Dear Typepad

You suck!!!! Thank you for forcing this new crap on me without testing things properly. Whatever you've done has completely messed up my blog. Is this anyway to treat a paying customer?

Sorry for the ugly messed up blog. Something has gone completely wrong with my blog. Now I need to find out what Typepad has screwed up. I'll post again after I figure out whats wrong. Sorry for the lack of posts.

Edited to Add: Things should be working again. Please let me know if you notice anything wrong or not working correctly.

Thanks!

Still Knittin'

I've finally finished my TLE Swap pals gift. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out and I can't wait till she gets her box. I still need to wash/block it and I'm waiting on one last item that's floating around in the mail.

For those who do not want to see mass amounts of yarn, shield your eyes and close your browser.

I received some yummy Bamboolicious sock yarn in the mail the other day.



The yarn is very soft and the colors are beautiful. I also joined Zen Yarn Garden's Art Walk Sock Club. I couldn't resist.



The yarn for Shawn's sweater came in from WEBS the other day.



14 skeins of Cascade 220 wool, color 9332 Sapphire. I don't think I'll need all 14 skeins but it doesn't hurt to have extra. We are both very please with the color. I'll start his sweater here in the next few months. When I ordered the Cascade 220 I threw in 2 skeins Valley Yarns Huntington.

I'm really impressed with the feel. If this stuff wears well it will be a great "go to" sock yarn. I'm hoping WEBS will continue to add colors to their site. You can't beat $4.29 for a 50g/218yd hank.



Some Lion Brand Cotton-Ease that I picked up from Michaels.



I'm going to use this to make this dress for Bree. I also have some Knit Picks Comfy that will be here in a week or so. You all know how slow Knit Picks shipping is. I'm gearing up for summer knitting.



OK, now on to the knitting.



I've finally finished the body of my Rogue.



I'm down to the hood and sleeves. I'm almost there! I tried it on and it fits great. I made the length about 2 inches longer because I wanted a sweater that doesn't ride up when I lift my arms.



Today I started and finished a hat for Kristy's Hat Quest. See RC's post or Kristy's post for more info if you're interested in knitting some hats.



This is a simple ribbed hat knit from the top down using di.Ve Teseo. The yarn is a tad splitty but once I got use to it it was easy knitting.

I'll leave you with a shot of my Mother's Day gifts from the girls.



They bought me some houseplants. I love them.

I Swear I've Been Knitting!

I'm working on my swap pals project so obviously I can't blog that. I've also worked on Rogue which is still not ready for a photo. I've finished the back and am now working on shaping the front. Boring I know.

Look, it's a cute toddler.



Am I forgiven for not having exciting pics of my knitting?

I have finished a few small items that I can show you.

- Everlasting Bagstopper.



It turned out well. I stitched the handles on by hand since it was to thick for the sewing machine. This bag will hold lots of stuff. I think next time I'll try braided i-cord but first I need to buy an i-cord maker because I don't want to make that much i-cord with my needles. Talk about booooring!

- Tic Tac Dishcloth from the book Yarn Play at Home.



I think the pattern works great with variegated yarn. It took me forever to finish this pattern because I tossed it in a drawer and forgot about it for several weeks.

- A Knit Dishcloth Dress.



I needed a quick knit and this happen to catch my eye. The dishcloth has been removed from the bottle and used to wash the dishes but I thought using the dish soap bottle would be a cute prop for the pic. Shawn thought it was rather amusing that the soap bottle had a dress on. He probably thought I'd gone a tad bit insane or that the wool fumes had finally gotten to me.

- A Dog toy for Zeus.



He loves these things. I used some Red Heart Strata. If you're looking for a good yarn for dog toys the Strata works well. Knit at a tight gauge I think this stuff could stop a speeding bullet plus it holds up very well to tiny, sharp teeth chewing on it. I just wished Red Heart would have used a softer yarn because the self striping is cool but the Strata is really scratchy.

Now on to stuff I got in the mail. Here's the only thing I can show you from my TLE orders since the rest of the stuff was for my swap pal.



It's Perchance to Knit Merino/Cashmere sock yarn, color Gingerbread. This yarn is super soft & has great yardage (450 yds). I love PTK's colors and to top it off the skeins alway have a nice smell to them.

I also received my Seven Deadly S(p)ins Club shipment. If you want to see it go HERE. Me Likes! The yarn is super soft and the goodies are great. We also got a teaser that one of the other shipments will make up for this shipment which was kinda light on yarn. Now I can't wait.

I bought a couple of skeins of yarn from Hooks & Needles which is offering free shipping to those who are ordering yarn to help Kristy out in her quest for hats. All three skeins are di.Ve Teseo which is super soft and the colors are gorgeous. I may order some for Kaity for matching hat, mitten, scarf combo for next winter.



See RC's post or Kristy's post for more info. If you're interested in knitting hats for Kristy and want/need to pick up some yarn for these hats you can give Kaylee at Hooks & Needles a call. She's super sweet and a pleasure to deal with. You don't have to buy your yarn from there. Yarn out of stash, bought from your LYS, etc will be fine too.

The weather forecasters keep saying we're suppose to see sun but the darn thing keeps hiding behind clouds. Here's hoping they aren't lying about the warm weather for this weekend. It's suppose to be in the mid 80's for the next few days and it's suppose to hit like 92 on Sat. Which is gorgeous weather to be out and about. I think we may try to plan a small family outing to take advantage of the warm weather.

Green Post

This post is about the 7th Generation products I've been trying. I'll go ahead and apologize to all of you who are here for the knitting content. I'll have a knitting post tomorrow.

I'm almost through the first bottle of 7th Generations Natural 2x Concentrate Laundry Detergent (Eucalyptus & Lavender). They also make a detergent for delicates and a baby detergent.

All in all I'm really impressed with this laundry soap. It's gotten out every type of stain my kids have thrown at it so far. Most of the time I had to do a little pre-treating but I had to do that with other laundry soaps I've used so that isn't a problem. The stains so far have been ground in dirt, chocolate, vegetable soup (Campbell's), Italian salad dressing, & blood. The only one I had a problem with was the vegetable soup stain which can be a tough stain to get out even with special pre-treaters.

I wanted to see how this laundry detergent held up when I didn't use fabric softener or dryer sheets so I did a few loads without the additional products. The only load that showed any static after drying was Bree's load which contains fleece jammies that are full of static even with dryer sheets. The clothes all came out soft like I'd used fabric softener. I liked it so much I've cut fabric softener and dryer sheets out of my laundry routine and only use the laundry detergent.

If you're looking for a laundry detergent that is hard working, hypo-allergenic, and HE compatible this may be the detergent for you. However if you want a laundry detergent that leaves a perfume smell on your clothing you won't find it with this detergent. This doesn't bother me since perfumey detergents tend to give the girls rashes. If I want to smell nice I will use lotions & perfumes.

The other product I've been using is the 7th Generation Dishwashing Soap. We bought the Lavender Floral & Mint scent. It's not an overpowering smell, very nice and light. There is one other scent and a free & clear version. We bought this soap at our local Target and the price was comparable to all the other name brand dish soaps.

First off, if your hands rash and dry out from using dish soaps you need to buy this soap. Dish soaps kill my hands. They dry out bad and I always seem to get a rash around my wrists. I've been using the 7th Generation soap for about 2 weeks now and there isn't a hint of dry skin or rash on my wrists.

I normally use Dawn dish soap because it's the best one I've found for cutting grease. This soap beats Dawn. I've never had plastic bowls that squeaky clean with so little effort. I'm not using anymore of the 7th Generation then I did using Dawn. I can wash a dish drainer full of dishes with a small squirt of soap.

Next up will probably be the dishwasher soap and all purpose cleaner.

FYI, if you do a "Where to Buy" search and it doesn't pull up any stores in your town it doesn't mean there aren't any stores in your area. I did a search and it didn't pull up anything for Great Falls, MT but I've found their products in the base commissary and Target. I still need to check out Smiths and Albertsons. You can go Here to find a list of supermarkets that carry 7th Generation products.

I found an interesting site in my searching the other day. It's called The Daily Green. It has some great info and links.

Knitterly Shout Out!

Alright folks, RC is looking for people willing to knit up some hats for children in the Ukraine. So if you have a little spare wool/wool blend, etc and want to knit up some hats for kiddos in need of some warm hats made with knitterly love jump on over to RC's site and let her know. This post explains it all but if you have more questions you can email her...her email is located her blogger profile.

There's a contest involved but we all know that's not the important thing. I just want to knit hats and truth be known my kids don't need anymore hats right now. Not to mention we are kinda out of hat wearing weather here.

Been Busy

To the jerk(s) who dumps their garbage in the recycle bins at the recycling center...

It is not funny when you throw your full bags of garbage into the recycling bins. When you do this, those of us who are actually recycling have no where to put our stuff. You can not use the excuse of "I didn't know it wasn't a dumpster!" All bins are well marked and the dumpsters are the humongous bins that you have to climb up the stairs for. So you are either extremely stupid or very lazy. I vote for very lazy with a touch of stupidity. Get off your lazy a** and climb up the stairs. If I can climb up the stairs then you can too!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system I can tell you all "sorry for the lack of blog posts." Things here have been busy and I've managed to come down with a head cold again. So I'm slogging through things here and haven't had much energy to do anything else.

I received these a few days ago.



Mrs. Superwash showed up on my door step with her two non superwash children in tow...Don't ask me how Mr. & Mrs. Superwash had two non superwash children....it boggles the mind. With the loss of Mr. Superwash, Mrs. Superwash was no longer able to support herself and the children so she came to me looking for shelter and support. The family has welcomed them with open arms.

Kaity and I will hopefully dye these three skeins this weekend or next weekend. It's going to depend on how cruddy I'm feeling. I bought her 1 skein of superwash worsted and 2 skeins of bulky Bare yarn.

I also got my 2nd TLE Sock Club shipment. If you want to see it click HERE. I love the yarn, pattern and goodies.

I started a headband for Kaity.



The pattern is The Woven Headband. I'm using Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, color Bittersweet. The yarn doesn't have much bounce in the skien but it does when it's knit up in the woven cable.

That's the extent of what I can show you. I ripped out my TLE Swap Pals project. I didn't like the pattern, I didn't like the yarn so it was frogged and I ordered new yarn. The USPS has not seen fit to give me my darn box so I'm still waiting. It should have been here yesterday so hopefully it shows up today.

I didn't finish the Everlasting Bagstopper. The handles are still about a foot shy of being done. I will save you from the boringness of that photo. I need to work on it this morning.

I'm just about done with the first section of the Bee Fields Shawl once again no photo because it doesn't look much different then it did the last time I posted a pic of it. I've knit another inch on Rogue. I'll post a photo of Rogue after the front and back parts have been knit and joined back together.

The IRS deposited our stimulus check. Since I still have a bunch of work that needs to be done on my teeth (and I'm trying to be responsible) there will be no shiny new iMac sitting on my desk, maybe next time *sniff, sniff*. So instead I bought the yarn for Shawn's sweater from WEBS sale. He originally picked out the Charcoal Grey Cascade 220 but there weren't enough skeins so he went with Sapphire (#9332) instead. It looks grey on WEBS site but after lots of searching I think Purlsoho has the best photo (just in case you want to see). I threw in a couple skeins of the Valley Yarns Huntington sock yarn to try. At $4.29 per 50g hank you can beat the price.

I'm not going to be able to show much from my either TLE order I've placed because most of it's for my swap pal. I did throw in a skein of Perchance to Knit Pamper Me sock yarn for myself. I got Gingerbread....yum!

I'm off to throw the dirty clothes down the stairs and finish the dishes. I know, I know, what a glamorous life I live. Everyone wants to be me!

FO Report

As if Nintendo hasn't come up with enough stuff to entice me into buying a Wii....not that I've managed to get one yet. Wii's new game Wii Fit is the clincher for me. They turn exercise into a fun game. Must-Buy-Wii! I'm actually contemplating destashing some yarn to pay for said Wii, that's how bad I want one.

I finished the second Tidepool Rib Sock the other day.



I think they came out pretty good. I love how fast I can knit a pair of socks in the mediumweight Socks That Rock. I have more then enough left to knit a pair for Bree. I may have enough to knit a pair of ankle socks for Kaity. The stripes are matched up fairly well. It only took me ripping the toe out twice before I finally got the sock to behave. If I was smart I would have matched the two skeins of yarn or better yet, knit them both at the same time. They're close enough for me. I think I'll be getting more STR for winter boot socks.

I'm still working on the Everlasting Bagstopper...sorry no pics this time. I hope to have it done before the end of the weekend. The handles didn't work quite the way I had planned so I ripped back to the bag and bound off the stitches. I'm knitting both straps at the same time in garter stitch and will use my sewing match to stitch them onto the bag. I think that sewing the handles on will give them more strength.

We took Bree to the doc and everything checked out. She's not refluxing badly enough for it to show in the tests but the doc said that doesn't mean she isn't refluxing every now and then. The tests also show that there are no blockages so it appears we are in the clear. They did take blood to check her thyroid levels again.

I have my new sock project picked out. I'm going to use the Lorna's Laces sock yarn that I won from Knittech's blog contest to knit the Beaded Swirls Socks from HeartStrings FiberArts. Awhile back I bought some beads to make stitch markers and that didn't work out so I'm going to use the beads on the socks. I'll start those as soon as I've made some more progress on my TLE Swap Pals socks.