Monkey Busy-ness

Ola! Hope everyone's having a great weekend! I know I am! My day started with a trip to Marie Catrib's with my son, Jared, for a delicious breakfast (our first together in a very long time) followed by a trip through 954 West to check out the latest vintage (second hand) clothing and then a few hours knitting at City Knitting. It just doesn't get any better than that!

Except that we will be capping off the day with a trip to our favorite Vietnamese soup place, Pho Soc Trang for a big bowl of Pho. Ahhhhh

This is the weekend at the beginning of a week of vacation. A vacation that does not involve any kind of packing or extensive travel. Ahh, the Fall Vacation. Time to relax, regroup and reorganize before winter comes.

This week will involve some salmon fishing on Lake Michigan, a trip to the shiney new casino called, um, I'm having a mental block, hang on, gotta go Google it...oh yeah, Four Winds. I'm not a "casino person" but who can resist something shiney and new and a short road trip from home?

The Saint is a pretty good Blackjack player though and this place is boasting "300 varieties of wine" so...WHY NOT GO?! He can play cards and I can drink some wine. Sounds like a perfect day to me. lol

And maybe, just maybe, I'll stop and visit my Dad in Benton Harbor while we're down that way. That is, if I can catch his busy-retired-self at home. lol

Why is it that retired people are never at home? My Mother's never home either...she is a widow and retired and is so busy running around the state with the "Seniors" that I can rarely catch her at home. (and if you click on this link, in the top row far right picture in the turquoise jacket, who do you see? My Mom! (wow, I didn't know she had a picture out there in the blog-o-sphere, I'll have to tell my brother & sister, they'll be so amazed) Mom's a celebrity! lol

Guess it's good they're both staying busy. Keeps em out of my hair, hee hee, JUST KIDDING!

And in the world of knitting, we have, ta da! A new and improved Monkey! See...

I took this pictures with Cass in mind *snicker*. Hey Cass! Hope you're enjoying your vacation! Are you there yet? (whiney voice - a little car trip humor) You really should try this Van Gogh stuff...mmmm, espresso flavor...and the bottle is pretty too.

Here's another shot without the bottle-as-leg-substitute...

in case you missed it on Let's Learn Socks Knitting. And speaking of which, if you are learning socks or learning new kinds of socks or just like to hang out with people who knit socks, you should join us. We like new friends!

And speaking of new friends...HEY! to all my new BFFs from Dish Rag Tag. What a blast we've had, even if we did finish 4th, drat! I believe that still puts us ahead of a whole bunch of other teams that haven't gotten their box to that giant mailbox in Alabama yet. That has got to be the biggest mail box I've ever seen! Hey, Emily! lol

Congratulations, especially to TEAM XDR, Rena's team, for getting in that giant mailbox first today. You came out victorious today. We want a rematch!, um, sorry, I got carried away for a sec...love you, Rena!

Thanks again for a great time. To Jennifer, Nichole, Grace, Katy, Susan, Lesley, Allison, Karen (who is blogless) and Rebecca it sure has been fun getting to know all of you! Stop by and congratulate them on a job well done.

I am proud to have been on your team.

Toodles!

Fall Into Autumn Dishcloth Questionaire

Dated to stay at top of blog for the reading convenience of my mystery swapper! LOL

For more recent posts please scroll down. Thank you

Questions & Answers aka TMI...

1. Do you knit or crochet? How long have you been doing it? Learned crochet/knitting/sewing from my dear departed Grama at age 8. Kept up with the crochet but let the knitting go until about a year ago when my daughter wanted to learn to knit and needed a buddy, which would be where I come in, so we took the class together and I've been insanely knitting and spending more time with Rena since then. Not that we needed an excuse, knitting just gives us one more, *giggle*

2. Have you made dischloths before? Do you use them yourself, give them as gifts, or both?
Yes, I've made many dishcloths. They are my go-to knitting when I'm bored or at wits end with whatever else I'm knitting. I have one going at all times. There's a pile of them in my kitchen drawer for daily use and I've given away more than a few.

3. What's your favorite cotton to make cloths from? What cotton would you like to try that you haven't before ? Sugar & Cream is the local available dishcloth cotton. I received a ball of Peaches & Cream in a swap that I really like and will be seeking that out on the internet when I am in need of additional dishcloth yarn.

4. If you knit, do you prefer circular or straight needles? For all, do you prefer wooden, metal, or plastic needles? My favorite needles are Knit Picks circs. I have size 7,8,9 tips and 2 sizes of cables. I also have size 2 fixed cable Knit Picks and size 1 Addi's for sock work. We won't count the collection of straights (in every size know to man) in two large glass vases on my tv cabinet

5. What are your favorite colors? Any colors you don't like much? Haven't found a color of dishcloth yarn I didn't like.

6. What do you like best about Autumn? The cooler temps, the beautiful leaves, the ability to knit and wear sweaters and nice warm socks. Salmon fishing season. Craft fairs & Quilt shows. And happy birthday to me on Sept 13 (yes, Nichole, I stole this idea from your blog, lol)

7. Pies: Pumpkin? Apple? Pecan? All of em? or No Thanks! My Mom's Spie (yes that's actually the variety) apple pie would be my all time favorite.

8. When you were a kid, were you the one who couldn't wait to get started with school , or the one who overslept on the 1st day? I definitely looked forward to getting started. Although I hated the clothes my mother made me wear, hee, I had/have a school supply/office supply, fetish. lol

9. Do you celebrate Halloween? (The real key here guys is especially knowing if you have an aversion to the holiday or little goodies/decorations associated with it, given the timeframe of the swap) Bring on the pumpkins and goblins! I love halloween. I stand at the front door (with the screen removed) and hand out candies to the kiddies and shed a few tears thinking about how cute they are and how grown my own children are now. Their little for such a short time...oh, sorry, I'm getting off the subject aren't I? Oh well, it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to...

10. If you had to choose just 3 edible 'goodies' to eat for a full year, what 3 would you choose?
Scones, chocolate (the darker the better), Honey Crisp apples

11. Do you have any pets? Kids? Husbands who seem like kids? ;)
1 husband who still takes great joy in childhood activities - mostly teasing the children & dogs, 2 grown children, Jared 29, Rena 27 and two dogs, Max and Sam, both black and tan mutts-even our pets are integrated! LOL

12. If you were to describe a particular yarn that shares traits of your personality, what would it be and why? Cotton - casual, but can be dressed up with accessories, dependable, consistent and strong.

13. Do you use your cloths mostly for dishcloths, or as facecloths? Dishcloths

14. Favorite Fall Holiday: Halloween or Thanksgiving and why? (Feel free to share another fall memory if you do not celebrate either of these holidays) Thanksgiving - We gather both families (mine and The Saint's) together for the feast. The two of us have a combined family of 7 children (4 of which we see on a regular basis) 2 grand-children, 4 spouses/partners, 2 dogs and 6 grand-dogs. We celebrate the diversity of our heritage and lifestyles with a huge multi-cultural meal followed by wacky card games and alcoholic beverages. The Saint cooks the chitterlings in the garage, which is not attached to the house, lol, and fries the turkey in the driveway. Then it's a big hodge-podge of spaghetti, mashed potatoes, greens, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce/relish, cornbread dressing, pumpkin pie, green bean casserole (are you hungry yet) and other misc items too numerous to mention. Every Thanksgiving is my favorite (except for the year we ran away and were in Mobile, AL with The Saint's newly-found extended family and it was 76 degrees) as our family evolves and grows into a more interesting unit every year. It'll be 9 Thanksgivings this year, time has flown and we've all grown a lot since that first year in many ways.

15. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should know about? Allergic to long-hair cats, tobacco and molds. If you have a cat just let me know so I don't take a deep breath before I put the dishcloth in the washer, lol! I love cats but my lungs don't. :)

A Beautiful Day for a Parade

click on photos if you want to biggie-size them








There were t-shirts handed out (we love free stuff!)

lines of trucks (the modern means of shipping your stuff) ...YAY Teamsters!













and horseys (the original mode of shipping your stuff)

and political statements.













Some pets,









And some patriotism.













Our Grandchildren walked with us today, Ladarrius, who's 11 now, got tired of waiting before we stepped-off and found a curb to sit on. Makes me think of the first year I was at the parade with The Saint. He drove one of the trucks in the parade and we took Ladarrius with us so he could ride in Papa's big truck and he fell asleep before the parade stepped-off. He was 2 that year. Wow, that seems like so long ago...he'll be in middle school this year...

Meet my granddaughter, Jasmine, she's 8 and almost as tall as me already. Of course that's not saying much, I'm height challenged, but she's only 8! tee hee

Don't we look good in our matching yellow shirts? I'm amazed I actually got us both in the shot, lol

Jasmine always loves the parade. Today she told me that she was missing my cooking. She mentioned banana bread in particular so hopefully the weather will cool off soon so we can get on that. I don't usually cook much in the summer, that's the time for The Saint to dazzle everyone with his culinary skills outdoors.

One more semi-serious pose before we step-off...


Some scmoozing was done by the newly elected Trustee to the Board of Teamsters Local 406 - Congratulations Honey! More meetings for you means more knitting time for me, right?









And a lot of walking! It was a beautiful day for a parade. It's always fun to see a bunch of people you only see at the annual gathering on Labor Day.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Toodles!

Color Choices

Thank you to everyone that weighed in on the colors for my Zimmerman Surprise Jacket! (see previous post)

Here are the colors I chose. Most of these are Cascade 220. The brown is Berrocco Ultra Alpaca and the green is Ella Rae Classic.

Now I just have to figure out what order to do them in *sigh*. Got any suggestions?

I'm off to swatch some more...














I think I'm going to ask the birthday fairy for a better camera this year ;-)

Opinions Please...

I am swatching in preparation for knitting the Elizabeth Zimmerman Surprise Jacket...It should look something like this when done only bigger, to fit me, not a baby.

Here is the swatch so far...Anybody got any suggestions for additional colors? I'm not really looking to be in camo for the fall so would like to add a couple more colors and I'm thinking burgundy and black...

Beuhler? Beuhler? Anybody? lol

The Saint's New Toy

He's as happy as a clam with his new toy...


so much for retiring in 2 years...



A happy man is a good thing...

Today that happy man and I are heading over to Detroit for a nice dinner at Atlas and to see the Tigers vs Yankees, let's hope for some nice weather please. I'm not a lover of a soggy bottom. lol

Rena and I stopped by City Knitting this morning to pet the yarn and pick up a couple of skeins of yarn that we couldn't live without.

I'll post a pic tomorrow of the fabo sock yarn I got.

Hopefully I'll have some picks from the game and maybe a stop at Threadbear in Lansing.

So, until tomorrow...have a great weekend!

Toodles

Chairs, Rena's PIF Exchange & Prizes for You

I really miss this chair...



It went to the garage and was replaced by this chair...















that I thought would be more comfy and less confining.

Not So! and I really hate to have to tell The Saint that I've changed my mind, again, and he'll have to switch them around, again... :)

So, Rena is looking for 3 lucky people she can bestow her amazing knitting talents on...I know she would do it up real nice for whoever would go by her blog and volunteer to be gifted.

Leave a comment on her blog and tell her I sent you and I'll send you a little something myself.

Then leave a comment here letting me know that you left a comment and volunteered on her PIF Exchange.

I'll post your names here when I need addresses to send the spiffs.