see him sometime other than Saturday breakfast.

Everybody have a great week. I'm going to try and get through my Bloglines this week while I'm livin single. I've been lax...I'll try to do better. I know you all miss my comments, hahaha!

Wee Tiny Sock

I got my Wee Tiny Sock today

Nisha did a great job dying this yarn as you can see . It's so cute and the yarn is so soft, it's even sparkly! And she put a nice little loop on top to hang it with. So tomorrow morning it will go to work with me and be added to the bulletin board of honor next to my desk.

Thank you Nisha!

It was so nice to get personal mail that didn't involve an RSVP and buying a gift, lol.

This Wee Tiny Sock will be a nice reminder of yet another great idea from Emily.