The Baby Girl goes off to College

Yes, our Baby Girl is all signed up for her college of choice. We spent the last 2 days at her Orientation and we learned alot, she learned alot and we got to know the layout of the college a little better. She'll be a Music Major and because she's also in the Marching Band, she moves in 2 weeks before the rest of the school. August 2nd isn't that far away so now our time will be spent buying all the college dorm needs of an 18 year old and of course, the new clothes. We need to get the oil changed in her Dodge pick up and start getting her bedroom here at home organized so she can figure out what she needs to take and what she can leave behind. Home for BTB and I will never be the same. We'll now be called Empty Nesters and, honestly, I HATE that! I always wanted to be a wife and a Mom, all my life. Now what do I do? I think I'll join the gym in town (30 minutes away though) and work thru all my frustrations. Maybe it'll also help me lose this last 12 pounds and get over not having a kid to look forward too coming home after school. Any retired stay at home mom's out there? What did you do when your last one went off to college? Oh, sure, I can knit, but I do that anyway. My list isn't getting any shorter, but I need something new, interesting and with people. Like I've said before, I live quite a ways from the nearest city and have to drive about an hour to get to even the local yarn shop, but, there has to be something to keep me entertained. BTB should have figured it out so he retires at the same time, then we could travel the countryside.

Anyway, back to the Baby Girl. She's so happy, excited and anxious for those first days of August to get here. She is SO ready for this. She'll be rooming with her best friend, which makes us all happy and already knows quite a few kids going to this college so she has a great network of friends. She also has been going there for tutoring from a college student and was asked to play in their ochestra twice before she graduated high school so she also knows several of the band members, although her tutor graduated this year. She also knows the professor very well and is going to Atlanta with her just before classes start for a Music Convention. So, we all feel better that she knows people there. Oh, and did I mention that her sister lives like, within walking distance? That makes Mom feel LOTS better. Her sister told her that she could come to her house and eat when they ran out of food. Hope she knows what she's getting herself in for!

I'm still working on the Icarus shawl and have the last 20 rows of the main pattern to finish and then on to the next chart. It's coming along, but I'm not in any hurry, I certainly don't need it in this 90+ degree weather we're having here. No pictures, it doesn't look much different than the last picture I showed.

Going to meet up with the grandkids and my oldest daughter tomorrow at the water park near their house. The Baby Girl is going with me so we'll have fun. I'm going to get on a tube and float down the "Lazy River" with my oldest granddaughter, who just got back from the emergency room after smashing her finger between 2 bowling bowls at summer camp. She and I can relax together! Might get some knitting done, but probably not. With 3 grandkids you can't sit still for long, those kids want me to do everything and then you have to multiply it by 3. I'll be busy, but having a blast.

Here's a picture of my geranium on my deck, just so it's not a pictureless blog.

Yarn Shopping!

Awesome, huh? This is 540 yards of a 50/50 silk/wool blend from Cabin Cove Mercantile. I wish you could feel it! W.O.W. I'm just going to leave it in my wooden bowl for awhile and admire it, cause I have to come up with just the right pattern for this yarn, it is just too soft, pretty and the colors are great! I ordered it on Friday and it was in my mailbox this morning. That was fast! Thanks Dave!!!
This is what I bought last week when I went to my LYS the day I had the oil changed. I never go to the island to have my oil changed without stopping in. Great place, great people and they always have something I have to have! I bought these 3 skeins of Plymouth Encore Colorspun (color #7065) to make my oldest granddaughter a shawl. She asked me if I'd make her one awhile ago but I had to wait till I could get to the LYS to get the yarn. I also figured this yarn would work the best as her Mom doesn't have a whole lot of time to mess with frilly/wool shawls. I'm trying to find a lacy, crochet pattern for it but so far not much luck. Also in the picture is some Maggi Knits Irish, which is 52% cotton/48% linen. I want to do a scarf with it. It was suggested that I use it doubled and from the outside of the skein as it tends to twist. The YFC doesn't end until Saturday but as I live so far from any LYS I had to buy it while I was able. And, I hadn't shopped for yarn for the month of June yet, so this is my free day shopping for June. Dave's yarn, well, since I also didn't buy any yarn in May, I guess I borrowed that free shopping day from May. If that's not acceptable, that's okay, I just couldn't pass up that gorgeous yarn.

The circular needles are for this:

My Icarus shawl. See the picture on the left? I love using these Lantern Moon needles but it's getting a little crouded, so time to switch to the circulars, I guess. I'm on the 4th repeat of the main pattern (chart 1) and I'm thinking since I'm using a fingering weight yarn (Peruvian Baby Cashmere from Elann) I might just do the 4 repeats. Not sure yet though. I like my shawls long to keep my back warm in "This Old House" as well as my arms, so I'll see how it looks after 4 repeats. It's been lots of fun and fast, but I tend to get lost in thought while working on it and forget where I'm at sometimes. This yarn is so soft and I love this color. It's actually a darker burgandy than the photo shows.















These are the socks I've been working on. Same yarn as the picture from Va. that I tore out. I think these are headed the same way. I'm all done with this one, just have to kitchener the toe, but I don't like them and got a new pattern for socks today, so might use the yarn for them. I can't stand the thought of having to make another one of these. I will someday have a sock made out of this yarn come hell or high water!
Pretty huh? No, it's not my birthday (yet). No, it's not our anniversary (yet). I have always teased BTB about never buying me flowers. He isn't into flowers or jewelry, so if I wanted either, I bought it myself. He asked me one day where I got the flowers that I had sitting on my table (I had just bought them) and when I told him Walmart he said he was surprised. When I asked why he said he thought I only liked flowers from a florist. I NEVER buy flowers for myself at the florist and when I told him that he said "and you like Walmarts flowers?" Jeesh, what do I care, as long as they're flowers? Well, every week for the last several months the man has brought me flowers! How's that! They work for me.

I had more pictures but I think that's enough for today. Don't want to overload. I won't be posting for a few days because tomorrow we have to go to the Baby Girls college of choice for orientation, and it lasts for 2 days! We were going to stay the night but we have to come home to take care of the puppies, they wouldn't appreciate not being walked for 2 days (pee-u) so she'll stay in a dorm and we'll come home. Our middle child was here when we said we'd stay the night and now he's gone back to his place in Altanta so home we'll be. I like my own bed anyway, so it works for me.

Happy Knitting!
oh yeah, I'm down another 3 lbs! YAHOO

Saturday Sky

Sandy wanted to see some blue sky's, so here's a mostly blue sky from Southeast Georgia!

We've Got Pictures!

Shanandoah Valley, VA
My toe up sock, that was just about done by the end of the trip, but I frogged the whole thing and started them again top down.

Finally! My head has been in the sand lately, and this proves it. All I had to do was plug in my camera cable to the USB port on the side of the laptop and bang - pictures! Dah!! For some reason I thought this laptop had a port that I could just stick my memory card in, and it might have, but if so, I haven't found it yet, or figured it all out. It's fun learning new things when you're in the mood to learn. Lately, I haven't been in the mood for anything!

BTB just got done weed whacking and is giving me those big puppy dog blue eyes of his to join him in the pool so you all have a great weekend and enjoy!

Happy Knitting!

(afterthought - I found the port for the memory card, so I'm good to go now. Pictures of my yarn aquisition later this week - yup, used my May yarn buying day and yesterday ordered some from Cabin Cove, so borrowed that from April since I never bought anything in April. I just might make it to July 1st without messing up. YEA ME!)

The Fabric of Marriage

First, a couple of thank you's for my "one word that describes me post." Beth, Bron & Catherine, thank you for the "words." Very observant of you all!

Second, I found this newspaper clipping that my Mom sent me back in 1991 and thought I'd share it with you. Seeing how 1991 was over 15 years ago, you can see even then knitting was in my blood. It's been there since about 1963-64. Anywho, here tis.........

The Fabric of Marriage

Marriage is like a piece of knitting.
If you make a mistake, it's best to fix it right away.
If you let it go awhile, it's a lot more work to fix it.
If you let it go long enough, you might have to rip out the whole mess
and start all over again.
Gale H. Markes, RI

That's in place of a picture because I still haven't had time to get my camera program on here (yeah, excuses, excuses) and I couldn't scan it in because the PC still isn't working. I get to spend a few hours on the phone tomorrow with Dell so they can walk me thru copying all the stuff on it that I NEED and then reformat my hard drive. Fun, fun! Makes me so mad because I know there's a way to fix it without going thru all that but I'm not computer savy enough to figure out how. Hackers could do it, but I'm not a hacker and don't know any. BTB has a ton of paperwork that needs typed up and without his "secretary" it can't get done and his secretary without her PC is useless!

I've been working on the Icarus shawl and that's about it. It's a fast, fun knit and I'm enjoying it. One thing I love about making shawls is all the counting, I can get lost in just constantly counting. Even on the purl back row I find myself counting to be sure I have the right amount of stitches. Tried sitting on the deck with Libby and Maggi today to work on it but it was so dang hot and humid out there we had to come back into the air conditioning. 93 and 99% humidity is just not something this Misplaced Yankee enjoys! When BTB got home we both jumped (well, walked down the ladder) into the pool and that felt really, really good.

So, that's it for today. Might actually get some much needed computer repairs done tomorrow so I can concentrate on figuring out this new toy and getting some pictures in here.

Happy Knitting!

Gruel Eating Monkey and a dead Computer

Sheri is a Gruel-Eating Psycho Monkey ...with a Battle Rating of 4.2 To see if your Food-Eating Battle Monkey can defeat Sheri, enter your name:

Imagine that? I got this from Bonne Maries page. Why? Because I still have a dead computer and another one that I haven't downloaded the picture program to. So, here's something to look at.

I'll be back as soon as I get the dead computer fixed - it's taking all my extra time at the moment. And, if any of you are computer geeks, why does it keep asking me for an administrators password when I never set it up for one? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, sometimes I hate computers!

Happy Knitting

I Think its a Knitting Blog!

I'm still here. It's been kind of hard to get back in to the swing of things since being home, but we're getting there, slowly but surely. I've even done some knitting but I tore it all out cause I didn't like it. It was a sock, using Wendy's toe up pattern. I guess I'm just a top down sock knitter at heart because I really didn't like doing it that way. So, I'm almost done with another, top down sock from the new sock book (which I can't find right now). I'm about to start the toe. Maybe some pictures later this weekend but I just bought a new laptop and haven't installed my camera program into it yet. (It's a Sony Vaio and so far I love it.)

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me--it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so I may leave a comment about you.

I got this at Bron's Blog and thought it was kind of a neat idea. So, for the handful that read my blog, go for it.

I've also started the Icarus Shawl and am loving every minute it of it. I don't have to think too hard (which I can't do right now anyway) and it's going really quick. I'm using the yarn I was using for the stole, that was just too much for right now.

So, boring blog, no pictures, nothing really new, but just wanted to say hi to everyone and to let you know Ive been reading all the blogs and I'm keeping up with all the knitting news in blogland.

Happy Knitting, and I promise a better entry sometime within the week, when I figure out this new laptop and get the camera stuff loaded on it.

I am home

I am home. I'm tired, sad and not feeling like knitting so don't have any pictures of FO's to show you. I would like to thank everyone for their comments wishing us all a safe trip, etc. I'll try to blog next week sometime but BTB and I are going away for a few days the beginning of the week so not sure when I'll have a chance. I'm catching up with everyone's blogs when I have a chance, so I'll keep in touch by reading them for another week or so.

Happy Knitting

Sad day, last blog for awhile

We're heading to Rhode Island this afternoon so I won't be blogging for a week or so. I hope you all stay well and get a lot of knitting done.

Knit On!