Tie One On - NOT

Ok, so I started my Tie One On from Knitty.com over the weekend, and I got really far. Problem was I dropped a stitch, and it is very, very lacey. What happens when you have 120 stitches on a very very lacey shawl and you are not too far along and you have a dropped stitch you can't pull up to anywhere? Frog it! That's right folks, I frogged it. I then started anew, and ended up having to do it all over again last night, with Deborah's help drom s-n-s . This time instead of having just one dropped stitch, I had several. What a bad knitter I am. Oh well, we decided anyway that it was too lacey, and that I needed to add another yarn to it. I am adding some Maggi's Linen in purple. Won't that just look fab?

The Duck Tour

On Saturday DH and I (that's us together) drove up to my father's house, well DH drove, and I knit and slept. We arrived around 12:30 to find my dad's wife home alone, my dad was off lookinga t an airplane he is thinking of buying, and I'm the one with the expensive hobby. Well, while we waited for my dad to check out his partner sitting in the plane (???) we hung around a spoke with his wife. I spoke about how dorky my dad is, and she defended, no biggie. I get the final say here, my DAD IS A DORK! To prove this I will explain the rest of the day, and our wonderful DUCK tour.

We had lunch and then headed into Boston to meet my brother and SIL. We were to meet outside Copley Square where the tour picks up, so we arrived early (apparently for me to buy a dress, no recolection of this - I just wanted to look or buy if we had extra time). When we arrived at the mall, my DH a little mini-breakdown over what we were doing there, and what were we going to do while there. Shop we all said, or look around said the others (Dad, and wife). He finally calmed down. Well, then he started up again when he realized I was there to SHOP, just a little. I needed a dress from "Loft" for an event, and he was well aware of that. Ok, enough of this....sort of. So Copley Square is huge, and we walked within the malls, as there are 2 seperate sections. One is the Prudential Center, and the other is Copley Place. Well, my dad was all hyped about getting our parking ticket validate, so he made me buy something htat was more than $5, turns out we parked at Copley and bought something at Pru. Oh well. Then, later on he went to buy a coffee, but they couldn't validate his parking so he didn't want any coffee (DORK), we got coffee anyways. So then, he got my SIL to buy candy (for my brother - we all mowed down on it for dessert), the woman validated it, but we couldn't use it because we were over our time limit. Go figure!!

Now on to the Duck Tour. It's a 1 1/2hr land/sea excursion around Boston. It was interesting, we looked up some of the history the guy gave us while on the tour and some of it was inaccurate, but we did find out that we were lucky that these boats weren't built in 1944, as DUCK is an abbreviation, and D stnads for the year the vessel was built, and two years later would have changed it to an "F". Oops! Would have been funny though. All in all, the tour was fun. I enjoyed being with the fam.

After the tour we went to Fugakyu in Brookline for dinner. This happens to be my brother all time favorite restaurant, and also Japanese, if you couldn't tell from the name. I think my brother keeps them in business with the quantity he eats, and also the amount of time he goes there. It's a fun place.

Me Knitting My Waist Band

That's me Friday night knitting instead of packing. Of course my DH was no better, he was on the computer when he took this pic. of me.

Hehe!

I'm Skimping, I'm Skimping

The Yarn Harlot goes on and on about gauging in her book, and that you MUST (notice the word "Rules" in her title) do a proper swatch of 4x4. Well, I can't wait. Although I think I'm going to have to because I need to get part of the pattern from Monica. I just e-mailed, so hopefully I'll get that this weekend, and can "knit on" like a champ.

I CAST ON.......

I started the swatch, I couldn't help myself. When shall I sleep? I know, in the car tomorrow (today) while DH drives using his new little toy, his Magellan GPS. Isn't he the little gadget man? Now he can officially go Geocaching with my father and his wife. Oh lucky him, he gets to go find a toy under a rock somewhere in MA, USA.

I Wil Not Cast On, I Will Not Cast On.........

Oh what shall I do???? I just purchased the most beautiful yarn from sns tonight while at SNK to make both the "Clap" and the Tie One On from Knitty.com. I am leaving for Boston to see the "fam" this weekend, and I have yet to pack, and apparently do my husbands laundry. DH is out cold, but deservingly so. Isn't this going to make a beautiful Tie One on??? I think so.

I also purchasd some Classic Silk for the Clapotis in oatmeal. There is a gauge swatch calling my name for this one.

The waistband for my belt - UNFINISHED

So this is the waistband for my sweater...... For some reason, I can't seem to finish it, it is going soooo unbelievably slow. It's all garter stitch, but for some reason the thought of having to do 70" of this is just too overwhelming. I have to finish though, I can't have this done in time for summer and not be able to wear it. I already have two winter sweaters unfinished, and obviously unwearble for another couple of months. Although the thought has crossed my mind to just finish one and wear it. Have I become a true knitter now, or are true knitters those who finish ALL of their projects???

My new mantra "I will finish, I will finish...."

A New i-Pod Sock - and yet no sweater

So this is Nita's i-Pod sock. I started it yesterday afternoon, and am almost finished with it. I just have to block it a little bit more, and then get a button for it. As it was a last minute idea, I didn't have a button in mind.

I love these colors together so much, I'm thinking about keeping it for myself, but I won't. Unfortunately I can't seem to finish anything for myself, but for others it's no big deal. Hmmmm........

My Traffic Rant of the Day

Ugghhh!!! Why does NJDOT think that it's completely ok to shut down major traffic intersections on the weekends? I live somewhat close to Willowbrook Mall in Northern NJ, and on the weekends traffic is horrible, especially around holiday's (i.e. tomorrow being Mother's Day). Every weekend, the lanes to the major intersections are shut down for ONGOING construction. What does ONGOING really mean? Well, what it means is that it will never ever end in my life time, and that's a far time down the road. So, my DH and I did what every other person in NJ was doing, a little last minute shopping. Now who's the dumb one??? We won't go there. The flower shop, just as I expected was backed up out onto the street, so DH couldn't handle that so we pulled a U-Turn, and started back the other way on Route 23, and what did we run into TRAFFIC. So my husband pulled all of these moves, just as men are known to do, and we hit traffic at every turn. We finally hit the mall, and bought our gift. YEAH!!!!!

Now I have to say since I am a knitter, I did have a little stash with me just in case. So that made the ride a little better. The other thing being the DW that I am, was being with my DH that entire time. OK, OK, I'm not trying to get drippy here because this is a RANT, so I say to HELL with NJDOT.

stix-n-stitches

This is a basket that Sheila from stix-n-stitches put together for the "STARS COME OUT FOR KIDS” event that will be held in Montclair, NJ for the Montclair Community Pre-K. What a great job she did, I couldn't help but post this. She does other baskets for other events, and she will even put one together for you as a gift to someone, as she did for me this past Christmas. She is absolutely wonderful at it, I'm just gushing over this one. You should have seen the one she did to benefit the Revlon Run-Walk this past weekend. WOW.

And NO JAMIE, you still didn't win. But, from my understanding, you'll get another shot at this basket though.