Well, it seems that I am finally "all grown up." Psh, yeah right. :)

I got my driver's license yesterday, after battling the fear of driving for several years. I know it sounds silly, but whatever. When I was 16, no one asked me if I wanted to learn, and at the time it wasnt really a big concern of mine. But I've got it now, mostly out of necessity at first. And once I learned and became comfortable with it, I realized how nice it would be for Daughter and I to have the option to go places during the day. Although, waking up to take Husband to work in the mornings will suck sometimes. Sooo, yay.

And I purchased a Go Phone today also. There was no way that I was going to be driving around without a way to contact anyone if there was an accident, or I got a flat, or whatever. And I plan on not being at home as much. :)

We went to the library today. Was the first thing on my to-do list after I got my license. Daughter's fine was $15! Sheesh. I only let her check out one book this time, since she'll be going away for a week soon. She's supposed to finish reading it by next week. We'll see how that goes.

So yay for that stuff. I'm really looking forward to visiting my LYS soon! I tried today and they were out to lunch! Booo. Maybe Daughter and I will go tomorrow. :)

first sweater, new needles.

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Originally uploaded by fizzberry

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some yarn to make a Circular Shrug for myself. I have finally gotten brave enough to make a sweater, and am really excited to get started.

I also ordered a set of Harmony sock needles. They are gorgeous polished hand-painted wood.

What drove me absolutely crazy last week was the fact that the post office delivered my package to the wrong address! I watched my tracking number like a hawk, and started getting worried when it said that my package had been delivered, but I didnt have it! I called the post office, and when I had a hard time getting a hold of the delivery supervisor, I decided to just go down there and talk to someone. They basically told me there was nothing they could do to track down my package except for talking to my mail carrier, and if it was lost, it was lost. I was not feeling very optimistic. Then, the next morning, I was woken up by my upstairs neighbors. Turns out that they had received my package along with one of theirs, and didnt notice that they had mine until they opened it. I am so thankful that they brought it back down to me.

Now I am getting a swatch together for my sweater. I rarely ever swatch, but the whole pattern is based on a swatch, and I dont wanna mess this up! Once I'm done with this, I'm going to learn how to make socks. Yay! And the daughter gets the first pair, she's been dying for me to make her some. Now I have some beautiful needles to learn on. Will keep posting my progress! :)

yay for storage!

We've been doing a little rearranging around the house lately. We've gotten rid of our oversized chair, which I loved, but it just didnt fit in the living room very well. And since getting a nice, shiny laptop for my birthday, we've planned on trashing my computer desk that's taking up space in the bedroom. What better way to use that space than to put up some shelves etc for all of my yarn that's taking up closet space!

So the husband and I went shopping at Target, and got some of the ClosetMaid stuff. Voila! I can see my yarn now! I actually have a place to put it! Yay!

And we had found this nifty wine tube at JoAnn's. I thought I could store all of my straight needles in it. They wont fit in it if I put the top on, but it looks neat with them sticking out anyway. Sort of like a needle vase :)

I've been very excited about all of this, and eager to show it off. It isnt much, but it works, and looks nice.

Another thing I'm excited about is that I ordered some Harmony Wood dpns from KnitPicks, along with some yarn for a little shrug I've been dying to knit. The dpns are sock size, and I'm looking forward to learning how to make socks! The daughter has been bugging me to make her some, so she'll be the grand experiment! If all goes well, the husband will get a pair, and one of my best friends shall get some too (she's got sort of a sock fetish)!

Yay for storage and sock adventures. Now I'm off to more unpleasant things, like cleaning the bathroom. :(

stash n' shawl.

Finally visited my parents this weekend. I havent seen them since Easter. My youngest sister graduated highschool yesterday, by the skin of her teeth. But, she did it.
Anyway, my stepmom had a gift for me from my birthday last month. She handed me this yarn basket. It's a little over a foot deep, has a few places on the inside to store needles, and a nifty eyelet that you can thread yarn through. I absolutely love it! And it looks a lot nicer in my living room than the canvas bag I had all of my projects in before.

I found out that this weekend is the annual Delaware pow-wow in Copan, Oklahoma. http://www.goodnewspress.com/news.php?viewStory=745
My dad is going, along with some other family, and my crazy Aunt Patti who wants to dance one more time. Dad suggested that my daughter go with them. I would like to, but I doubt I'll be able to get the night off. Anyway, my grandmother tells me that if dear daughter has a shawl, she can dance with the women at the pow-wow. So I'm going to knit her one. I'm going to make it with worsted yarn on 11 needles to make a little open and lacy using a simple k2, yo, knit across until it's the size I want it to be. Maybe I'll put some fringe on it. I'll post pictures of it when I'm finished! :)

fantastic week

I'm hoping to have a fantastic weekend.
The week so far has been wonderful. I got out into the sun today with one of my girlfriends and helped her plant some of her garden. It was a blast. But I am sunburned. Oops.

My birthday is in a day. Husband is dying to give me my present. Promises of the Happy Dance have been made. I wonder what it could be... I'm excited to find out!

And not a lot of people know this, but our first anniversary is Saturday. We plan on going camping with our best friends. It's supposed to be gorgeous this weekend. I cannot wait to stuff my face, smoke a cigar, have a beer or two. Enjoy nature. Be able to listen to God and enjoy His creations. I pray that we get to go. We've been having car trouble lately... I'm sure we'll find a way. If we dont, I'll probably cry.

Speaking of cars, I've decided to go get my permit for Husband's anniversary present. I'm nervous about it, but I think I'll do okay. I hope. I hope to get that done on Thursday. Wish me luck!

I'm pretty darned content right now. It's looking to be a fantastic week. :)

appropriate?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5X4TSbGreA

I'm sure you've seen this commercial with Burger King and Spongebob already. When I saw it for the first time, I couldnt believe it. Just when I thought that Burger King couldnt get more disgusting than it already is, they put out this "gem" with girls doing some nasty booty dance all over the place and some guy saying "Hey Spongebob I wanna get with ya, cause you're makin me richer." It's not a cute commercial. It may have been funny on SNL, but not aimed at my 10 year old daughter. I dont want her thinking that any part of that commercial is cool. There are a whole lot of things they could have done with that commercial to make it more tasteful.

Way to go, Burger King. You're totally sending out the right messages to your younger audience.

rantless

I had a rant related to work... and now it's gone.
Thank you, Jesus for taking the burden of my frustration. <3

date night

Last night, Matt and I were lucky enough to go out on a date. We left Jade over at Matt's parents house. I felt bad about that later, because she already had her hands full with all of the other grandchildren (had I known sooner, I probably wouldnt have asked her to watch Jade) but apparently, Jade was a great help. I am blessed to have such an amazing daughter.

Anyhow, we went to the Red Onion Cafe. I had never been there before. The food was okay. I ordered a tuna steak, which ended up being over-cooked (compared to eating seared/raw tuna at the sushi places, cooked tuna just doesnt cut it anymore) and drowning in some sort of putanesca/italian pico de gallo sort of thing that totally overpowered the entire dish. Matt's pasta was good, though.

Then we went to go see the Watchmen. We both had just finished reading the graphic novel, which was very good (I think the Sandman series is way better, but I guess that's almost a whole different genre than super-heros) so we wanted to go see how the movie compared, especially since it was almost out of theaters. Well, the movie was great. Until the end. They completely botched the ending! That is so terribly disappointing. They did that will Stardust, also. Meh. No wonder when I was talking about the ending with someone at work and they looked at me funny, because the ending I was describing was totally different than what they saw at the movies. Ugh.

All in all, I had a wonderful time. We even got a chance to talk about buying a house, and other goals. Apparently, Matt wont make any more moves until I learn how to drive. I already feel like an idiot for not having my license by now. I just hope he understands that I need encouragement, and not ridicule. I need some sort of plan, or goal, or something... and I need help. I am not motivated enough to do it by myself. And that sounds even more lame than not having a license. *sigh*

And the sooner I get a license, the sooner I get to look at houses, that should be motivation enough.. right? Yes. I guess I'd better go study...

amigurumi

Amigurumi is Japanese style crochet. I love it. It's absolutely adorable!

I've been contemplating learning how to crochet just for amigurumi. I'm not sure how practical that is, though. I mean, it'd be great to make for gifts and stuff like that. I dont know if the daughter would be interested in having some made for her, and making them just for my own amusement doesnt seem very practical.

Learning a new craft would mean another sort of obsession. It would mean money spent on crochet hooks, and probably quite a bit more yarn, even though I have tons of it trying to escape my closet. It would mean a lot more time learning to read patterns, learning tension all over again, staying up all night finishing a project, or rather, more projects left unfinished.

What am I thinking?! I still have yet to learn how to knit socks and sweaters and the like!

Still, there is something that keeps drawing me to the big round eyes and chubby little characters of the Amigurumi world.

Someday, I will learn.

work rant.

What a frustrating night at work. I go in to do a simple job, and co-workers make it such an enormous hassle.

I have such an easy job. Our palm pilots tell us everything we need to know. And yet these people still have problems. They dont pay attention to what they're doing. What's going to happen now, after tonight, is that they're going to be scheduled an extra night a week until they get this right. Then it wont be only me dealing with what they messed up on, and they can find out how annoying they are. If they cant handle the inconvenience, then they'd better start doing their job the right way. All. The. Time.

Work tonight and the rain that started up go very well with the rest of my crappy day.

I need a beer.

meh.

I hate being a girl. Well, I'll hate being a girl for about 3 days straight, anyway. I hate the inconvenience. The husband should knock me up already! :)
Ladies, you should try one of these things out.. http://www.divacup.com/ Go green! I've been using mine for months and I love it.

Okay, onto less awkward things.

Spring is finally here. The daffodils are coming up. Our trees outside are blooming (and they reek, in not a good way), and the daughter is bugging me to wear shorts already.

Spring means lacy hats, whispy scarves and fingerless gloves for those blustery days. I went ahead and made myself a nice Spring Beret, and plan on getting my fingerless gloves started soon. The hat I made out of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton! yarn. It's very soft, but sheds horribly while working with it. I would have fuzz clinging to everything; my hands, my face, and my clothes. I still have another skein of it left, which I could make my gloves with.. but I think I'll stick to the Peaches n Creme I was going to use anyway.

I'm also thinking about learning how to cable. I was talking about it to a lady at work and she told me not to bother with buying cable needles, and just to use a saftey pin or stitch holders. So I guess that's what I'll experiment with.

One more thing that Spring makes me want to do is work out. The husband and I had gotten into the FIRM system. I really liked it. We dont have enough room in the living room to actually do it very well, though. Must rearrange. Maybe after Spring Break, I can try to talk him into running with me in the mornings. It's so hard to find the motivation to work out by myself. And I always feel like an idiot doing it alone in my living room. I guess that sounds sort of strange. Ah well.

Okay. Time to find some Midol. PMS on a gorgeous day like this just doesnt seem fair.

fear of commitment?

I have a problem. Apparently, this problem is not uncommon amongst us knitters. The fear of commitment. I'm not talking about relationships. I'm talking about finishing what we've started.

Right now, I can count 4 projects in my room around me that I need to finish. A hat, a pair of slippers, a headband (I'm gonna frog that one) and a washcloth. There are at least 2 projects unfinished in my living room. A doll blanket and a teddy bear.

Some of these projects I started quite a long time ago. The headband I started last summer. The hat was supposed to have been a Christmas present, the slippers from last fall for a friend who'd moved into a house with hardwood floors. The teddy bear I wanted to have finished 2 weeks ago.

What's even worse, is that even though I have all of these things I need to finish, I'm probably going to start another project before I even finish any of the others. Well, I want to anyway.

Not this time. I have decided that if I'm going to cast on for a pair of fingerless gloves that I really want, I'll have to finish at least one of these projects first. Now, which one, which one...

where, oh where did my Conan go?

Where IS he?! I miss him! And now I'm stuck with Jay Leno and his generic jokes, and Jimmy Fallon... well, I kind of want to punch him in the face (you know it'd be fun, and satisfying).

*sigh* Conan, I cant wait till you're back on television! <3

parenting is fun. blankets are too.

I've decided to knit some Barbie sized bed sets. I can knit a blanket w/matching pillows. And better yet, I can make up my own patterns. I mean, knitting a rectangle = brainless.

Something's been bothering me lately. I dont quite know how to go about it.
My daughter, J, recently got grounded (for a month) for not telling me where she and her friend were going one afternoon. I figured she was around the block, and she was, but neither one of them asked, or informed me that was where they'd be. Husband drove around the block and picked them up, and grounded J for a month. No TV, no video games, no friends, no outside. This is the harshest punishment we've dished out yet. But she acted very irresponsible, and she wont forget asking next time. And she's off the hook as soon as she admits that she was wrong. But J is a stubborn Taurus child, and she rarely admits that she's wrong, and will instead try to find loopholes in our plan.

Anyway, she goes over to her dad's house, and his wife goes and tells J that she's mad at me for grounding J. Step-mom (we'll call her S) doesnt think it's fair for J. At any rate, I'm getting the feeling that S may be badmouthing me at dad's house. Which is ONE thing we NEVER do. Ever. Never badmouth the other parent in front of the child!

I dont feel that S has any right to be mad at me, since she wasnt the one who spent over ten minutes looking for J. Or doesnt even have to deal with those shennanigans very often since they only see her every other weekend or so. But I also dont know what J said to S. J was probably playing up the pity party for herself and whined and moped around all weekend until S felt so sorry for her that she got mad at me for it. She needs to start seeing through that act real fast.

We will probably be seeing S and dad at J's violin recital this Saturday, and I may have to bite my tongue. Or tell dad that he'd better make sure that if S has any problems with my parenting skills, that she should talk to me about it, and not in front of my daughter. And if I hear of slander about me from J again, S and I may have some serious problems.

Ugh. What a rant, huh?

I feel better now.

Off to go get some ideas for blankets.

to knit, or not

I dont know why, but I'm kinda stressing out about this whole knitting for the MIL thing. I kind of want to knit some Barbie clothes, or a couple of blankets or something. I even bought some yarn. But I also kind of dont want to knit any of it. Maybe it had to do with my frustration due to the frogging of the second AG doll hat.

Essentially, I'd be doing this for a profit. I'm not doing it to really help anyone out but myself, and I think that's really what's bothering me. I dont really care to make much of a profit from something like this, so I'm not exactly motivated to get a whole lot of it done.

I guess I could be adventurous and try at least one dress or something. I figure, though, that if I'm only going to get a few things done by the deadline, what's the point anyway? Hmm...

the urge to blog

I'm recently finding myself wanting to blog. Maybe I just need someone to talk to. I think I'd rather just do it here than some silly place like Facebook or Myspace, because I'd rather be more anonymous. Do you think it's strange that I'd rather blog to a bunch of strangers instead of people that I know personally? I dont, oddly enough.

So, a few things that I've been up to recently:
Taking care of a sick husband. He's better now, thank goodness. I, sad to say, have reached my limit on patience with babying him. I feel kind of bad about that. I mean, I love him. I want to take care of him. But, I dont really do well with hand & foot kind of stuff. Not for long periods of time.

Then, I decided to help the MIL knit up something for her sister's shop in Wisconsin. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Actually, I was having fun with it; making little scarf and hat sets for the American Girl dolls. But, my second hat didnt work out so well. I had it on my Denise Interchangables for the Magic Loop method, and for some reason, my connecters kept coming unconnected. I started the hat twice, and after the second time, I gave up. Maybe I'll use bigger needles and that should prevent all the twisting. Grr. Frustrating, that is. And I think maybe I'll stick to something a little easier, like Barbie-sized blankets.

Also, I've been obsessed with knitting with cotton yarn. I love working with the stuff. So I've been searching for things to make; placemats, handtowels, washcloths. Making things for the home isnt all you can do with it, but it is ideal since cotton is so absorbant. Maybe I'll make a few headbands or something out of it as well.

Today I joined http://www.twitter.com/ as well as trying to get back into blogging. We'll see how both go. I figure Twitter is a lot like blogging, only shorter. Maybe I'll see you there. :)