The ultimate in tacky

Kelson brought home a form yesterday - the marching band is having their awards banquet *this* Friday. Buffet-style food, dessert, and "dancing." (?????) Now, it's bad enough that they only gave us a few days notice...but it's going to cost $20 per person to attend!!! And Kelson has to pay, too!! The tackiness is just astounding to me.

"I'm sorry - pay up or you don't get an award."

A woman from the band boosters called me last night at 9:45. I don't know about you, but if you call me after 9:00, it damned well better be an emergency - especially since I was sound asleep after taking Nyquil. Anyway, she was calling all of the parents of the freshmen to make sure that they got the form. I questioned the audacity of CHARGING for an awards banquet, and she said "but we hired a DJ!"

Well, that just makes it all better, doesn't it?

If you're going to have a band fundraiser, call it a fundraiser and be done with it. If my band director had tried this, he wouldn't have been the band director very long...

Sometimes I wonder

This is how my boys and my nieces entertained themselves on Thanksgiving day...I don't even know what to call this! Please note that nobody's hands are touching the ground, and they have no support underneath them.On the knitting front, I finished part of my next project for KnitPicks - a felted slipper sock. Once this is felted, I will knit a stretchy cuff and sew it on, and then attach the felted I-Cord as trim. This is with 2 strands of one of their sock yarns; do you have any idea how hard it is to keep the color changes coordinated so they stay together?
This is a sweater I'm designing on the fly - I'm making it with Harrisville Highland, and it's a gorgeous purple. I'm going to steek the front and the armholes (see the kangaroo pouches on the side?) The whole thing is in basketweave...which I regret now because I hate purling! I'm in the process of decreasing along each side of the front steek, so it will be a V-Neck. We'll see how this turns out...









Kevin brought some kind of virus back from his hunting trip last weekend, and he was kind enough to share it with me. Ugh. I think I'm going to buy stock in NyQuil, Vicks and Kleenex...

Gracie vs. The Snow

Gracie had never seen snow before, so I took her out to introduce her to the concept.

Too bad she didn't like it. :-) She was like a kid in a candy store, and she didn't want to go in. Tick can't do very much in snow over 2" deep - his belly drags the ground...more snow for Gracie! It'll be interesting to see what she does when we have a few feet on the ground.

All that playing in the snow makes a puppy tired!

It's outta here!!!

This is the Salina sweater that I just finished for KnitPicks. It's a gorgeous pattern from the Rowan Vintage Knits book. This is made in Twist (aka that @#$%& yarn) and it came out looking a lot better than I thought it would! You can't see the yellow, pink and green ribbon running all through this yarn...


It is now winging its way to Washington, and I'm ecstatic that it's out of my house. :-) I may knit this pattern again, but in wool...and I'll change it to knitting in the round. Kim Hargreaves is a brilliant designer, but I wonder what she really thinks about knitters sometimes - all of her patterns seem to have 4,287 pieces that need to be sewn together at the end.
Not bad for a giant Easter Egg!

busy, busy!

I was gone nearly all day yesterday, and when I got home, these were waiting for me - from my secret pal!! 2 skeins of Barlett Yarn (I love Bartlett!!) and a skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport! I've never held Lorna's Laces before, and it is absolutely gorgeous - and soft! My Secret Pal is most definitely good to me! I can't wait to find out who it is!

Add to that the wonderful surprise in Friday's mail

Tatjana sent me 2 more skeins of that great yarn so I can make Kelson a scarf to go with the hat that I'm going to make for him! She also sent me 2 sets of Holz and Stein double pointed needles!!! They're both 3mm, but one is a sock set, and one is a glove set. We're doing some trading - I can't get H&S needles here, and she can't get KnitPicks yarns in Germany, so...we're doing some swapping. :-) I wasn't expecting these until closer to Christmas! Tatjana needs to come for a visit when she gets back to North America - I'll supply the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

I've already put the glove needles to use - I've cast on these using the Lorna's Laces. I can't work on them very much, though - I still have to finish the sleeves of the Twist sweater...

Grammar Grump

LOSE (vb) to be unable to find or have at hand; to fail to keep control of

LOOSE (adj) not rigidly fastened or securely attached; not tightfitting

See the difference? Contrary to what I see almost daily in emails and in print media, these two words are *not* interchangeable. You did not "loose" the football game, no matter what the newpaper said.