I do, I do...

...still exist, that is. I never have the intentions of staying away from this here blog for so long. I know you've heard that from me probably a gazillion times if not more from me, but it is true. I really don't like to stay away for that long, but life as it is has other things in store for me.

I guess it doesn't help that the kiddos are signed up for a million and one activities. Each time they ask to sign up for something else, I initially tell them no, but then end up changing my mind and letting them, which means that I have that much more on my plate. Though I am not complaining or anything like that. Afterall, this is what I signed up for and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Remember when I made these last year?

I finally put the pattern together and now have the pattern available for you.

The pattern is called Twist and Shout and is made from the toe up, but don't worry if toe-ups are not your style. The pattern can easily be adapted to be worked from the top down. The pattern includes the written stitch pattern as well as a chart. They're made on US 3/3.25, so they knit up pretty quickly.

If you are so inclined, give Twist and Shout a try. I think you'll like them.

To purchase Twist and Shout, click on the button.

It's all good/Eye Candy Friday

I think I am finally at the tail end of the cold...yay for me! But it will probably be several more days until I am back full force.

As for my sockpal. Thank you for commenting on my last post. I don't think you are a crummy pal, I just hadn't heard from you and was getting worried. Now I know that you didn't forget about me and all is good. I can't wait to see the socks I know you are working so hard on.

And now for some eye candy. I did this about two weeks ago but forgot to post last week.

Have a great weekend!

winds of change

Every year around the time the weather changes, I seem to get a little something I wish I didn't, a cold. The thing is the cold is not bad enough to warrant me taking anything for it, but bad enough that I can't do all of my regular exercise type things, like running, biking, and playing sports.

One thing it does afford me is more knit time.

Though I finished these a while ago. It just took me a while to photograph and upload them. I should get better at photographing my fo's because I just got a remote for my camera which makes taking the pictures sooooooooo much easier.

Also, I am starting to get a little worried regarding Sockapalooza4. I haven't received my socks yet and am getting bummed. I did get an email from my sockpal around the time the socks were supposed to go out saying that they were almost done and would be a little late. That was over two months ago. What do you think I should do? Wait a little longer? Request a sock savior? Forget about the whole thing?

Dear Sockapalooza Pal...

Dear Sockapalooza Pal,

xoxo,

Michelle

Size does matter

Needle size that is. See the two socks.

The only difference between the two are one needle size. The one on the left is knit with US size 2's and 3's are on the right.

Both of the socks have advantages of their own. For instance the right sock is definitely has more stretch to it, while the left has more definition in the cabling.

At the rate that I am going, I will barely have these socks done in time to send them out to my Sockapalooza pal. Though on the upside, I have been chugging right through the pattern repeats, so maybe it won't take so long afterall.

As for softball, I will start off by saying poor Hubby. On Wednesday and Thursday of last week he played a total of seven games. That's right seven. His knees have not been the same since. We had two games of our tournament on Saturday that he could barely move for. On Sunday I had to draw the line and tell him that I wasn't going to let him play. Reluctantly he sat out and kept the book for our team.

On the upside, Hubby's team finished third in their tournament. That is the highest that team has ranked in this tournament in many many years.

Our co-ed tournament, we're out. Though we gave it a good fight. Our last two games we played short, one player for the first game and two for the second. Both games we were always within two runs, unfortunately two runs behind at the end.

And we won our first game of our Sunday league.

Not too shabby.

How do we start this thing?

I have secretly been stressing out over the whole Sockapalooza thing. See my Sockapalooza pal is blogless which makes getting to know my pals preferences somewhat, how should I say, impossible. Not that I am complaining, I just really want to make my pal a pair of socks that they do not already have.

So basically I have to guess. Do they have Jaywalker's, Monkey's, something from Knitting on the Road, Sensational Knitted Socks, etc. I don't know what they do and don't have and that stresses me out a little. Stress is probably the wrong word for what I am feeling, it is probably more apprehension about the whole situation, you see I want to knit the perfect socks for their recipient.

As a result of not knowing, I have decided to design my sock pal's socks. This way I am pretty sure that they won't have a pair already.

Tuesday I started the whole deciding on a stitch pattern thing. Easier said than done. I would find a stitch pattern, make a swatch, and then decide that it wasn't right. When I was making my fifth swatch, the swatch didn't look like the sample from the book. So I did it again. Still not right.

I decided that I would chart the stitch pattern from the book so I could see what was wrong. What I charted was not even remotely close to what the pattern looked like. I don't know if it was me or if it was the stitch pattern, but man I had to have that stitch patter. Afterall, that was the stitch pattern I wanted, probably because I couldn't figure it out.

Then my bright light moment came, Eunny's tutorial.


You like?

Well, technically this is not the sock. It is actually the swatch. See.

This is the yarn that will be my sock pal's socks.

Lists

I am one of those. You know those people, the ones who are constantly writing lists.

If we are going on vacation, I have a list of the things that we need to pack. When the house needs to be cleaned, I make a list. Errands, there's a list. You name it, I write a list, if I didn't then I wouldn't do have as much stuff as I needed to.

The good thing about having a list is that I seem to finish a bit faster than if I didn't have one and things don't seem quite so bad because I am constantly thinking things like, I only have four more things on the list. Oh, only three things left. Wow, after I finish this, then I am done and I can mess around.

Generally I have a list for my knitting as well. At the present time I don't. After I finished my last list, I never updated it.

Good thing I read Jean's blog. She mentioned that Ali is having a contest. And this contest is just my thing...lists. So here is my list of things that I want to get done over the summer, most of which are going to be holiday gifts.

1. Entrelac socks for my mom.
2. Fair Isle socks for my grandmother.
3. Ankle socks for my other grandmother.
4. Sockapalooza pals socks.
5. Lace tank for me.
6. Swimsuit for me.
7. Baby gift for neighbor (she's having twins, a boy and a girl).
8. Finish mystery project (I'll let you know about this one later).

Wow, now that I have it all down, I think the list is a bit adventurous. I will try to get the majority of it done even if it means that I will be working well into winter.

Oh, look what they put in our neighborhood.

Now all I have to do is mail something so the kids could actually use it.

I am no Chaka

First I am super-excited because I recieved a comment from my sockapalooza pal. WooHoo!

Now that I got that off my chest, look what I have on my finger.

Let me give you a little background. A little over six years ago, Hubby and I were having problems with our mail. You know the kind of problems where mail was missing and so forth. So Hubby and I decided to change our mailbox from the type that do not lock to one that does. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't find one that was the same style as the rest of the mailboxes in our neighborhhod.

We eventually did find a mailbox that locks, but it was in a different color. Though the color matched the pole that our previous mailbox was attachted to. Our neighbors who shared the mailbox pole aggreed that we should just change the mailbox to the new style and that was that.

Fast forward to about three weeks ago. Hubby and I recieve a letter, as well as a few other neighbors on our street, from our homeowners association stating that we needed to paint the mailbox to match the others in the neighborhood.

Hello, it's been more than six years, they just noticed?

Well rather than fight it I just painted it because I think technically they could try to get us to change it to one that looks like the rest of the neighbors. The finger was just a victim of the new neighbor who has nothing better to do than to complain about mailboxes of the homeowners associations request.

One of my neighbors and I decided that we could never be taggers/graffiti artists. Because both of us ended up with blisters on our fingers from the spray paint.

So there goes a futre career if I need one, but man, does my mailbox look shiny.

BTW, Chaka was one of the names that could be seen tagged all around Southern California for years.

Doddurs

Say hello to my little friend (in your best Tony Montana/Scarface voice).

For those that don't know, this is Nomar Garciapower Garciaparra, actually he's not the real one, but the bobblehead version that was given away at the Dodger game.

A couple of weeks ago, B mentioned that he wanted a Nomar bobblehead and asked if we could go to a game and buy one. I happened to notice on the Dodgers schedule that there was a Nomar bobblehead night. The conversation that ensued sounded like this:

Me: Hey B, do you want to go to the Dodger game or do you want to go to open house?

B: Open house

Me: Do you want to go to open house or do you want to goto the Dodger game on Nomar bobblehead night.

B: Nomar bobblehead night, but you are the one that is going to tell my teacher.

The kid has his priorities. Initially we had reservations about taking the kids out on a school night, but I figured that it might be a good test run to see if things would be okay for Stitch n Pitch, but things don't look so great.

Last year they would fall asleep part way through the game, this year they are both into the game (and the concessions) and were up way longer than I thougt they would be. We even had to leave the game early just so they would fall asleep in the car.

To say they had trouble waking for school the next day is an understatement. So it looks as though they won't be going to anymore weekday games until school is out for them.

It was fun though. My favorite part was every once in a while, K would stand on his chair and scream at the top of his lungs, "WETSGODODDURS!" It was hilarious. All the people around us were cracking up as Hubby and I just looked at each other and nodded.

It hasn't all been baseball around here, though during the weekends it seems as though that is all there is. There has been some knitting going on as well.

One of the projects that I finished is a gift for my mom and after Mother's Day, I'll post about it in the off chance that she happens to read this. The other project that I am working on is this.

It's my second go around at Jaywalkers. All I have to say is the new heel that I have been doing makes these soooooo much better than the last pair that I made. I can't wait to finish these.

BTW if you haven't done so, go and check the Sockpalooza4 blog. There are over 1000 participants...WOW

A little bit of this and that

I can take the heat, I can take the cold, but the winds...that is another story. The winds around here have been, well, how should I say, STRONG. It's pretty bad when you are at your kids baseball game and all of the parents have their sunglasses on at night and the kids are facing the wall in the dugout just so they don't get dirt in their eyes.

Though I admit, it was funny.

Speaking of baseball. Is there anyone in the Los Angeles area going to Stitch n Pitch? The one at Dodger Stadium is on May 22, 2007, which is a Tuesday. I really want to go, I really want to take the kiddos like I did last year, but that would be a late night for them and they have school the next day. So if anyone is interested in meeting up and going, drop me a line.

Look what I signed up for.

This is the first time that I have ever signed up for any type of swap thingy and I am really excited.

Speaking of socks, remember the purple socks that were from the same dye lot but not. In all fairness to the socks, I have to admit that the color not matching was one of the only things that irked me and that was pretty minute compared to what I love so much about them. They match up perfectly. Jean noticed as well too.

I give Cascade props with that. Each of the skeins were wound exactly the same. I did nothing except start knitting from the center of each of the skeins and I came out with two perfectly matched aligned socks.

Have a great weekend!