It's A.......

The project is in the hands of its new owner so I can post pictures but first I have to say a HUGE Thank You to Deb - LosetheMittens on Ravelry. A couple weeks ago Deb was in town for a class and as it happened my Ravelry knitting group was meeting the one night she had available. I drove past downtown on the way to the group and picked up Deb. We had a quick supper at Culver's cause there aren't any where she's from and everyone has to try Culver's at least once. Then - on to the knitting group. We had a great time. I got her home.

This week I got a surprise in the mail. Deb sent it a new book. I absolutely love reading topical books - knitting mysteries; quilt series; etc. This book is "The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club" by Gil McNeil. It's a novel about a lady who is newly widowed and in need of a fresh start. I know I'm going to enjoy it and THANK YOU DEB!!!

It's a....... Afghan

I hang out on the She-Knits Podcast group on Ravelry a lot. Sharon started her podcast a while ago to create a cyber-knitting circle. When Ravelry came along she started a group where we have small talk everyday and -well- we are a chatty group. Over the past year I've come to know several of the ladies and had a chance to meet some, including Sharon, in person. We all care about each other as much as we would if we lived in the same town. When all this latest financial garbage hit Sharon's family I decided she needed a hug from the group. I send messages to several of the ladies and asked for 8" squares out of a cotton blend (wool itches her).

Within a short time I was receiving mail from all over the country as well as Germany, Japan and Puerto Rico. Chief helped sort the mail and he thoroughly enjoyed checking out the packages with plastic or tape.

Num, num num. I can't get enough plastic to chew - This is good stuff. - Chief

Once all the squares arrived, I crocheted around each one to give them a border and make it easier to stitch together. Lorri (LJWT on Ravelry) came over one Sunday afternoon and helped decide where the afghans should be and helped stitch it together.

All the squares have special meaning to the maker - there's a tree of life with 9 leaves- 2 for Sharon and her husband and 7 for their kids. There's a square on the top using the design of one of her bag patterns. There's one with 9 hearts for her family. I made her She-Knits logo.

There's a Queen Owl square because through some silliness on the forum Sharon became our Queen Owl. There's a fish because Sharon tells everyone to -keep on swimming.
Each square - a special meaning.

We needed one more square so Chief got in the act and knit his own square to add to the afghan.

Sharon opened the package Thursday. Part of the instructions were to turn on her podcast equipment before opening the box. If you want to hear her reaction you can listen.

It's amazing how connected we can be to people we don't even know in person. The Internet has created a new version of pen pals. What great is- I get a chance to meet some of these pen pals in person. Stitches Midwest I met some and I'll be seeing them again this year. I'll see Sharon again. In the meantime - she has a hug from the whole group.

Naptime

The boys have started taking naps together again. This spot is Chief's napping place. I guess Bert decided it was pretty comfortable and Chief is such a loving boy he'll snuggle with anyone.

He'll even give Bert a good bath in the morning. Bert is such a baby!

I'm on Ravelry

It’s October. It’s Minnesota. It’s 81 degrees today. What’s wrong with this picture? I’m sitting here typing away in shorts with the A/C on because I foolishly decided to block a wool sweater and the whole house reeks of wet sheep. It’s been raining and it’s too humid outside to be of any help in the dry the sweater department.

Who cares about the sweater as long as I'm comfortable - Bert

Before I start I just have to say how wonderful my new computer is. I’ve had it for 1-2 months and I still marvel at some of the new features. Right now I’m very much enjoying the picture card slot it has. No more hunting up the cable to connect things together to get my pictures onto the computer. Just – “plop” and it’s in the ‘puter ready to do it’s picturely things. I like it! I also like that when I got the new ‘puter, I broke down and finally got cable broadband. I’m flying through life so fast I can watch streaming TV shows on it. Oops I missed the first episode of Heroes so just go to the website and watch it whenever I’m ready. Cool.
Now back to our regularly schedule post….

Today is Mom’s birthday on the calendar. It’s also my Aunt’s birthday (the one I spend a lot of time talking about my parents to) and a co-worker’s. Being a Sunday and restaurant’s being busier, I’ll take her and Dad out later this week when things are a little quieter. I briefly thought about going out today but then it started raining and getting the two of them into the car – into the restaurant, etc. without rain is hard enough so, I’ll wait. I can’t bring them over to my place yet because I still have too much of their stuff hanging around the house. Mom gets all sad and confused and Dad just gets confused. It’s better not to have them here, unfortunately. Bringing them here for the afternoon would be SO much easier. With luck I’ll have everything settled by Thanksgiving.

So – what’s holding up getting done other than my basically being lazy? I’m getting the basement waterproofed – FINALLY! I got estimates the past few weeks and finally got it set up to have new window wells and floor drainage tiling put in. It quite the big deal. There will be jack hammers and all sorts of strange things going on in the basement the last week of the month. Once that’s done I have an electrician coming in to get the house out of the 1950s and into this decade. I still have fuses and not a lot of them. I have WAY too much electrically powered goodies to keep the old system any more.

After that, I’ll be able to bring the rest of my stuff here from the old house and finally dump that sucker! Then guinifer will get to see pictures of stash north and south as a combined unit and faint from the amount o’ crud I have. I have dreams of the 4 heddle loom, cutting table, knitting machine, sewing machine and serger and all the assorted things that go with them living happily in a “new” well lit studio of fiber goodness. For those of you who need a bit more, there’s also a build in fireplace and bar down there ready for use.

The view from the den window is changing. The maple tree is busy being all pretty and colorful while the apple tree is full of fruit waiting to be picked.

Meanwhile - Bert and Chief are still enjoying the little Secret Pal box. I don't think I'll ever be allowed to throw it away!

Hey Chief - It's your turn to sit in the box and protect it. Tonight's garbage night! - Bert

FYI - I've been busy this weekend because I was invited to Ravelry last night - I'm Jillsknit (there is also a jillknits - not me)

Ravelry is getting close

We're getting close at Ravelry -

Found you!
You signed up on August 8, 2007
You are #24134 on the list.
648 people are ahead of you in line.
15331 people are behind you in line.
59% of the list has been invited so far

They are flying through the names right now! I may have an interesting weekend.

Next weekend will be spent driving around to some of the Yarn Shops in town. October 12-13-14 is the "Tools of the Trade" Treasure Hunt. For details check out my LYS - Amazing Threads.
Just make sure you don't go until after Saturday afternoon so I get a chance to get the free tools at all the shops! :-)

We just got another site for implementation this week so I've been in hyper-busy mode this week. The first couple weeks of a new site set up is me going nuts creating signs, procedure guides, setting up meetings, hunting up MSDS (material safety info) info for copiers, sending about a bazillion emails and phone call messages, etc. If all this gets done before we walk in the door of the new site things go much smoother. Tomorrow is 4 meetings about this site so I'm guessing no lunch. I found McDonald's #2 meal is easy to eat in the car. It's the 2 small cheese burgers and fries and (in my case) Iced Tea. The burgers are small enough so you don't spill it all over yourself on the way to a meeting. I'm guessing this wonderful meal is why I have problems losing weight!

I've gotten some knitting done but much of the week was no-brainer knitting (washrags). I've gotten some sock knitting done. The 2nd Tofutsie should be done this weekend and I'll get pics. I started my Smooshy sock because I just couldn't wait any more. It's great yarn. Again- pics this weekend.