Updates and Stuff

I'm still struggling with my RA. The doctor added an anti-inflammatory back to my list of meds and that's helped a lot. I haven't had to take the prednisone as much. It's something that I've for the most part learned how to live with but I don't like it and there are days when I flat out hate it and I'm ashamed to admit it but I've had my fair share of pity parties. You live, you learn and you deal. It's all about coping. When I can't knit I curl up in my chair with my iPad and throw myself into a good book. I'm just thankful that I have libraries with eBook lending and Amazon Unlimited has really came in handy for me. I read more then 2-3 books a month. Actually I go through 2-3 in a week and on really bad RA days I can read 2-3 books in a day.

Things have been crazy here. Shawn finally figured out some of his issues with heartburn and indigestion all tie in with gluten so we've been trying to cut gluten out of his diet completely. Let me just say that its damn difficult. There is gluten in crap you'd never thing about it being in.....sheesh. Thanksgiving dinner is going to be a bit of a bitch but I'll get it all figured out.

Shawn was let go from his job earlier this month. After almost 2 years the HR Director called him into the office and said "it's just not working out". The flippin joys of working in "at will" state....ugh! Of course Shawn being Shawn he dusted his ass off and found a job within a matter of hours. Its a temp job that will end before June but he has a couple of final interviews lined up for a permanent job. We'll be OK. What the "nice" lady who let him go doesn't understand is we're use to being kicked in the nuts....we're a flipping military family. Most military have to deal with the proverbial kick to the nuts at least once in their career. We had more then one so we're well versed in the what can go wrong will go wrong. Few things we've learned, Stressing and worrying doesn't change things just makes you miserable, never spend more then what you make, have a healthy savings account and at least one free credit card for emergencies, and laugh. Laughing is one of the most important things. You always always need to find the humor in things. We're laughing because I guess the person who let him go has been getting a lot of flak for firing him and the ones left behind are scrabbling to pick up and figure out the crap that he has been handling for almost 2 years. Wished I was a fly on the wall to watch them struggle....gottta be a funny sight.

Now on to knitting.

I did knit Bree her Ducky she's been pestering me about.

The yarn is Knit Picks Swish DK and the pattern is Baby Duckling. She's been sleeping with it every night. It's become her favorite thing to carry around. She thinks the duck needs some grapes so I may humor her. It's all because of a group of videos on YouTube. I'm not sure why the kids think it's hilarious but I laughed so hard when I watched her and my nephew watch the videos. They made the funniest faces and laughed so much. They are her favorite YouTube videos, thus the request for a ducky of her own.

I just couldn't resist casting on a skirt for Bree.

I fell in love with this skirt pattern the moment I saw it. The pattern is Balletto and the yarn that I'm using is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal sock yarn. I am however regretting picking the pattern because of what has turned into never ending ruffles from hell. I'm never going to finish the ruffles. I'm surprised I'm not having nightmares about ruffles.


Finished my Porch Swing Cardi.

I can't begin to say how much I love love love this cardi. It's so comfy and warm. I've already worn it several times this winter. The yarn is Dream in Color Classy and the color is Chinatown Apple. There were 3 distinct shades of this yarn so I ended up swapping out the yarn with each row I knit. A bit of a pain in the butt but I think its turning out rather nicely. This cardi has very minimal finishing. It's pretty much seamless. There just a little grafting under each arm and thats it.

Kaity's on a scarf kick so I knit her an April Scarf.

The pattern is pretty simple so I worked on it while watching TV. I'm using a skien of Knit Picks Chroma Fingering weight in the Lollipop color way. It's been in my stash for some time now and Kaity adores the color.

I'm making another Ripple Afghan.

What good Boise State Broncos fan doesn't have a blue and orange blanket on their couch! JoAnn had the yarn on sale so I nabbed it up and got to work on it while watching the game. One more game to go against Utah State next weekend. We win that one and we're going to the host the championship game and could be looking at a New Years Day bowl game. Gonna be watching and yelling at my tv next Saturday. Wished I could afford game tickets. Le Sigh....maybe next year.

I have another cardi and some fingerless mitts for myself and a few small things for my mom. I'm going to start kicking in to gear on the Christmas knitting. My only project is making some Christmas ornaments and lots and lots of Candy Cane Ponies. I also have a few sewing projects I'll be swapping with my knitting to give my hands a break. The tiny joints are what are giving me fits. I've had to many days where my hands and feet hurt.

Till next time Happy Crafting!

Crying Shame

We finally found out how hard our school was hit after the failed school levy. It's not as bad as some of the others in the district but it's definitely not good. We lost the HIP HOP program for the whole district, which was an after school program that helps K-8 students with math, reading, writing and study skills. We lost our Para in the resource room, all of our library aides, 15% of the building budget (who knows what that will do, guess the kids will have to do without lights and heat for 20 minutes every day to save money), and our intervention specialist (she helps teachers with ideas for dealing with academically and behaviorally challenged kids.

Sadly, most who voted against the levy were doing so because they do not have kids in the school system and are on this no more taxes kick. It's one of the drawbacks to being in a town where there are a lot of empty nesters. Every year the cost of living goes up. Taxes and death are the two constants in this world. Do they really expect that the cost of running a school is going to stay the same? What freakin bubble world do these morons live in? See the levy would have raised property taxes around $15 per year for someone with a home valued at $100,000.....if I remember correctly. I know it was a small amount. $15 per year isn't much when you think about it. Hell one less trip to the casino would make up for that. That's 3 less trips to Starbucks for me. The school district was asking for a little shy of 1 million dollars. When you factor in that the school district is comprised of 15 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 2 high schools, I'd have to say that 1 million dollars is pretty damn reasonable. So instead of paying a little more each year on property taxes they voted no and now the kids are the ones paying for it. 24 teachers have lost their jobs, classroom sizes are going up, German language classes have been cut from Middle School and the kids are without the ability to recieve tutoring for free. What's next, band and art? Sure as hell won't be sports. It drives me crazy that schools put more priority on sports then actual education. 

Needless to say I'm sick of schools taking the beating from people who don't want to pay taxes. Watching these idiots in town with their picket signs for their tea party braggin about how they won because the levy was defeated and talking about doing away with our government and going back to a simpler Montana. One boob in town actually has a sign is his yard that says impeach Obama. Impeach him for what? That ignorance makes me laugh every time we drive by it. I swear our country's founding fathers have to be rolling in their grave with all the political BS going on right now. Never mind that some of these people who want to do away with our government completely, are now standing in the freebie line with their hands out for help from FEMA and the Red Cross because they had homes and property destroyed from all the flooding we've seen in this state. Oh shoot wait it's the presidents fault that we had heavy snowfall in the mountains this year or that it's been raining like crazy (gonna have to insert the sarcasm here and a few eyerolls since you can't see or hear me). Don't bitch about taxes and the federal government and then stand in the line to get help from said government when you need it. Talk about being hypocritical. 

Anyways, I could rant on and on about this place and the serious problems and lack of progression in this town but that would probably shoot my blood pressure through the roof. Instead I'll just move on to the knitting portion of the post which calms me and keeps me sane. Plus every city has it's problems so it's not as if Great Falls is any different then any other city in the US. Find me a perfect city and I shall flock to it when retirement hits in 1 year, 3 months. If not I'll be bloggin from Boise, ID and happy to be away from the messed up town.

I powered through my moms Rosalind shawl (ravelry)(non ravelry) so that she could take it home with her. 

The yarn is Dream in Color Baby and the colorway is Blue Sage purchased from TLE. I used 4mm megatamas from Earthfaire. DIC Baby is a really nice yarn but I'm really wishing I would have used a thicker yarn. Baby is more like a light finger weight yarn and the pattern called for fingering weight yarn that is on the heavier side. I'm thinking I should have gone with Smooshy instead. Oh well, I'll just have to make another shawl for mom. Maybe this time I will make one out of worsted weight yarn for those chilly days. 

I finished the dishrag made with Knit Picks Dishie.

I really enjoyed knitting with this yarn. It has great stitch definition and worked up beautifully with US 7 needles. It's been pressed into service and I'll report back after a few trips through the washer and dryer on how it's holding up. No bleeding in the dish water so that's good. I have a few dishrags using the Peaches and Cream and Sugar and Cream that still to this day bleed and they've been used countless times. 

Bree's socks are making great progress.

A few more trips into town and I'll have these babies done.  They actually have about two inches more on them since this photo was taken. My parents were here for a visit so the blog post got pushed back until after they left. I need to have Bree pick out a solid yarn for the next pair since they have a lace pattern and a fancy ruffle on them.

I'm joining in on Camp Loopy. It's my kind of camping. :) The yarn has been ordered so now I just need to sit back and patiently wait for the yarn to get here. I order Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in the Berry Pie Mix and Salt & Pepper colorways to knit Whippoorwill (ravelry).

On the gardening news front I planted 4 tomato plants. Two cherry tomatoes, one early girl and one big beef. Even with all the rain and lack of sun they are doing good. The cherry tomatoes each have one tiny green tomato and tons of blooms. The early girl and big beef still haven't shown any tomatoes yet but they are blooming quite well and some of those blooms have closed so I have a feeling I'll soon be seeing more green tomatoes. We're going to have sun for the next two days so I'm hoping that will help.

Happy Crafting!

Yarn on the Move

A couple weeks ago I decided that my stash needed to move from its current location to a less stinky spot in the house. Our house is connected to our neighbors house and our neighbor stores their gasoline and lawn mower in their outside closet which unfortunately is next to my yarn closet and the stink is seeping into my yarn closet. So for two days I worked on moving everything around in our bedroom so I could move all of my yarn and fiber stash upstairs. I'm keeping my swift, ball winder, and knitting books downstairs but the yarn and fiber had to be moved before it started taking on the nasty smell of gasoline. I also bought some more plastic drawers for yarn storage. I lucked out and found a sale at ShopKo so they were buy one, get one free. I'll take some pictures for my next blog post. All my sock yarn is sorted out nicely but self striping, semi solid, variegated and mass produced balls of sock yarn like Opal, Regia, Patons, etc. My sweater yarn has a home in the cedar chest Shawn bought for me years ago.

Now if this was my house I would look into fixing the problem, unfortunately I live in military housing and anyone who has ever lived in military housing knows that it is like pulling hens teeth to get housing maintenance to fix something. They act like it's a crime to want to live in a house where stuff isn't broken. The less they fix the more money they save thus more money for the military to piss out the window on stupid stuff....course that is a whole new can of worms I'd much rather not ponder about. Thankfully we only have a little over two years and then I can buy my own home which after seeing the craptastic way most of the newer homes are being built I we will most likely look for a older home with a sound structure and a little fixing up needing to be done. I don't mind doing some of my own house renovations.

Now on to knitting which sadly there is some I can't show you.

Here's Cassidy (ravelry)(non ravelry) in all her not finished beauty.

I finished the other front panel so next up is the sleeves. I'll most likely knit both sleeves at the same time which may be a bit of insanity on my part since I'll have four balls of yarn going at the same time. I'm alternating rows to make everything blend better.

I frogged my Mara shawl and started a different shawl with the yarn. I was counting on getting most of the Mara shawl knit in the car when we were traveling from here to Oregon and back when we visited my Granny last October. Unfortunately I didn't get as much done as I had planned and while tons or garter stitch while traveling in the car is fine I haven't touched it since we got home so ribbit ribbit.

Here's the pattern I went with.

It's the Sun Ray Shawl (ravelry). It's not a complicated shawl but there is enough going on that I'm not completely bored out of my mind which unfortunately is why I wasn't working on Mara. It probably didn't help that I knit the sample for Madelinetosh so I'd already knit one. I rarely go back to knit a pattern again.

I also have a new "on the go" pair of socks on the needles.

This is just my standard toe up sock pattern with a short row heel. The yarn is Patons Kroy sock yarn that I picked up from Michaels. It feels a tad thicker then most sock yarns I use. To save my sanity I didn't bother trying to match up the stripes.

I finally decided to start working on a sock yarn blanket.

This is based off a pattern I used to knit a baby blanket for my sister-in-law. You knit a mitered square and then pick up stitches along one side, cast on the other half of the stitches and knit another mitered square. You just keep going until your row is long enough and then go back to the beginning and pick up more stitches and start a new row. No sewing up your little squares and all you have to do is weave in the ends. I'm working on this off and on. 

I picked up some yarn to make another shawl for my mom.

The yarn is Dream in Color Baby in the Blue Sage colorway that I picked up from The Loopy Ewe. I received the beads I ordered from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads but they are to small to work with DIC Baby which is a light fingering weight yarn. These beads would work perfectly with lace weight. Unfortunately Fire Mountain didn't really list what size these beads are so I was kind of flying blind. Oh well, I'll set them aside for another project. I have the right beads on order from Earthfaire which is where I should have went in the first place and since I was ordering the beads from them I picked up the pattern too. I've heard nothing but good things about Earthfaire. I'm going to knit the Rosalind Shawl (ravelry)(non ravelry) by Sivia Harding. It's a lovely combination of lace, cables and beads. I got hooked on her patterns after a test knit I did for Woolgirl. I love knitting lace shawls but don't really use them. The only ones that I really use are worsted weight shawls that I can snuggle under during those cold winter days.

Oh and I finally blocked my Rivolo (ravelry)(non ravelry).

I have no idea who will give this scarf a good home. I started out making socks with this yarn but the a portion of the skein didn't have the little bits of green color so one sock was coming out a dark purple/pink color and the other part was much lighter with the green and lighter coloring so I figured a scarf would work best. You can actually see some of the color difference when you look at the scarf. I'm not much of a scarf wearer but I really wanted to knit this pattern. I normally wear cowls because they are easier to put on and take off when you're out and about shopping. Plus the bonus is that you can pull them up to cover your mouth, nose and ears. When a biting wind is ripping through here in the middle of winter it feels rather nice to have as much of your face covered as possible. 

I have some fabric to make a doll blanket for Kaity which I really need to get started on next week. I'm thinking about going with a simple four patch quilt. I need to do some measuring but I think I'll go with 2 inch squares. Time to bust out the sewing machine. 

I think that sums up what I've been up to. Until next time!

Happy Crafting!

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!

Socks & Aggravation

The aggravation doesn't have anything to do with the socks.  The aggravation has to do with some packages that I'm waiting on.  I'll get into that in a second.

First up, the socks.




I worked on Kaity's Simple Socks last night.  I'm just starting the gusset but this sock is moving along quickly.  That could have something to do with the fact that I'm using worsted weight yarn.

Yesterday I had to go round and round with UPS on some packages that they have of mine.  You all remember the package I got in from Amazon containing my new knitting books the other day.  I got the box from UPS and it was delivered without a problem. 

I used the same address to order some winter boots for Shawn and I and to order a 50% off Kids Cardi kit from Lion Brand.  Well the address wasn't good enough for UPS this time around.  From what I gather the address we were given to use was the old address for the post office.  They moved 2 years ago and lodging never seen fit to change their info.  So after several phone calls and several Tylenol later everything was straightened out. 
The worst thing would have been that I would have had to take a drive into town to go pick them up from UPS instead of them being delivered.  No biggie, I can handle that.  We've already stumbled upon where the UPS sorting center is anyway.

The kicker is that I used the same address for an order with Knit Picks and they took it upon themselves to change the zip code.  *Sigh*.  No problem.  General Delivery is a military thing, the USPS in Great Falls should know what to do with it.  With General Delivery a street address is not important.  They see General Delivery and send it out to the base.  It may take a few days extra to get here but it will get here.  The box was suppose to be delivered today or somewhere near that day.  Anyone who's ordered from Knit Picks knows that the tracking leaves little to be desired.  To put it kindly it stinks! 

Nope, isn't going to happen so delivery today for me.  For some reason my box ended up staying on the FedEx truck so it went from Denver, CO to Salt Lake City, UT then from Salt Lake City back to Denver and then from Denver back to Salt Lake City.  I guess the yarn and needles wanted to do a little extra traveling.  All of this took about 6 days.  *double sigh*. 

So now my box is sitting in Salt Lake City waiting to head out again.  I was told by Knit Pick's customer service that if I don't get the box by 1 Sept they will ship out a new box.  At least they will ship out a new box but I wanted my needles to start another pair of socks.  Plus I have one circ Harmony needle in there and I think a lot of sizes are now back ordered until Oct.  *Super Sigh*  But I ordered several of the nickel plated needles so I'm good to go.  Thankfully my Simple Socks are almost done so that needle will be free again to start another pair of socks.  What a pain.

The good news is that we may be in our house by the beginning of next week.  I'm not going to celebrate until we're in the house though.   :~)

Score One For Me

Score one for the knitter.  Ah life is good.  We went clothes shopping yesterday since Shawn got off work early.  Old Navy was having a sale on a lot of their clothing so we managed to snag several outfits for all 4 of us for less then $300. 

Then to make things even better I found the Lion Brand Wool-ease Thick and Quick on clearance at Wally world for $4 a ball.  They had 10 balls all in the same dye lot so I snagged them.  I'm using the color Cranberry.  I'll post pics when the highspeed comes up again.  Hopefully that will be Monday but I'm not holding my breath.

I also got some more needles from Knit Picks and used a gift certificate to pick up from Amazon.com: More Sensational Knitted Socks and Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  All I need to do is order the yarn for my cousins blanket but first I need to decide on a yarn.  I did find one at Webs by Reynolds called Kids Collection Wash Day Wool.  I'm not sure about the wear-ability though.  It's $6.50 for 176 yds making the cost less then $40.  Not to bad.  Though I may go see what the LYS has.  I may find something there too.

Now the bad news which made me cringe and yell a few choice obscenities.  When it comes to my yarn the cussing may come out.  The building that holds the post office in Mtn Home had a section of the roof collapse.  It's a big building with several other military offices in it.  It use to be where the Commissary (military grocery store) was so it's a fair size building.  Now my mail was being held and we had just put in a forward but we aren't sure if they sent our mail out before the roof collapsed.  I have an order from TLE and my yarn I bought from eBay there.

From what we gather, the roof collapsed in the center of the building but not over the post office.  Everyone was evacuated out safely but they haven't been cleared to go back in and probably won't be.  Any mail coming in to my old address now will forward fine because the post office has set up shop elsewhere on base.

Shawn just left to run some errands so here's hoping our stuff made it out fine and is already here on base.  We did find something interesting out.  Even though we live on base our address is going to be Great Falls, MT instead of Malmstrom AFB, MT.  That is going to be so weird to write. 

Well I'm outta here for now.  I need to swap the laundry and get the dishes done.  I have a mega laundry mountain today between the dirty clothes and all the new clothes that need to be washed.

Montana, Here We Are!

**Warning: Long Post, No Knitting Content, No Pictures!

Yesterday is a day I'd probably rather forget.  We found out the kennel closed at 6pm so we had to basically drive as far as possible and stop as little as we could.  We still didn't make it.  Missed the kennel by about 40 minutes.  We did find someone who was willing to take them for the night.  They are being moved back over to the other kennel where they will have 24hr access to the outside, weather permitting and they are a lot closer to the base for easier visiting. 

So needless to say I have no pictures of my travels which really bummed me out.  I did get a starfish necklace with an opal in the middle when we stopped in Spencer, ID for lunch.  I'll take pics later for the next post.  It's cute.

Good News:
The house they have for us is a newer home and according to others who are in them, they are really nice and we are going to love it.  It's just a two story, no basement and it has a garage....yippy! 

Bad News:
The house isn't going to be available till like 10 Oct.  So we are staying in a 1 bedroom TLF until the house is available.

Kinda Good News:  They are going to try to move us to a 2 bedroom TLF after this weekend.

More Bad News:  Our dogs have to stay in the kennel until we get our house.  They can't come anywhere near TLF.  If they come inside they'll charge us $150 and kick us out, so they'll be staying in the kennel.  I miss the little pains already.

Even More Bad News:  All the stuff we brought with us has to go in storage.  Yup, my yarn too.  There is absolutely no room for storage in this place.  Talk about a super bummer.  My yarn is going to be in storage for the next month....sigh!  I may try to squeeze an order on payday from Knit Picks for some yarn for the baby blanket, sock yarn, and a few more 32" circ needles for sock knitting.

Kinda Good News: Since we rented our trailer from Uhaul we get 30 days free storage from them.  At least I don't have to worry about that.

Some More Bad News:  Most of our winter stuff is in storage with all our household goods so I'm going to have to go clothes shopping for all of us.  I quite sure that we are going to need warmer clothes before the end of the month.  This makes me want to smack my head against the wall.  I already planned on clothes for Kaity and Bree but not for Shawn and me.  We only need a few things to make it till our house is ready and our stuff is delivered but it's still an aggravation.

I keep wondering what else can go wrong.  Don't worry, I'm swaying with the punches and going with the flow.  I was really upset and on the verge of crying myself silly yesterday evening but today is much better.  Now Shawn and I are kinda laughing and trying to joke about it.  All that matters is that we have a place to stay, the dogs are in a good kennel where we can visit often and we have a house to look forward too.  Home is where your family is, not the house itself. 

On a bright note, I can sooooo see why Montana is called Big Sky Country.  I've never seen a sky go on forever.  The mountains and the blue sky are gorgeous.  The drive from Helena to Great Falls wasn't too bad.  I'm sure it will be much better when we make the trip without a trailer loaded with over 900 pounds worth of stuff.  We'll definitely head down to Helena to explore.

Dudes, I'm seriously in trouble, Great Falls has a Starbucks.....I squealed when we drove past it which made Shawn chuckle....he knows how much I love my coffee.  There was a double squeal when I seen the Barnes and Noble.  The base is fairly small, so I'm happy about that and it won't be long before I'm feeling totally at home here.

I'm Still Here

**Warning: This post mostly contains ranting!  Some knitting content located at the bottom.  I've marked the end of the rant!

I finally decided on a baby blanket pattern for my cousins baby.  Now she's having a girl but doesn't want anything girly girly or frilly.  OK, cool beans I can do that.  Will be a nice change from the soft yellow/green of Blake's blankie.  Not to mention all the friggin' pink and purple that Kaity always wants.  :~)

So here's the pattern.  It has some nice simple cables, all in all a simple pattern and will make a wonderful blankie. 
Next up, I needed to find a yarn to go with the pattern.  I decided on Knit Picks Swish superwash yarn.  Cool, they have heather colors now.  I'm tossing between the Marine Heather and Lemongrass Heather.  Now me being the smart knitter that I am, I say "Hey why leave anything to chance, I'll order the color card and go from there."   W.R.O.N.G!  Knit Picks is out of stock of the color cards for the Swish and aren't getting any in until 27 Sept.   So now I have to order one of each ball of yarn or wait until 27~friggin'~Sept.  Does anyone else see a problem with them having the bloody flippin' yarn but it's going to take them well over a month to get more color cards in or am I just getting my socks in a wad for no reason?  Ack!  Please hold on while I smack my head against the key board.   n n jdudrfdhsoijodfg

This isn't the first time I've had problems with Knit Picks.  You all remember my gripe with the shawl pattern, that they knew there was a problem with and hadn't fixed and of course they made up for that by giving me free super slow shipping.....woo~friggin~hoo they saved me a whole $2.79!  Wow wasn't that ever so nice of them.  I shrugged it off and said no biggie.  Which of course we all know turned out to be a problem too because once again 2 more skeins wasn't enough I needed more.  No biggie, Sue helped me out.  The still claim you only need 4 hanks to complete the shawl but everyone that I've talked to so far has needed one more making it a grand total of 5 hanks needed to complete the shawl. 
Then there was what I'm now starting to think of as "The Great Cotlin Debacle of 2007".   I finally gave up on that one.   I decided I didn't need the stuff that bad.  It's in stock now but I've already subbed it with other yarn.
Then I needed the US2 needle to finish my sisters tank.  When I went to order it, it was going to be out of stock for like a month.  Thankfully I was able to find a needle at TLE....Sheri to the rescue.
So now I either have to go with another yarn or I have to fork out $3.29 per ball for the yarn I just wanted a damn color card for.  So instead of it costing me $1.99 plus shipping it's going to cost $6.58 plus shipping.  I know it isn't much money but it's the point.

***End of Rant***

I've been working mostly on Blake's Blankie.  I have 3 squares and the border left and I'm done.  I'm aiming to have this completed by the end of the weekend.  I'm not going to bore anyone with another progress pic.  Trust me the pictures would be mega boring.  I'll take a pic when I have the blanket completed.
I put a few more rows on my sisters Trekking socks but once again that would be an extremely boring picture.  I'll post again when I have a little more done on them.

Bree is doing much better on her new meds.  The prevacid is doing what it's suppose to an no nasty side affects have reared their ugly heads. 
Kaity now has a spot reserved in one of the 1st grade classes in Great Falls.  Shawn contacted the school looking for a shopping list so we could get it done and out of the way.  The lady Shawn talked to also put Kaity into a class to ensure that she will have a spot when we get there.  The last thing I want is for her to get shipped off to a different school then the other kids on base that she's going to end up playing with.

I'll leave you with this:




And for all of you who have an interest, the top drawer in the background is part of my sock yarn stash. (click on picture to enlarge).  If it comes in a hank it's stored in that drawer.  The second drawer holds all the sock yarn that comes in balls like Trekking and Opal.    :~)

Yarn, Socks, and Aggravation!

On the sock knitting front, I'm completely aggravated with the Monkey socks for my swap partner that I'm currently working on.  I had the stupid thing almost done last night and ended up having to rip the whole toe out.  I then had problems picking up the stitches and lost the last pattern repeat.  The socks went flying while Shawn ignored me and continued to watch TV.....he's a smart man to keep quiet when I get mad.....lol.  Although I am proud of myself, no new cuss words.  :~)  About 10 minutes later I picked up the sock fixed the pattern repeat and put it away for the night.  I'm still mad at it right now but I'll work on it later tonight.  It won't take much for me to get it finished up tonight.  That will make it 4 days to make a sock.....that is a personal best.

My first box from the Loopy Ewe came in this morning.....Yippy!  That's the one with the Louet Gems in it.  Oh boy "I Heart Louet Gems"!  It is squishy and soooooo soft.  No wonder Cookie A. uses it to make her socks.  I will be buying more.  Sheri also sent me a skein of yarn to make a baby hat for the Loopy Ewe Q2 Challenge.  I have some great yarns in my stash for wristers but don't really have anything that would be appropriate for a baby hat so I asked Sheri if she could throw something in.  The yarn Sheri sent me is perfect.  Now all I need to do is figure out a pattern or make one up.


I do have to admit that I couldn't pass up the Cider Moon and Fleece Artist that Sheri added so I bought Cider Moon in the Go Go colorway (sold out) and Fleece Artist in the Marine colorway.  So I should see that box by the weekend....hopefully.  :~)  Plus I just got the confirmation stating my Vesper sock yarn from Knitterly Things has shipped today.....YIPPY!!!!!   I can't wait to get that in. 

Now onto the moving front.  We are pretty much guaranteed to get one of the first two bases on our list.  Our top two are Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, MT or F.E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, WY.  We were told we will have orders in hand by 15 May so we could find out any time between now and 15 May where we are going.  The person Shawn talked to said to check the database from time to time to see if we've been assigned a base. 

Either base is going to be a fairly easy move for us because both bases are about 8 hours away.  No 8-10 hour days in the car with the kids, dogs, and cat for days on end.  :~)  Talk about a major relief there.  Although Shawn was bummed that we would only be getting one day of travel pay....no super nice hotel rooms for $50 a night.  When we came up here we stayed in some really nice hotels for $50-$60 a night while everyone else was paying closer to $100 a night.  The only place we had to pay $80 was in Mitchell, SD which unless it's grown since we went through doesn't have a whole lot to of anything.  Hell we were charged $80 and we couldn't even drink the friggin' water.....don't you think that would be deserving of a discount....lol. 

The discount really comes in handy to be traveling on military orders.  Most hotels have a military discount or have a government rate for those who are traveling on orders.  You won't believe the places that have military discounts, you just have to ask for it.  :~)  I guess you can consider that a nice little perk for being in the military.  Although I'm not sure if that would be worth signing away 4-6 years of your life over to Uncle Sam.....lol.

We're going to start cleaning out the crap in our house starting this weekend.  I don't want to take junk with me when we leave here and we are only allowed around 8,000-9,000 pounds if I remember correctly.  If we go over our weight allowance we have to pay so much per pound which is no biggie if you only go over like a few hundred pounds.

Damn I was long winded today.....sorry all.  :~)