Hero Worship

We spent weeks carefully researching dog food before we found one that our dogs loved and we felt one hundred percent comfortable feeding them. We really wanted to go organic but couldn't find one that we could afford that the Zeus loved. He's very picky. We finally decided to go with the Merrick brand dog food. The have a handful of different flavors that the dogs rotate through. We are firm believers that our dogs aren't just pets they're family. If we eat good so do the dogs. They are spoiled and babied. We have a separate charge account so that if they need vet care they will get it.

I'm sure there are a lot of you that are going to go see how much a bag of this dog food goes for. I can save you the trouble, at PetCo I pay around $32 for a 15lb bag. I also take advantage of their pals reward card which gets me a free bag of dog food for every 10 bags I buy. When you read the ingredients on their bags you'll see why they are a lot more costly they include salmon, buffalo, turkey, duck, trout, etc. A lot of cheaper dogs foods use corn meal, Iams and Hills Science Diet which aren't as cheap use corn meal and ground corn as fillers so they can use less meat. If it's the first or second ingredient you can bet there's more of it then meat which makes the food cheap and gives the company a high profit margin. Merrick doesn't use corn in their products. The problem comes in the fact that corn is something a good number of dogs are allergic too or can develop allergies. My mom had a cocker spaniel that was allergic to corn and was put on a expensive perscription diet. I'm betting Sammy would have been able to eat the Merrick foods without a problem. It's also harder for dogs to digest corn. Shoot corn is difficult for humans to digest. The dog food industry is one that's not very well regulated and when you see the by-product on the bag you can bet it's not good. By-product is all the nasty stuff that humans wouldn't consider for consumption. They throw in chicken beaks, feet, hooves, etc...you get the point. Not to mention the fact that they can use diseased animals and euthanized dogs and cats in meat meal and by-product. Can we all just give in a resounding ewwwwwww, gag! I don't know about you but lets just say I'm not willing to take a chance that one of these things is in my dogs food. Yuck, yuck, yuck, gag! That's just nasty and wrong on so many levels. So I pay more for my dog food because I think my dogs deserve to eat real meat.

Our household (for the humans) buy high quality fruits and veggies and we generally go organic whenever possible. Fresh is best but if we can't get fresh we go with frozen. I'm always happy when winter is gone and the fresh fruits and veggies start rolling back in. Farmers markets are always a bonus when we can make it there. We've adjusted our budget to make food more important then frivolous spending. High quality food has always been more important then eating out, video games, expensive cable packages, etc. That's not to say that we don't go out and do things as a family or buy extra stuff. Our kids don't lack in the toy department or want for clothing. We've just learned the hard way that a well balanced budget is an extremely important thing to have. 

But anyways, off my soap box and on to the real hero worship thing. The dogs were looking at me this morning with what I can only be call hero worship. We decided to pick up some canned Merrick dog food to give the dogs a treat. We give them a small amount in their morning bowl of dog food so the can lasts 2 days. We want them to eat more dry dog food because it's important for the tooth and gum health. It helps keep the tarter build up down. This morning was Smothered Comfort. Oh my goodness that stuff smelled good. It has really chunks of roasted chicken, carrots, apples, sweet potatoes, blue berries. You want to give your dog a treat, give them this stuff! They'll look at you with hero worship in their eyes. This is not your standard canned dog food mush it looks and smells like homemade human food. 

Anyways, on to the knitting portion of this post. I have a few things that I finished up or have started.

First up the nylon scrubbies I made for my granny.

I used nylon netting I picked up from Season Decorator who sells on ebay. The rolls are 6 inches wide but for 50 cents you can have them cut it in half which is the perfect width for making the scrubbies. I got these 4 and one more that I didn't like because it was knit on needles that were too small out of one 3 inch wide 40 yard roll. I used US size 11 needles. If you have bamboo needles that need to be smoothed down knit with nylon netting. My cheapo bamboo ebay special needles are smooth as a babys butt now. :~)

I've started a new pair of socks for Bree.

These are being knit with a skein of Apple Laine apple pie sock yarn I bought from The Loopy Ewe several years ago. The colorway is Pretty in Pink. I'm using my basic toe up with a short row heel pattern but this time I'm going to use the ruffled cuff instructions for Sydney (ravelry). Sorry I only have a Ravelry link. The pattern is from Toe Up! Patterns & Worksheets to Whip Your Sock Knitting Into Shape by Chrissy Gardiner.

I decide to change to the Embossed Leaves (Ravelry) socks for my YOSS April sock pattern.

I picked out some Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 sock yarn out of my stash and started knitting away. I've made a few changes in the pattern. I hate twisted ribbing so I swapped to a k1, p1 cuff. I also worked a slip stitch heel instead of the stockinette one the pattern calls for. I'm also going to knit a regular toe instead of following the pattern.

I'll end this post with my babies who have passed out with contentment. 

Happy Crafting!

A Few FO's

Holy cow another post and it hasn't even been a month. Shoot it's only been a week since the last post. Shocking really.

No new yarn to post about. We're not buying anything that isn't absolutely necessary until the national budget has been fixed and I know for sure that Shawn and I will be getting our paychecks. It's t minus 3 days and counting before the possibility of a government shutdown. I'm planning on refraining from spending money on yarn and fiber even after everything is resolved because we have a move to save for. The less yarn I buy means the more we can put into savings. I've already got a nice chunk saved and I really hope we won't need to use it to survive. That doesn't mean I won't be getting yarn because I get paid in yarn for my Woolgirl test knits and I've already signed up and paid for the Twisted Fiber Art club. The only other frivolous yarn spending I've done is to sign up for the Margaritaville kit from Woolgirl.

The military will reemburse us for most of our travel expenses  for our final move however we won't have the lovely little government charge card to use which means we have to either a.) have the money in savings or 2.) have a credit card we can charge it all to. We'd rather pay for everything outright without having to incure interest on anything. Generally you're reembursed for everything fairly quickly but anyone that has ever had to deal with the military knows that things can go wrong and when they do they go waaaaaaay wrong. I'd rather not pay interest on that if I don't have to.

I finished my "on the go" socks so I need to start a new one.

The yarn is Opal (flamingo from the rainforest collection if I remember correctly) sock yarn and when all was said and done I had to weave in 5 different spots not including the normal yarn weaving at the cuff and toe. There was a lot of knots in this yarn. Way more then there should have been. This is my first bad experience with Opal yarn. I have some more in my stash so hopefully it's not full of knots too.

Bree's socks are finished.

They're just a basic toe up sock with some k2, p2 ribbing at the top. I've already cast on another pair for her in Apple Laine Apple Pie sock yarn.

I've picked some Gypsyknits BFL sock yarn for my April YOSS socks .

I'm going to knit Leyburn (ravelry)(non ravelry). I'll post a pic when I have a decent amount knit for a progress shot. 

I'll leave you with some pics I snapped of George the other day. Yes that's my desk and yes it's a mess!

 

These were snapped right after someone rang the doorbell. George's personality is really starting to show. We've discovered that he loves the theme song to Family Guy and will sing and dance when it's on and when George sings and dances it gets Petey to sing.

Happy Crafting!!

Still Rolling My Eyes but It's Time To Move On

Things have been interesting around here to say the least. Congress still hasn't come to an agreement so it looks like my lack of faith in Congress isn't misguided. Oh well, guess what will be, will be. Can't expect me to pay bills when you don't give me a paycheck. Add to it that the drama llama has decided to run a stampede through my family.....sheesh! To include some not so lovely Facebook messages from a complete stranger well lets just say it's been interesting. We're generally pretty good about keeping drama in check but when it does cut loose man does that poor herd of llamas make a mess. It's a headache inducing mess that I hope clears up quickly and without anyone being maimed.

I've spend a large amount of time trying to fix a mess up between flickr and iPhoto. Something glitched and I lost a lot of photos on Flickr. If you're my friend on Ravelry you probably got to see the parade of pictures from old FO's and stashed yarn that I lost the photos on. If you're on Ravelry and we aren't friends and you want to add me feel free. I'm luvs2knit on Ravelry.  I think I have it all fixed now but I'm sure I'll find a few pictures missing here and there. Needless to say I've gone back to using the Flickr uploader.

Stormy our cockatiel died a week ago. I think we all suspected that he was sick but the little tell tale signs didn't pop out until after he was gone. We took him to an avian vet but unfortunately there wasn't much she could do for him. It's the last time we will ever buy a pet from the major chain pet stores. The pet store and the breeder they use are suspects in my book. I think the breeder is doing something seriously wrong. If you ever want a small pet go through a reputable breeder or contact your local shelters. People don't just dump off dogs and cats at shelters. Lets just say that when we decided to get a bigger (more expensive) bird you can bet your butt we'll be looking at shelters and breeders. We're contemplating getting an amazon parrot, african grey or senegal parrot. We won't be able to do this until we have our own home after Shawn retires from the military. I have a friend who adopted her amazon parrot from a local bird rescue place so adoption would definitely be an option for us. 

I finished my Feb YOSS socks in March. 

They are knit using my basic toe up pattern with a short row heel and picot cuff. The yarn is Twisted Fiber Art Kabam! and the colorway is Saucy. I love love love Twisted Fiber Art yarn. I don't think I can say that enough. It's probably why I joined in on their spring self striping socks club. I've already gotten March's colorway in. If you want to see it GO HERE. 

I finished the dishrags for my Granny. 

I was slowly working on them because she was staying down at my moms house for the winter. She's home now so I need to get these dropped off in the mail to her. I was suppose to make some scrubbies but the nylon netting that I have sucks so I need to go find some slightly more abrasive nylon. The stuff I have would be excellent for shower poofs though.

I finally got my hands on some numma numma doppio.

All I can say is yuuuuuummmmmy! I love me some merino/cashmere sock yarn. Stuff wears a lot better then I thought it would too. I have a few pair made from yarn from various dyers and they all still look great.

I also got my Hot Cocoa Kisses kit from Woolgirl. CLICK HERE if you want to see it. I also signed up for the Margaritaville kit and picked both colors because I couldn't decide between the two different Margaritas. 

I picked this up from The Loopy Ewe last week.

I've been trying to get my hands on some Zombie BBQ from Lorna's Laces since it came out. TLE finally got some more in so I snagged it. I love Lorna's Laces colorways but this is one of my favorites.

My on the go socks are close to being finished.

I'm just about ready to start the ribbing cuff. The last few pair have had picot cuffs so it's time to switch it up and put ribbing on this time. Normally I love Opal sock yarn but this one has been one big disappointment. So far in these socks I've had to cut the yarn twice because of knots and once because the yarn was really thin.

I've put a few more stripes on Bree's socks.

I'm using some leftover self-striping yarn from my Rainbows and Clouds socks. A few more stripes to go before starting the heel.

I've made some good progress on Shawn's sweater.

I need to run waste yarn through it and have Shawn try it on to make sure it's big enough. It looks small but it's on a 32 inch circular needle so the stitches are a bit cramped. Plus I need to see if the neck is going to be fine or if I need to rip and tweak the neck myself. The neck is the same number of cast on stitches for all sizes. 

I'll leave you with some shots of the mutts and bird.

Zeus chillin in his favorite spot in the winter by the heater vent.

Doesn't he look comfy. It's nice and warm right in the spot plus it's close to me because this is where my computer desk is which is generally where I am. 

Penny the ferocious.

Penny in her "I wanna play" stance. This was right after I told her I was going to kiss her freckles on her nose. When I snapped this pic she had a deep growl going and when I set the camera down she hopped into my lap and tried to lick me to death. She's 30 pounds and takes up my whole lap. She is definitely not a lap dog regardless of what she thinks. This dog is a serious crack up and loads of entertainment. Amazingly enough Penny made it through the healing period after getting her fixed and having a dew claw removed off her back leg that was causing problems without a single ripped stitch. Man that was a pain in the butt I'm glad I won't have to repeat.

Meet George the cockatiel. 

 

He's the newest member of our family and most definitely a boy. George is a yearling and still getting use to us. He's already trying to say pretty bird and he whistles at you every now and then. George has real potential to be a talker. He appears to he a heavy pied cockatiel. He seems to like me more then Shawn which is funny since most of the animals flock to Shawn. Petey our parakeet loves Shawn but Petey wasn't handfed so Shawn was the one to hold him the most when we first brought him home since he was a bit bitey. I think Petey bonded with Shawn and they are now buddies. 

Well that's it for now. Until next time.

Happy Crafting!

Face in Hands and Eyes Rolling

Heads up, this is not a knitting related post and it does have a bit of cussing so if you don't want to listen to my political rant with cussing then please ignore this post. I'll be back in a day or two with a knitting related post.

Opinions are definitely welcome even those that are different then mine but if you're going to attack me for my opinion or are trolling for a fight I will delete your comment. A good healthy discussion or debate is always welcome. I don't believe that I'm always right and have no problem admitting when someone has an idea that is better then mine.

I generally shy away from political or religion filled posts on my blog. Politics and religion are big fight starters. Sammy Kershaw has a song called Politics, Religion and Her which sums it up with him saying "politics can start a fight, religions hard to know whos right." Well that's how I feel too but this topic is one of those that is driving me bat shit crazy lately. It's came about full tilt when Shawn came home yesterday stating that we could possibly not see our next paycheck because of it. You see military will be exempt from a government shutdown but the section that pays military members their paychecks is ran by government civilians who will not be at work to make sure we get paid if there is a government shutdown. Sadly the military still have to go to work. All those troops who are in Iraq and Afghanistan will still have to work only now their risking their necks and not getting paid for it. Same goes for my VA disability check. The VA and their pay system are all ran by government civilians. Listen up bill people, if the government doesn't get me my paycheck you will not be getting paid either. Car payment and insurance for said car will be paid but that's it. Cell phones, cable and credit card companies, sorry but you aren't not going to see a dime till I see my check. If a government shutdown happens the commissary will be closed because the commissary on base is ran by federal employees. Is this a tragedy for me, no it's not but it is the cheapest place for me to shop and if I'm not getting a paycheck I have to make my savings count. Thankfully I have money tucked away in a savings account and we're not stationed at a base that is not close to a town. Yup that's right there are some bases that are pretty far from town. Unfortunately I can name a lot of military families who are going to be in a world of hurt if they don't get their checks because they don't have savings and are living paycheck to paycheck. Some of these families are lucky if they have $20 to their name when their next check comes in.

Sorry folks, hate to burst your bubble but the military aren't paid all that well. Yes we have some decent benefits like free housing (some bases you have to wait 12-18 months for said free house), rent money if you live downtown (this is only about 75-80% of the actual rent costs not including utility costs you don't get money for that), free medical and vision and food money (only a few hundred dollars a month) which is paid only for the military member not their families. No extra money if you have a family since the military didn't issue you a family you don't get paid for said family. Although housing money for living downtown is a little higher for military members with family. My husband makes less then $40,000 a year doing a job that in the civilian world would give him around $65,000 a year starting pay and roughly $85,000 per year after he gets his masters degree. He's serving his country not for the pay and benefits but because he wants to. I think the last thing he got down from the military stated that with all his benefits he's got a $54,000 a year job. Most of the benefits that they count are bunk and it's a way of trying to make it sound like we're getting paid better then we really are. But back to the topic at hand. I can get sidetracked way to easily.

There's big fuss about a government shutdown because Congress are being a bunch of big damn babies about the budget. I sincerely hope that this doesn't happen but frankly I have no faith left in my government. Do I think the budget is important, hell yes I do! Do I think the government needs to shutdown because these babies can't make up their minds and compromise, hell no. All American tax payers are affected by the budget. We all pay taxes to keep government functions running although in the last ten years I have to say I've become less and less impress with the way our government is being ran. It's never been perfect and no one expects it to be perfect. You can't make everyone happy all the time. For those tea party people who think the government shutting down for a few months is a good thing I have one thing to say to you "up yours". Yes it's a rather juvenile response but I think it works. There are a lot of us "government employees" that need our damn paychecks to survive in this world. What about all those veterans who will not receive proper health care or their paycheck because they  are ran by government employees in a VA hospital? Or the elderly who are receiving Social Security checks or use Medicare? Don't you think they'll be hurt by a long shutdown? I know for a fact that it would cripple my grandmother who uses both of those things. Thankfully my gran has family and we stick together and take care of each other when things get bad. Not all elderly have families that are there to give them a helping hand. Not to mention the fact that shutting down the government will not solve the problem. It's just away of ignoring the problem. Problems aren't solved by ignoring them. I believe a government shutdown will cause even more problems. 

Congress are a bunch of overpaid cry babies who are acting like a bunch of two year olds fighting over a frickin' toy. Come on people you are grown individuals who need to learn how to compromise. Republicans think they're right and Democrats think they're right. Well you can't always be right folks and sometimes you need to compromise. I'd have to say they're both wrong because they're not working together to solve the problem. It shouldn't matter what you're damn political leanings are. You do what's best for the people as a whole. Stop your bickering and think about the people who voted your butt into office and take care of them.

You want to know what my political leaning are? They're for keeping this damn country from falling apart. For making sure that our own homeless people are being taken care of. I understand helping third world countries who need help is important but damn it stop ignoring our own people who need to be feed and taken care of. Not all of our homeless people are worthless druggies and drunks. Some of them are families that lost their homes because they were laid off from work because some large company decided that they could make a bigger profit by moving their company to China. Lets face it it's not easy to find a job right now. Some states still have a fairly high unemployment rate.

I'm for our children getting a good educated and lets face it our education system sucks because we keep taking money away from it. We have states that keep pulling more and more money from education. Education needs to be funded better and teachers need to be paid more. They have a damn difficult job to do and it's getting harder to do that job when we don't give them the things that they desperately need. When I was a kid my parents hardly had to supply anything for us kids. On average we spend $20-30 at the beginning of the school year for Kaity. This will double since Bree starts school this Aug. This doesn't count the money we spend on supplies to help out the teacher throughout the year. We never complain about paying for these supplies because our kids need them but when the schools start cutting music and art programs from their curriculum you can bet we'll be at the head of the line screaming about it. 

We need to find a way to move away from oil dependancy and tell the big oil companies that they won't run our country anymore because lets face it they do control a lot of things. And frankly overuse of oil is causing a lot of environmental issues both from using and from drilling for it. 

I'm for not taxing the crap out of the little people who actually do run this country. Do we need taxes? Yes, yes we do. Tax money makes the world go round and money in general runs the world. It helps fund all those government agencies that we use, social security, medicare, road repair, our national parks, etc. Lets stop and think about what would happen if the janitors, retail works, mechanics, teachers, etc weren't around to do their jobs. The little people run this country not the Bill Gates and Donald Trumps of the world. Did they or do they play an important part in our country, yes they did/do but they're not more important then any other American in this country. I'm for not allowing the extremely rich to not pay the taxes that they should be paying because they found some stupid loop hole in the system.

I'm for no American having to go without medical care because they don't have medical insurance or doing without medicine because it's so horribly expensive they can't afford it. I would be doing without my meds if I didn't have medical insurance. My meds each month would be well over $500 every 30 days. I read somewhere where it stated that over 1 million Americans are purchasing their medicine from Canadian companies because it's a lot cheaper. Why is it that these same medications can be obtained from Canada  cheaper then here in the US? Some of my meds have no generic brand to help me save money. The price for medicine in this country is absolutely ridiculous. Our medical system is ran by the pharmaceutical companies and it shouldn't be. If that means that we have a health care program like Canada's then so be it. I think Canada has the right idea of it. Is their program perfect? No it's not but at least they are trying to take care of their people. No one should have to go without proper medical, dental, or eye care. If you've ever had to do without it then you understand. There are a lot of people who have never suffered without these things and do not understand. It's hard to understand something if you've never experienced it. Just because you can't afford to pay for medical insurance it does not make you lazy or worthless. It doesn't mean you spend your money on stupid things. Some people are scraping by paycheck to paycheck because the cost of living is to damn high. Is Obamas health care reform perfect? No it isn't. It needs a lot of work but at least he isn't sitting back doing nothing. He's trying and I can't fault him for that. It's easy to stand around and point fingers at people who make mistakes it's a lot harder to try to fix the issues instead of point fingers and laying blame. 

I'm for welfare, WIC and food stamp reform. There are people who are receiving these things when they shouldn't. I think the programs can really help a lot of people out unfortunately they're being neglected and are in serious need of a revamping. 

There are a lot of changes this country needs to make but how can we make them when our leaders squabble like 2 year olds? What people need to understand is that while our President is the high leader of our country, Congress is the one that controls the show the majority of the time and lets face it they've given the world a great show of what childish jackass they really can be. 

Alright, political rant over with. Now it's time to sit back and see how many people stop reading this blog because of this post. ;~)

Sometimes an Eye Roll Says It All

I made a post on Ravelry a few days ago about having games and cartoons on my iPad to keep my kiddo busy when we're stuck waiting at various appointments and the like. She responded back saying something like to think she gave use to give her kids animal crackers to play with and I jokingly responded that animal crackers are a think of the past. I noticed I actually got disagrees for that comment. Seeing the disagrees I rolled my eyes and started laughing. Disagrees on Ravlery don't bother me one bit and generally I ignore them. Why would I give a crap over the opinion of someone I don't know there are times when I don't give a crap about opinions from the people I love and cherish. Everyone has an opinion but for goodness sake if you're going to disagree at least post why in the world you disagree. Don't stand behind your anyonmous little click like a chicken butt. Stand  up and state why you disagree. (insert the eye roll)

I for one have never been big on giving my kids food to play with. Frankly it's just not interesting enough to hold their attention for more then a few seconds, not to say that my kids haven't danced their animal crackers around in the air before eating them but they never really played with them. I've found that crayons, Nintendo DS's, and iPads to be much more effective. I've taught my kids that playing with your food is rude and shouldn't be done. I mean seriously I'm not a germaphob. I don't run around with antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers wiping hands left and right but we do take a few normal precausions like wiping down shopping carts. That's not being over cautious that's just using common sense. Do you all know how germ ridden a clinic/hospital waiting room is? Very germy when you think about all the sick people that walk through those areas. Doctors and nurses can't run around disinfecting things after sick people have left. That would just be absolutely crazy. Now picture a small child playing with their animal crackers on the chairs that sick patients have sat in and then picture that same child putting said cracker into their mouth to eat it. I have seen this on multiple occasions and to say the least it's nasty and those parents are the ones sitting back wondering why little johnny and janey are sick all the time. Don't get me wrong my kids get sick. It can't be helped it's going to happen but my kids aren't constantly sick.

Ok, rant overwith. Time to move on to the knitting related portion of the post. I finished Shawn's sweater and it doesn't fit him. So it's now my sweater and I'm knitting him a top down raglan sweater out of Miss Babs Yowza. 

I think he's getting the better end of the deal since he's getting a sweater made out of soft handdyed yarn. The colorway is Denim. I love Miss Babs yarn and the Yowza skeins are awesome. It's her worsted weight yarn and it's sold in huge 8oz skeins. There's approximate 560 yards on each skein. I have 4 skeins but I'm not sure if I'll need to crack into the 4th skein.

My Feb YOSS socks are coming along nicely. 

I'm just going to keep knitting until I have a nice long sock. I'll most likely have enough yarn to make a pair of socks for Bree and add a new square to the sock yarn blanket. These are definitely not getting finished for Feb so I'll probably knit on them through March too.

I've gotten some goodies in the mail since my last post. 

These will be the last of the yarn for now.  Well not completely since I get paid in yarn from Woolgirl for my test knits and I did sign up for the Twisted Fiber Art sock club. So for March, April and May I'll get a skein of self striping sock yarn from them. I really really need to work on using up some of my stash. The two mini skeins in the upper left hand corner are Miss Babs yummy toes yarn. They're going to be paired with some dark pink Miss Babs sock yarn to make a pair of Choix Entrelac socks for myself. I test knit these socks awhile back for Miss Babs and Woolgirl and now I'm going to make a pair for myself. The two solid/semi solid skeins are Wollmeise from the last TLE update. The purple is Der letzte Versuch and the pink one is roter Himbeermund. The two colorful skeins are Twisted Fiber Art sock yarn. The top one is Crush on the Tasty base which is a merino/cashmere blend and Haunting is on the Playful base which is 100% superwash merino. 

 Last night I had Shawn help me with this. 

I took one of the little keys that is used to tighten your Knit Picks Options needles and altered it a bit. I had this stitch marker or whatever it is that had a little stretchy band on the end instead of the normal metal loops that I never used. Well I had Shawn tighten down the looped end of the key around the band part of the marker so that I have something that is easier to pick up. I don't know about you but I have a hard time picking up those tiny little things. This makes it easier to pick up.

I also got some lovely additions to my fiber stash. The top one is from TLE and it's dyed by Enchanted Knoll Farms. The bottom was a trade with a lady on Ravelry for a bunch of my worsted weight wool leftovers. It's 1 pound of Copper Moose Colonial top. 

I leave you with an introduction to our newest family member.

Meet Stormy our white faced cockatiel. We're not sure if Stormy is a male or female but we'll know tomorrow because PetCo has the paperwork to give us that has all that information. Apparently they haven't been doing their job very well when they sell birds because we were suppose to get paperwork with all the info on the bird like hatch date, DNA test that shows if it's a male or female, the breeder the bird came from, etc. Stormy is a loveable little bird. 

Happy Crafting!

A Little of This and That

As I type it's a balmy -22F outside. Yes folks, the extreme cold is back again.....brrrrr. It's suppose to warm up a bit this weekend and snow some more. I was reading in the paper the other day (before this last snow storm dumped a good 3-4 inches of snow) that we'd already seen 27.5 inches of snow in the month of Feb. So with the last storm we should be up above 30 inches and then it's suppose to snow all weekend too. Wonder if we'll hit 40 inches. These snow totals are not normal for Feburary. Our average snow total for Feb is around 7 inches. I don't think we've quite broke the record yet but I think we're getting close.

Lets see, what have I been up too. Well there was a test knit which I can't show you but I have been working on my Feb YOSS socks.

They're my basic toe up recipe. I'm past the heel now but I'm to lazy to take a picture. The yarn is Twisted Fiber Art Kabam! in the Saucy colorway. I have to say they're my favorite handdyed self striping yarn pusher. I love how their colors blend. I was lucky enough to get a spot in their sock yarn club. 

I've also been working on Shawn's sweater and am almost done with the hood. I've decided that when I'm done with the hood I'm going to rip back the sleeves a few inches to make them wider. Their going to be way to small for Shawn's arms.

I finally got a cup holder for my spinning wheel (Etsy site).

I've been wanting one of these for while now but kept putting it off. When we moved the living room around I lost my spot to put my cup when I'm spinning. So the cup holder was kind of important. I won't be spinning with an open topped cup because I don't want fuzz in my drink. I have several cups with lids that I'll use I just happened to have a cup of iced tea when the box came in. 

I'll leave you with a picture of Bree and Penny chillin in my rocking chair. 

I'll be back soon with a new blog post. I finally found the perfect buttons for my Cassidy Cardi and should get them in the mail very soon.

Crazy Weather

The 10-12 inches of snow we had the other day is just about gone and the weather has warmed up. Of course with that warm weather we've been having high winds but at least it's not freezing right now. The constant up and down of the temps/weather is killing my joints. Any time there is a major fluctuation in the weather my joints start hurting and it takes several days to start feeling normal again. I think the cold is suppose to be back toward the end of this week. 

Silly me, I looked up the weather for Boise, ID and wished I was there instead. Our cold and snow are coming back while they're stay it bit warmer. I'm so ready to go home it's not even funny. I do find it odd at times that this So. Cal girl (born and raised) now calls Idaho home. I have the chorus from the Beach Boys song Sloop John B stuck in my head....let me go home, Let me go home, I wanna go home, let me go home, why don't you let me go home. Anyone who has every gazed upon my iPod will say without a doubt that I have a very eclectic taste in music. My iPod is a very crazy mix of music that includes music from the Beach Boys, Kenny Chesney, Creedance Clearwater Revival, The Temptations, Patsy Cline, Metallica, George Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Alannis Morissette  and on and on and on. Although Rascal Flatts and Kenny Chesney have the biggest play time on my iPod and country is the largest selection of music on there. Kenny Chesney's No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem is my happy song. There's just something about that song that makes me smile every time.

I'm working like crazy on Shawn's sweater. 

It now has both sleeves.....woot! I'm working on the hood right now although it's on hold for the next few days while I finish up a test knit. I'm so close I can almost taste it, which is a silly thing to say since it's a wool sweater and wouldn't taste good at all. I swear on all that is holy Shawn will wear this damn thing even if he has to lose 50 pounds to do it. Actually the only thing I'm worried about is the sleeves. I think I'm going to have to rip back about half the sleeve and work less increases because the sleeves seem a bit skinny. I've already cut out at least 8 decreases but I think the sleeves are still going to be snug. I know it's going to block out a little bit wider after it's washed if the measurements are correct from my gauge swatches. This sweater has taken me almost 2 years to finish. It's mostly because it's nothing but cables so it's a labor intensive pattern, very well written but very labor intensive. I kept throwing it to the side for more desirable projects that don't require as much concentration. Not to self when knitting sweaters for Shawn, pick something with less cables. Lots of cables for kids sweaters, good....lots of cables for dude that needs a 50" chest size sweater, bad!

I recieved my TLE swap package.

It was full of yummy goodies (the girls and I killed the homemade peanut butter cookies in nothing flat), a lovely neckwarmer (l love neckwarmers/cowls), and Dream in Color Smooshy. I have an obsession with DIC Smooshy, well actually I love their worsted weight too. I think the only other two yarn brands I might have more of are Zen Yarn Garden and Miss Babs.

I ordered a few things from Knit Picks. 

The books were on sale so I went ahead and picked them up. To round out the order I picked up a skein of Chroma sock yarn to try, a smaller niddy noddy, and some extension connectors to make longer cables....I probably won't use them often but it'll be nice to have them on hand when I need them instead of waiting for them to get here in the mail. I went ahead and paid for the extra shipping. It was a slurge since I normally go for the snails pace shipping. It's the last time I'll do that. I forgot how absolutely stupid my Fedex delivery guy is. I normally don't deal with him because he only handles the express mail package and most stuff I buy goes FedEx ground. They lady who delivers the ground packages is awesome. The idiot delivered the package to my neighbor across the street whos house number looks nothing like mine. We thought the package was stolen off our door step (something that has never happened to us since we've been here) and we were afraid that the new water delivery guy might have been the one to do it. Thankfully my neighbor came home a few hours later and brought the package to us. The quicker shipping was sooooo not worth the extra headache.

I also got my TLE order in the other day. 

I had like $55 in store credits which if I spent it all it would be close to free shipping so I decided to throw in enough stuff to make sure I got free shipping. The roving is Perchance to Spin Polworth wool (haven't tried that one yet), a skein of bright Trekking XXL (you know how I love me some self striping), the newly dyed Loopy Legends in the MomSue's Yellowstone Sunset (Lorna's Laces is now dying the Loopy Legends colorways), and a skein of Bugga in the Miss Spider colorway.

Here's a shot of the old Loopy Legends next to the new one (new one is on top and old below it).  

They're both lovely but I think I like the skein died by Lorna's Laces. Sue has been a good friend of mine for a few years now and I hope that this summer I will be able to visit with her. Shawn and I are planning on a weekend trip to Yellowstone with the girls this summer. Lets hope that the military doesn't screw it up with another stupid inspection.....I have a feeling that they will though. I couldn't resist getting the new skein of her colorway. It's so gorgeous. I've seen sunsets here similar to the ones she sees in Wyoming and they're so beautiful you can't help but stop to look at the sky. They're so full of pinks, purples and yellows. Montana's not called Big Sky Country for nothing. The wide open sky make for some very gorgeous sunsets and on a clear day the blue goes on for miles and miles. 

I can finally post a picture of the socks I knit for my swap pal. 

The pattern is WonderWings (Ravelry) and the yarn is Fiber Optic Foot Notes sock yarn in the Smoky Teal Batik colorway. She loved her socks and the whole package I put together for her. I was so happy to hear that the package was an absolute sucess.

I'll leave you with a shot of Penny crashed on the couch. 

I'ts so hard being a puppy. I can't believe how big she's getting. She's 4 months old and weighing in close to 30 lbs. 

 

Happy Crafting!