And so the fun begins

I've been getting ready for Yarnover weekend lately. I had to finish the top I want to wear. Had to clean the house cause people are coming over. Had to organize the stash closet cause when knitters are around you know they will be getting into the stash! I've done just about everything to get ready except get food. Guess making some brownies and going shopping is on the list for this afternoon.

I've mentioned a few times that a bunch of my Ravelry buddies are showing up this weekend for knitting fun. From Thursday afternoon till Monday morning all I'll be thinking about is these friends and knitting. What could be better!

So I won't be posting for a few days but come Monday I hope to have lots of fun pictures of knitting and knitters, the places we have all been, and the projects we are all working on. Hope your weekend is just ad fun (but I doubt it!!)

Side note - while I'm having fun, Chief will be playing host and Bert will be hiding. I hope my poor scared little guy survives several days of people in HIS house!

If you need me I'll be in the closet - Bert

Split Personality

HOPPY EASTER!!

Hope it was Ducky....

Whoever you are!

3rd Blogiversary

OOPS! I almost missed my 3rd blogiversary. How did 3 years go by so fast!?! What happened during the past 3 years? I've met so many new friends by taking a chance and stepping into the knitting computer world again. Back well over 15 years ago (I have saved posted copies from 1993) I was on a machine knitting group. We moved to a few different places as the Internet companies closed but we ended up on Compuserve. They gave us our own forum and we chatted away about all things machine knitting. Our group was similar to what is now the forums in Ravelry but these were the days when you had 4 hours a week on the Internet or you had to pay for the next level. How times have changed! But the machine knitting industry changed and many of us ended up going our separate ways.

So 3 years ago I heard about blogs and thought I'd give it a try. I was ready to hunt up a new group of knitters - this time hand knitters - to share my hobby/obsession with. This blog led me to others who blogged and then to Ravelry when it started. Ravelry has led me to many wonderful friends. Some created a 2x a month knitting group near my home. Some created a virtual knitting groups and daily small talk on Ravelry.

I've been very blessed with the friends and opportunities that have come from deciding to start this blog. Some months I let things slip by without saying much but I watch the numbers on my counter and marvel at how many people stop by to see how I'm doing and what silly things Chief and Bert are up to. Thank you all for coming along on this journey of finding knitting friends and to see the Boys and what they are up to.

Well, have a great Easter weekend and enjoy the time with your family.

Healed Heel & Fun Yarn shops

I've had the past few days off and have enjoyed them quite a bit. Today was a doctor appointment. We took x-rays and poked my foot. In the end he declared my foot healed. It will take time to be fully back to a normal foot but there's no reason to come back to see him unless something bizarre comes up. The doctor continues to be amazed at how quickly I healed and how much strength is already back to my tendon. I managed to wear a real shoe for a couple hours yesterday and today but I can tell my foot isn't ready for a full day of normal shoes yet. But - I'm getting there faster than normal. Yea foot!

The fun part of the past couple days was getting ready my visitors next month. As part of Yarnover the weekend of April 17th I'm hosting several ladies from the SheKnits Podcast group on Ravelry. We've known each other for quite a while but most of us have never met in person. That weekend we'll be having a big party.
Thursday night there's my regular knit night group and some of the She-Knitters will be coming along.
Friday night will be knit night at my house for the group.
Saturday is Yarnover with a dinner at a local restaurant that evening.
Then Sunday for those interested we'll be doing a Shop Hop. So naturally I had to go visit a couple shops I don't normally get to and check out directions and schedules to be sure they are open Sunday.

Yesterday I went to Borealis. I live on the west side of the cities and don't get over to the east side too often. At Borealis I was greeted immediately and when I explained I was there to check out the place for a shop hop I was given a tour of where the yarns were and had a great chat with the staff member (sorry I can't remember her name). Not once did she try to sell me anything. She was just friendly and wanted me to be comfortable. That's the kind of service that makes you want to come back and buy at that shop.

Today I drove to the northeast end of the cities and went to Lila and Claudine's. I had heard about this shop and would have gone there sooner but its down a flight of stairs and I wasn't sure my foot could make it there until now. All I can say is - WOW! The shop is my kind if place. Colors and yarn and big stuffed chairs to sit in and knit. Friendly people. My first impression was like walking into a Mary Engelbreit picture. When I talked to Kirsten and one of the ladies who works there (again sorry, I'm terrible with names) I felt like they were old friends.

UFO no more

(If you did a search on UFOs and think aliens are here - hit your back button, no aliens here - just crazy knitters)

There are many philosophies on unfinished knitting projects (UFOs).
Some people believe they should only knit one thing at a time and even when it gets boring - knit on to the finish.
Some people say as soon as you get bored or don't like it - rip it.
Some have "billions and billions" of projects going because they like to start new things or like to have different projects for all circumstances. Sitting alone - knit something complicated that takes great concentration. Knitting around others - pick something easy that is automatic to work on. Other circumstances equal other knitting projects.

I tend to fall solidly in the "whatever floats your boat" category. Sometimes I'll start multiple projects and end up with way too many things in progress. Sometimes I get very loyal and work only on one projects. This attitude varies with the seasons or moon phases or something I haven't' quite figured out. Then there's the projects like linger. I've been known to let things sit around the house "for a while" until I actually finish it.

Last year I pulled out a cotton vest I started in the 80s. Yes, the 1980s as in 25-30 years ago. I finished the vest and have worn it (and gotten compliments) several times. I also finished a Christmas socking started around the same time. It was donated to a charity for a silent auction.

This year I pulled out a sweater I started in 2003. I wanted a sloppy sweatshirt kind of sweater that I could throw on and bum around in. It's big and bulky and when I decided to finish it I was stunned at what little needed to be done.





This sweater is from the Knitters magazine issue #72 - Fall 2003. It's a Kathy Zimmerman cable sweater called Soft Shoulders. The shoulders are a clever saddle shoulder where the cable that runs up the sleeve then splits and goes on either side on the neck opening. I decided on Woolease because it's a good price, has wool to give it life and can be thrown into the washer without worrying about it. Forest Green Heather is a nice deep color - not at all what the first pictures look like.

Somewhere around Fall 2007 I had the back and half the front finished and pulled it out to knit some more. The front was completed and it was put away for a while.

Last year I pulled it out again and decided to start the sleeves together to be sure they were the same size. More knitting and it was put away. This year I pulled it out again to finish and discovered I had about 4 inches of the saddle shoulders left to knit, the collar, and then sew it all together. That was it. I had let this sweater sit around for over a year with less than 4 hours of work to do.

Yesterday & today I pulled it out one final time.
I knit. I sewed. I finished.
It's everything I wanted - big and sloppy and very sweatshirt like. Something I can throw on to run to the store to a friend's house. It will be well used.

My name is Jill and I'm a computer addict.

Thursday night while on my computer it froze. Nothing worked not even Ctrl-Atl-Del. So I had to do a hard shut down. When I tried to turn it back on I got an error message. After lots of checking memory, recovery checks, etc. I discovered I no longer have an OS partition. ARGH!

Much more checking and moments of sadness and going to the Geek Squad gave me my answer but not the one I wanted. I needed to get a recovery disk from HP. Wouldn't it be nice if they still gave you these disks at time of purchase like the old days. So - I contacted HP and will get the proper disk (I hope) Wednesday. I was looking at way too many days without a computer and I'm on vacation this week so I decided to get my old laptop functional to get me through.

This computer is OK, it gets me on the Internet but the Internet programs are older and I can't update them because it's a work computer and I don't have admin rights. It's great to be able to at least check email and get on Ravelry, etc but I feel like I'm in a hotel with a crummy mattress. You know that feeling where it's just not home, it's not your comfortable mattress you're used to. My fingers automatically go to the place where "enter" should be on my computer and it's the "shift" key. I go to Favorites and my links aren't here. I play a couple games on Facebook and this computer won't open some of them up because the Flash version is too old. How did we get so dependent on computers!?!

So until Wednesday my computer life will feel like it's staying at a slightly older hotel without the latest and greatest but I will be glad it's not "homeless".

I'm not going to try and get any pictures posted with this computer because it's just not made for pictures and "home" computing things.

I LIKE My Doctor!

As you may recall, I had multiple things done to my foot Jan 4th. Surgery that "forced" me to hang out at home for a month. This past month was a return to work but with limited walking and lifting to let the tendon re-attach to my heel and my toes to get back to normal.

The normal healing time is 4 weeks no weight bearing and 4 weeks with an air cast. Then up to 4 months more of getting your foot back to normal as far as walking without a limp, incision scars healed without "shrinking" to cause toes to be malformed, etc.

Well, yesterday was my latest check up with Dr Cute Eyes. Did I mention he has the greatest eyes. I'm an eye person. Anyway -

Two weeks into this whole thing he was so impressed with my healing powers that he lessened the no weight bearing by a week and let me try walking a very little bit after week 3. My check up a month ago he declared I was healing "spooky fast" and I could try a loose shoe the beginning of this week instead of waiting for normal time period.

Yesterday he looked at my foot and chuckled that I was healing "wicked good". Doesn't know what I'm doing to make this go so fast but - keep it up and if I figure out what I did I should bottle it. You have to love a doctor that calls you spooky fast (in a good way) and wicked good!

I've been wearing an old loose Velcro strap sandal this week with a major limp and soreness but - no more air cast and that's just fine with me. My heel is healing!


How about a quick game of where's Bert. We haven't played that for a while.
I came home earlier this week and was greeted by Chief but no Bert. I called him, Nada.
After searching his usual hiding places I noticed something wrong in the living room....

Guess he wanted to take a nap with Sam the Ram.