Meet Some New Friends

The best blogging rule is - when you have nothing to talk about, talk about other blogs. This isn't actually a rule but it's what we are going to do today.

I have a long list of blogs that I subscribe to in Google Reader but I tend to glance over many of them and just look at the pictures. But there are knitting blogs I love to catch up on and here's a list of some of them.

Note: I read most of the usual well known ones - Brooklyn Tweed, Crazy Aunt Purl, Yarn Harlot, etc. but everyone knows these so I won't mention them here.

A Little Yarn on the Side - Toni and I have become friends through our blogs and last year did a food/stuff exchange. She lives in Idaho and has a monthly soup "party" with her friends. I felt the need to get her some Minnesota Wild Rice and she gifted me several Idaho food items. Toni has kitty buddies that are with her while knitting, quilting and dealing with life. She's also trying to eat non-processed foods and that part of her life can be read about in her second blog: A Little off the Beaten Path. In both blogs she comes up with lists about life and things she notices that make me wish I had said it.

Of Faith and Fiber - Lorraine is a local Minnesota person. I love reading what other locals are doing and Lorraine seems to get into everything. Currently she posted several pictures of cleaning a fleece for the first time. It was fun to be taken along on the adventure without having to clean the mess! She's also a big sock knitter and has lots of pictures of her projects.

Passing Down Crazy - Another Minnesota knitter, Maria has done a wonderful job at creating a blog that's fun to read, incredible pictures of projects and her life journey. One of my favorite recent pictures was a close up of her knitting and the next was of a sunset. The colors of the 2 are very similar and the comparison is amazing. Great pictures of quilting, knitting and a cute dog- what more do you need!

The Rainey Sisters - Surprise. Another Minnesota blog. Well, half of it is. One sister lives in Minnesota and one in the "outside world". Susan and Sally trade off writing on the blog and showing current projects, pictures from days gone by, and other fun bits. Susan has an afghan available as part of the KnitPicks IDP program so it's always fun to see people you know (even if it's just as a person in your local knitting guild) make it in the real world!

Too Much Yarn - never was a blog was aptly named. Christine is a crazy sock yarn collector. She's one of the ladies in my knitting group that meets twice a month and I'm always excited to see what yarn, project bag, or other goodies she has purchased since the last meeting. On her blog you'll get to see several sock clubs, her latest projects, and soon I know we'll be seeing many pictures of her summer trip to London and Paris. If you like sock yarn you'll love Christine's blog.


Well, other than Toni's blog this turned into a tour of Minnesota. I like where I live and I love the people I meet here so, I hope you'll give these blogs a try if you haven't read them before and I really hope you'll enjoy all the pictures of knitting projects and stories of these ladies and their knitting journeys - ENJOY!

Don't Drink and Drive

When I come home after a long day at work I can depend on one thing - my neighborhood is peaceful and quiet. I live on a street that time forgot. Neighbors know each other and other than new looking cars our neighborhood could be from any time from its beginning in the 1950s to the present. We like living here. We live right off a highway but other than rush hour its pretty quiet. The outside world just doesn't affect our little neighborhood.

Until today......

When I came home after shopping today I turned onto the service road only to discover a very long line of cars waiting to get through our quiet little neighborhood and around a huge number of flashing lights just past my block.

This picture doesn't show it well but there were cars coming up and going down my street - cars lined up on the service road. Just a big mess.

Once I got home (and Chief yelled at me for leaving for 2 hours) I grabbed the camera and headed down the block to see what happened.

Here you can see the line up of cars on the service road better. If there's a couple cars an hour on this road its a busy day. Hard to see what's going on but off in the distance on the next block is the cause of all the traffic. Lots of official vehicles and lots of lights.

The lady that lives on the corner house of my block got the scoop from the guy next door who was out in his yard when the whole thing happened. He's also a good one to ask questions of official type people so usually knows the whole story.

Our highway is a quiet one with a 45mph limit. About 4 blocks away on either side of me are stop lights, so it's not a freeway where you can go long distances without having to stop.

Some guy decided to drive down our highway at 70+mph and slammed into a little red pickup truck. The pickup then slammed into the car next to it.

Once the police, ambulance, fire department and several others got there, the guy was hauled away because he was drunk. His kid went to the hospital and the lady was stuck in her truck. By the time I got home they were still trying to get her out and about 15 minutes later the ambulance was heading down the road. When I left to go back home cars were still being routed around the accident.

This all leads me to the 2 questions I always ask:

Why do people think its OK to drink and drive?

Why to people think speed limits aren't for them?

Oh one more question-

What kind of stupid moron drives drunk and speeds with their kid in the car?!?

Please be safe in your car.

What Goes on In That Little Head?

Bert is a strange little kitty. He's got all the energy in the world and a love for life that you can't believe. He's a happy little boy but, he's a scare little boy.



I think things went "wrong" for him when he was young and he got a deep inner ear infection. During that whole time period he spent much of his time having vets poke at parts of his body he didn't enjoy. He ended up with a fear of strangers. He also ended up with bell's palsy on one side. His eye doesn't blink and his ear doesn't wiggle around.



This no blinking eye thing makes for great pictures of him "winking" but it made him very protective of his eye and he hides from the world. When its just the three of us in the house (Chief, Bert and me) he runs around like a maniac, getting into all sorts of trouble. Poking his head into anything and everything.

Sometimes he doesn't fit into the places he finds so well but that doesn't stop him. If I call his name he appears almost instantly from wherever he's sleeping or hiding.

But usually, I don't have to call for him because he's always near. When I sit and knit he's on top on me or in the rocker next to my chair. But, with all with wanting to be around me and Chief, he needs to protect his bad side.

Bert needs to be where he can make a quick escape in case there's a strange noise outside. He doesn't like to be held too long but loves to be pet if he's got his feet on the ground or a solid surface.

Bert is one cool kitty and I'm glad he's part of my life - even if I can't figure out what's going on in his little head!

You don't need to understand me - just love me. - Bert

What I've Been Up To

I've been rather lazy in getting around to taking pictures. My excuse is the camera and and weather. I had a nice day and took pictures but I forgot to put the card in the camera and the pictures ended up in the camera itself. My cable has been missing for a while which doesn't cause any problems when I use a card because it will just plug into the computer but - pictures from the camera need the cable and well, its not around. That's my story and you just have to live with it...

I've been into socks lately. I got some yarn from a stash exchange my knitting group did and I decided to play around with it. It's Regia Jacquard Color - more of a sport weight. Because its so bright and stripey I decided to keep it simple and just add a slip stitch diagonal for a little interest.


Then there was the May Mystery Sock on the Sock Knitter's Anonymous group on Ravelry. Cookie A designed the sock. Each week in May another clue came out. Mine were made out of Knit Pick Bare figuring I'd decide what to dye them once I saw what they looked like. Well, I like them plain and for now they will stay natural color.

One of the classes I took at Yarnover was 2 color knitting with Meg Swanson. We started a hat and I just kept going. I finished that hat on the right and then plowed right into the hat on the left. I didn't know how much yarn was left so I made a simple striped hat to finish out the 2 skeins. These hats will end up being donated to charity next fall. They're Paton's Classic Merino and its a great basic yarn for projects like this.

I brought out of the small project mode long enough to knit a shawl. It's made from Knit Picks Telemark. Pattern is Haruni. Telemark is a bit rough for a shawl and I haven't blocked it yet so I'm not sure what the final project will end up like.

At Yarnover the ladies from Lila and Claudine's did an amazing thing. They gave everyone who stopped by their booth a skein of Aslan Trends Pima Classico Cotton and a pattern. This is not a cheap yarn and there were a lot of people! This weekend I decided to give it a try and made a Spa Cloth. This yarn is so soft and silky, I'm in love. It's 4 strands of cotton twisted together. A bit splitty but not terrible. The difference between this yarn and the bargain brands like Sugar N Cream is very noticeable. I'm totally impressed with the yarn and ,of course, with ladies at Lila and Claudine's.

Finally, another sock. A friend is part of the Breast Cancer walk and they have an auction as part of it. Last year I donated a couple things for the auction and this year I decided to do something a bit special. I found some pink yarn and a ribbon pattern sock. The pattern is Pink Ribbons and the yarn is Lion Brand Sock Ease in Cotton Candy.

I've added an extra ribbon to the toe so the foot won't be quite so plain.

There you have it - I've been busy knitting lately just terrible at taking pictures.