Two-Thirds Finished

So, here I am...I've been working on a project for 2 years. I still like it but I'd like more for it to be finished so that I no longer have it hanging over my head. Wanna see what I've done so far?



For those of you who have forgotten, this is Friend Husband's wool sweater. If you see any mistakes, I don't want to know about them. Although, I think I saw one when I was uploading this picture and I'm going to have to rip back again...ARGH, the pain!

This is the front and the back. Or the back and the front, I'm not sure. It's all in the directions. After I finally finish the side I'm working on, I think I bind them together, then pick up the stitches for the sleeves. Two sleeves shouldn't take that long, right?

I've told him I'll have it finished for him NEXT winter.

Wordless Wednesday, sorta

Lotsa pics today, as I've been taking them but not putting them up.  Here's the (scanty) progress on Friend Husband's sweater.  NaNo just sucks up all available time.



Yesterday I talked about the 73-year-old woman at my Curves who works the polls every year.  Outrageous hours but she's back working out bright and early at 7 the next morning.  She was in rare form today.  Anyway, tomorrow will be her 1000th workout with Curves.  I've been working out with her since 2004 and I *ahem* do not have close to that number.  Hazel rocks.  Here she is with the owner of our Curves and her 1000 workouts t-shirt.



I took this yesterday.  I love the way Zi's hair poofs up around the earphones.



This comes under the title of, "I knew it was too quiet in the bathroom."



This is daughter # 3 playing outside in the gorgeous fall foliage in ours and our neighbors' yards.



And this picture is for Yasmin (sorry, I can never figure out which blog is actually yours or I'd link it), who wanted to know what Keziah's hair looked like after the brushing out on Sunday.  Soon I will need to braid it because we get tired of combing it out every day when she has her "Mickeys" in.



Have a great day everyone!

Hellllooooo.....

Bet y'all thought I'd fallen off the planet, yes?  Well, no.  I'm just having one of those times, which seem to be getting closer and closer.  I had thought that I'd write when I had something to write about and I could write without sounding depressed.  Ha!  When I had something to write about, I was either depressed or too busy to write.  And now that I'm ready to write, one of my darling progeny needs to use the computer...for schoolwork.  Honestly!  What sort of an excuse is that?  So I will leave you with schnibblets.

1)  Did y'all hear that AC/DC is releasing their first album in 8 years?  Oh yeah, definitely rejoicing in the streets over that one.  I wouldn't have cared at all but for this one blurb that I read:  "sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club".  Ha!  Oh my word!  Wal-Mart?  Sam's Club?  Either AC/DC is slipping majorly or Wal-Mart and Sam's have changed a lot since last week when I was there.  Something about that whole ludicrous situation made me laugh out loud, literally, especially when I saw one of their placards in Wal-Mart the other day.

2)  I love that my daughter is so like me in crucial ways.  Sarah just laughed and said, "I do so love words!"

3)  I think I've finally settled on an idea for my NaNo novel.  Yay.  And Sarah is going to do it again this year as well.  Go team!

4)  We got not only one set of photos back but two in the past 4 days.  I will leave you with a photo of my knitting that I meant to post yesterday as well as some photos we got from Mike Landreman.  He so rocks.

I hate Wednesdays...

Sarah said this is what I should title my blog today.  That was my first thought when the alarm went off way too early this morning.  Seeing as I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I will leave you with my Wordless Wednesday and take me and my bad attitude (and the children, I guess) off to classes. 

Monday Musings

Not much exciting going on around here today:  laundry, school (with my reluctant scholars), no mail (which makes me sad), and lots of phone calls (which probably will be for naught because it's Columbus Day---maybe I won't do that).  And the guy is here to lay the gas line which was to have been laid months ago when they put in our furnace.  When they did that, back sometime when it was hot outside, they said something about getting the gas turned on immediately.  I said, "I don't really think we'll need the furnace any time soon."  Well, now it's October and presumably we will be needing it soon.  They have the gas line hooked up to the furnace but the final inspections haven't been done (they're supposed to notify the county) and they never ran the gas line up to the kitchen.  So anyway, I'm waiting for that.

Last night our church ladies got together and watched Becoming Jane.  I enjoyed the movie and didn't think it as depressing as some of the younger ladies (ie teenagers) did.  Anne Hathaway is one of the more lovely actresses to come down the pike in some time.  You know you're getting old when you say things like that.

I mentioned on Friday how much I am enjoying using Friend Gina's swift...I'm not sure how much I mentioned I like it.  It's made of wood and very prettily made.  It works without a sound and makes the work of rolling balls of yarn so much easier.  I think I'll look around for other random skeins so as to enjoy it even further.

I swatched for the sweater I'm starting for Friend Husband and gauge seems to be good so I should be able to cast on today or tomorrow.  I love the yarn...I wonder at what point I won't like it anymore.    Sweaters are such big projects. 

Finished ...And Ladies of the Club again this morning.  I just love that book, it's so epic.  I'm thinking about doing a fan fiction sequel to it for NaNo this year.  I really don't know what to do.  I have three or four ideas bubbling about in my head and none of them are really recommending themselves with force.  I do like the idea of the epic historical fiction and that's sort of what I started last year with my pseudo-family history.  Friend Husband thinks I should do more of that and perhaps I should.  It would be easier, in a way, than trying to recreate Waynesboro, OH and the Woman's Club of Waynesboro, neither of which I really have much experience with.  Oh well, I'll figure it out somehow.  Is anyone else doing NaNo this year?

I can't think because David is standing right here prattling on about his baby crib, his baby toys, and the Power Rangers.  I don't think I'll ever have an active brain again.  Ta-ta, and have a lovely day!

I forgot my title

I do believe that I have no ability to think anymore.

I do, however, have good news.  And pictures.  So no one should miss my lack of brain power today.  I let Doug take the brain cell we share to work today. 

Ok, the Grandparents are gone and we all survived but it took all of us a couple of days to rest up.  Big news here:  Rachel got the female lead in the play.  Which would be just swell if she'd actually keep current in her work.  Working on that.

The twins and I had an adventure today.  First, we went to Friend Gina's to pick up a yarn swift so that I can wind into balls all the yarn for Friend Husband's sweater.  Had big fun there.  Then we went to Shaw Farms to play on their fall "toys" and take pumpkin pictures.




Being eaten by the croc...I told them to act scared and this was what they could muster.


This one's for Aunt Amber.


Twins in jail...yeah, we won't even go there.


I finished my Hedera socks this morning!  Hurrah!  Sadly, one of them came unwound at the toe when I wore them this morning.  Grrrr....Those are the socks that just do not want to be finished.  They'll be finished if I have to sew them shut with my sewing machine...and don't think I won't either.  Of course, they came apart before I could get a photo of them, so no joy there.

Ok, sorry, gotta run.  My tyranical 9-year-old needs the computer wicked bad.

Life remains insane this week

No newsflash, that, eh?  I've gotten set up to say something at some point or another many times but have just run out of time.  The bread turned out tasty but not very puffy.  I did take pictures but, of course, don't have them.  And if you think I'm going to go upstairs to get it, you would be very mistaken.  I wish I'd brought it down, though, so that y'all could see the utterly adorable bears we made in class today with the little people.  Friend Cindy, for whom I am working, got us set up to do this and I got to help by making little fabric clothes to glue on these paper-doll bears (we were reading Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?)  I took a photo with all the children and their bears...too cute.  Of course, what Friend Cindy didn't realize is that I am a Lifetime Member of the Not-Fun Mom Club so she was taking a big risk getting me to help her with this project.  It worked out well anyway.

Heard in my house recently:

Abby:  "Dad, when I grow up, I'm going to marry Aragorn (the cat)."

Dad:  "You shouldn't marry outside your own species."

Abby:  "Nevertheless, I'm going to marry Aragorn."

Let's see, what else?  Oh, apparently I am a "cool mom" to some of the teenagers at our enrichment classes.  One of the moms came up and told me that today.  I must have looked at her like she had 2 heads.  The mom said that her daughters think that the way I interact with the children (mine and other peoples') is hilarious.  Score one for the home team!  At least someone else's children think I'm cool.

I finally (and yes, it was that excruciating) ordered the yarn for Friend Husband's sweater.  It is here, and if you scroll down to the "wine" color, that's the one.  I sure hope it works out ok.  The sweater itself is the one on the front of this book.  I'm excited but a little anxious about the whole thing (which would be borne out by the fact that I couldn't get the yarn ordered at all).  I don't want to make something that he will end up hating.  I guess I can wear it if he hates it.

Well, the brain is fried and two of my beloved daughters are breathing down my neck to use the computer so I must go away now.

I hate lace

Hey! Anyone miss me? It's been a busy few days and this week promises to be more of the same. The nieces were here last week and their mom (my beloved sister-in-love) came up with the 3rd niece to get them. She and I stayed up late (well, late for old ladies like me) Friday, then went to the Creation Museum on Saturday. It was fun but a quick visit. After they left, I conked out for a couple of hours and Friend Husband set out to figure out why the ceiling downstairs was dripping water. With the help of Neighbor-Soon-To-Move, they figured out that a plumbing line under the dishwasher was leaking. When I woke up, all discombobulated, they were lying on the kitchen floor, discussing plumbing and looking at the guts of the dishwasher. This was a bit too surreal for me in my state (not too awake) so I sat on the couch until I woke up fully. Then we went to Elizabeth's 16th birthday party in the park.

Now understand that it was about a million degrees on Saturday (give or take) and I was not excited to go to an outdoor birthday party. Plus the dishwasher and its guts were spread all over the floor. We finally got ourselves together and got there just in time to eat. Yum! I don't know when the last time I had sausage was (they grilled hot dogs, brats and metts). Anyway, it turned out to not be so blazingly hot at 7PM and we had a good time. I do have pictures on my camera but as my camera is way upstairs, I'm not going to be putting them up in this post.

Ok, so Friend Jen cursed my sock knitting. Remember how I'd finished one Hedera sock and was halfway through with the other one. Jen made a comment in recent days about how amazing it was that I did such cool knitting as a beginner. I can only presume that she was referring to the socks, as the only other thing listed over here is a dishcloth. Well, I've been working away on the second sock, all excited that things seemed to be lining up and all, then disaster struck. For some reason, my counts were coming out wrong and everything was not lining up any longer. I frogged back about 20 rows and tried to start again, but the stitch counts were still wrong, so I frogged back about another 50 rows or so when I was sitting on The Table waiting for the gynecologist to show up Thursday. On Sunday I attempted yet again to get moving on the sock but it was having no part of it, so I commenced to ripping it all out and starting over. I was doing this on the way home from morning services, when the twins had not been terribly well-behaved all morning, from the time they woke. So David saw me doing this awful thing to my beloved sock and he asked, with all due concern, "Mommy! What are you doing?!"

I looked at him above my sunglasses and said, "I'm destroying this sock. It made me very angry and was misbehaving so I'm destroying it." I'm afraid the look on his face was rather shocked and it wasn't a nice thing to do but I'm afraid I've never claimed to be a nice person.

I can only assume that it's the lace pattern. For some reason, I have a lot of trouble knitting lace. I'm going to try the sock again and hope for the best, but I'm not expecting much this time. It's just so aggravating, after so much effort, to have to start again. I'm hoping that the process will be calming and that, perhaps, I'll have a complete pair of socks by the time the snow flies.

This week, we're preparing for a wedding on Saturday. All of the children are doing something in it. Sarah and Rachel are singing as people are being seated (the audience, not the members of the bridal party, I'm pretty sure). Abby is going to pass out programs. The twins were asked to be the flower girl and ring bearer. All I can say is the bride is a glutton for punishment. So Sarah and Rachel need to practice all week and I need to practice with Dave and Zi to get them to do what they're supposed to do instead of what they want to do, which is to gallop wildly around and probably slug each other with their props. Sigh. I think I'll need a tranquilizer before this ceremony.

The building inspector is supposed to finally come this week to ok our heating and air conditioning unit. We think. They've rescheduled that a number of times already.

Next week, I'm supposed to take Abby to West Virginia to visit her friend Bethany for the week. She is beyond excited. She was supposed to go today but wanted to go to the wedding and a Webkinz event that is being held here locally, so that was put forward another week. It's weird to have children randomly leaving and doing stuff away from home. I guess that's what they do as they get older but it's a vastly different thing than what I'm already used to.

Well, since the twins are trying to tear up the family room and I need to finish washing the stacks of dishes that accumulated over the weekend with no dishwasher and no kitchen water (I came very close to getting a dishpan and washing them in the sink today), I'd better pretend to actually be the homemaker I claim to be on all my official forms. I hope y'all have a great week!

Busy busy busy

When does life ever slow down? The only time life seems to slow down for me is when I'm sick, in bed. Then I can't appreciate it. In the winter, I think, "Well, in a few months things will slow down." Of course, they don't, because with the coming of the spring all the outdoor chores have to be done as well as the indoor chores that don't change. In the summer I think, "After the leaves fall and things get cold again, it will be easier." Apparently not. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just wondering if there's ever a slow time.

So, obviously, there's been a mad rush of activity around here. I try to keep things in mind to write but I'm generally unsuccessful. Thursday afternoon, we went down to the Creation Museum. Friend Husband hadn't been there in quite some time (and we hadn't been there in about 9 months). The newest coolest thing they had was the petting zoo. Their gardens were also gorgeous. It made me sick that I forgot to bring my digital. I got a few snaps with a disposable camera but don't know how they turned out at all. We also stopped by the mall to have David fitted for a tuxedo he's supposed to wear to a wedding next month. Yes, I laugh every time I think about the twins being in a wedding. The bride is a glutton for punishment, is all I can say.

Friday was a special day around here...my birthday observed day. Yay! Friend Husband made me waffles and had purchased cherries (my most favoritest fruit ever) the night before. See the pretty plate he made me?



Yummy good. Then he told me to go off and do what I wanted to do for the rest of the day. Now I don't even remember what I did, but I'm sure it was fun. What a swell guy! In the evening, we had pizza and opened gifts and ate cheesecake. Again, my camera was MIA, so no pics.

Saturday I went to a bridal shower for Friend Lorie, who is to be wed at the end of next month. This is the bride who obviously wants her wedding to be remembered for what my rambunctious twins will be doing in the midst of it.



Sunday was a lovely day. We worshiped as usual, then finally got to have lunch with Friend Terri and Friend Keith (parents of Friend Lorie, the crazy bride) and chatter. We're talking a lot about the wedding, for obvious reasons and we got to talking about the music. Friend Terri had mentioned that she was trying to find someone to sing before the ceremony, just while people were being seated and all and I told her that I'm sure Sarah and Rachel would be happy to do so. They sing very nicely together. She took me up on it! Yow! Sarah is thrilled (she loves to "perform") but we're having trouble thinking of songs that would fit. So far we've got A Whole New World, Annie's Song, Arise My Love, and one other one which I thought of this morning but have since forgotten. A search online did not reveal any other songs that we know that would work...any suggestions, I'm up for them!

Today was a cloudy and cool day, for a change. I worked in my garden for about 4 hours. It was great! But it was a little sad that I only planted one plant in all that time...the rest of the time was taken up with weeding. I thought I'd done a pretty thorough job on that one bed last week but apparently I didn't, or they just sprang up out of nothing, because I had to re-do that bed and do another one. I hope to get more squash and beans planted tonight, while the ground is still damp. I'm loving all of our rain because it means that I don't have to water.

I also spent a fair amount of time burying lengths of squash vine under more soil, hoping to avoid the issues with having vine borers get in and kill my squash plant. Friend Gina kind of bummed me out about the chances of being able to keep the critters from killing the squash with Sevin. Ah well, they have to die eventually.

And speaking of Friend Gina, look what she sent me in the mail today!



It's called the Sunday Market Shawl and I'm wearing it even as we speak. It was such a fabulous surprise and so very pretty. The picture really doesn't do the yarn justice.

Well, I guess I should go and actually get some more work done around here. Does pulling weeds for 4 hours count as work? It sure felt like it to my arms, shoulders, and legs! Happy Monday!

Bugs and the rest of my life, part 2

I think y'all're going to get sick of hearing about bugs before I'm finished talking about them. Sorry about that. But the bugs, they're everywhere! And they're so cool! I did discover today, though, that the cicadas' red eyes do not glow in that endearing and special way when they're dead. Too bad. They're cute little critters! I think the "season" or whatever you want to call it, is almost over now. But Monday, the things were everywhere. I was trying to move my garden fence to keep my children (and anything else for that matter) out of my garden but the old fence was so covered by cicadas in various stages of molt, that it became well nigh impossible to navigate. So I did the next best thing. I took my boy with me and we went to Home Depot to get the rest of the fence stuff I needed.

Whilst there, I finally got us a new grill. When Friends Judi and David left town a few years ago, they gifted us with their old "tabletop" grill. It was very cool. It held enough food for a meal for all of us (and that's a lot of food), plugged into the power so I did not have to mess with charcoal, and just generally held up very well. Until the power thingy had a meltdown (a literal and scary meltdown) and we were without a grill.

We've also been without a smoker for quite some time. Now most people will not see that as a major problem and, indeed, we've done very well without one for these last few years since the last one croaked. But having a smoker allows us to make quite delectable smoked meats, corn, fish, etc.

The point of this is that Dave and I saw something that was both a smoker and a grill and I was sold. So now we have one. It looks a lot like a red R2D2.



The unfortunate thing is that I didn't open the box and read the directions until after Friend Husband came home from work. If I had, I'd have known that the R2 had to be assembled (I don't remember much if any assembly on the last one) and seasoned, mind you, before use. Instead, I was being Suzy Homemaker and making some yummy mustard potato salad and marinating the chicken I thought we'd be grilling that very evening.

Fat chance.

When we came in at something like 7:30 from assembling the thing and starting it off on its seasoning, I threw the chicken into the oven and got ready to go to the market. Because they had their patio furniture replacement cushions on sale 30% off yesterday and the patio furniture has really needed replacement cushions for something like, uh, five years now. After much wrangling, measuring, and gnashing of teeth, we found some and came home to inhale what the girls had left of dinner and to put the twins to bed.

I don't even know why I'm relating all of this to you. Oh, the bugs! I completely forgot about the bugs!

Ok. Every spring we have a swarm of winged ants take over the sidewalk in front of our porch. This happened like 10 days ago. So far they haven't harmed anyone but it's really freaky to watch your sidewalk writhing in ant bodies. After we finished putting R2 together yesterday, I stood up to plug him in and saw that, unlike an hour before, the foundation wall was crawling with literally thousands of ants. Those of you who know me can attest to the fact that I have a fabulous scream: long, loud, and dramatic. Also uncontrollable. Before I even knew what was happening, I was in the middle of a totally unexpected and piercing shriek. Friend Husband followed my pointing finger and saw the ants.

Now generally speaking, we're pretty kind to bugs. I mean, we give the cicadas a boost into the trees, for Pete's sake. We put spiders outside (unless they're poisonous, but haven't had much experience there) to live again. The only bugs that we regularly kill are the mosquitoes when they are munching on us. But these ants had to go. There were way too many of them, way too close to the inside of our house. So Friend Husband unearthed the insecticide from the depths of our 3½ car garage (that last comment was for Friend Leigh who mistakenly called it the 'shed' the other day...LOL) and commenced to killing off the swarm. I did feel badly but what we really don't need is for the ants to further endanger the foundations of our house.

And no, they weren't termites. I know what termites look like as they are the other exception to our "we don't kill bugs" rule.




So now we're killers. Hard to know what to say about that. So I'll move on.

I have been doing a fair amount of knitting on the Hedera socks. I am now on the heel. This is the longest stinking heel that I've ever knitted, in the long and storied history of my sock knitting. Ahem. But it is 46 rows of heel knitting. Bizarre. Because I put a pic of it on here as I was beginning and because I don't put many knitting (or quilting) pics up here, here's one of the sock on my arm today. I know the lace is all mucked up and it's not something that will "block out", but I'm ok with that. As I said before, these are a labor of love. I made the leg probably twice as long as the pattern indicated. I wanted socks that went more up my legs than staying around my ankles. So there you have it.



Also, my children have been playing with my camera. Which is a no-no. Here is one of the pictures they took today. This is the best one out of about eleventy hundred. Grrr.



Tomorrow's picture fest (Lord willing) will be many many bug pictures. A plethora of bug pictures, if you will. So be ready for that, I'm just sayin'. Oh, and goofy family pictures. Because we're just like that. Be prepared and be well in anticipation.

Wordless Wednesday

Guess what went on at our house today?

Wordless Wednesday

The continuing (and ending) Elof saga and Mondays

Sarah's home! Yay! And all seemed to survive the trip (parents and grandparents included).

Elof now has a new home. Troy came by and got him last night. I think it'll be a good thing for Elof. Troy has a lot of room to run and seems very dedicated to his animals. Lucy the Wonder Dog is in mourning. So am I, truth be told, but, as Sarah told me, there are always the dogs at Circle Tail to love on.

I finally finished Keziah's sweater! I can't EVEN tell you how thrilled that makes me. All I can say is that her noggin better not get any bigger in the next couple of weeks or I'll take scissors to the thing. As we were sitting, waiting for church to begin tonight, I realized why her sweater was so much tighter in the neck (I had to redo the neck four times to get it over her head) than was David's and I devised a way to fix it. Why fix it? I'll tell you why. The length of it is perfect for her right now but the arms are gorilla-length. Instead of cutting off the sleeves and binding off the edges, I thought I'd take the whole thing apart, add more on the length at the shoulder, which will also give more room at the neck, and sew it back together. Next fall. Ain't no way I'm touching that thing again anytime soon.

I was just thinking today how much of a relief it is that I don't have to take the children to their Monday co-op anymore. That situation was just so very wrong for us in so many ways. It helps me to appreciate Mondays more now that I don't have to go to co-op!

Friend Gina is always dragging me kicking and screaming into being a better homemaker. Well, let's just say she inspires me. So here is my Menu Plan Monday, Gina. And Internets. And the potato soup was marvy. Ta-ta!


Monday: Potato soup with broccoli and sausage. David can't eat things that are too salty so if I put some of the sausage that's already thawed into a pot of potato soup, it won't be too much for him. Also good for me, since I've got to weigh in tomorrow and it's easy to eat and clean up quickly. We've got church tonight so that's paramount.

Tuesday: Spaghetti with the rest of the sausage, green beans

Wednesday: Steak (gotta clean out the freezer since a quarter of a cow is coming soon!), baked potatoes (can you tell potatoes were on sale last week?) and salad.

Thursday: Frozen pizza for the children, since Friend Husband and I will probably go out.

Friday: I'm hoping for waffles. Friend Husband has to trek down to Louisville with his Psych Bowl team on Saturday, so he won't be able to make his usual waffles on Saturday morning. Plus we've got a lot of eggs (also on sale last week). Maybe some cooked apples, if I can ever remember to get to Rouster's and buy them.

Saturday: Scrounging if our friends aren't coming over for dinner. Otherwise I'll have to find something in the fridge.

Sunday: I might have to do Rachel's birthday dinner on this day since most everyone will be out of the house on Saturday due to various commitments. I don't remember what main dish she wants but I remember sweet potato casserole & asparagus. And orange cake with chocolate chips...yum!

Wordless Wednesday

Thursday Thirteen # 70

 

I'm sorry that I've once again been AWOL.  It's been pretty crazy around here.  Congrats (and thanks!)  if you've continued to hang around despite my lack of bloggage.  I did attempt to get on yesterday, to no avail.  Don't these people understand that I've got blogging to do?  Honestly...

Thirteen Things that I have knitted in the last year (since I learned to knit)   1.  A kimino for my cousin's son.  From the pattern in Mason-Dixon Knitting, with CottonTots yarn.  It was cute, but seemed to take forever. 2.  Hats for David and Keziah.  They've grown into them better this year.  Keziah's hat was my first (scary!) and from Crazy Aunt Purl's pattern.  I'm not sure that I had a pattern, per se, for David's hat.  I think I just guessed. David's hat was made out of Caron Simply Soft and Keziah's out of some Bernat clearance stuff that I got when I very firstly started stash acquisition. I guess, now that Friend Husband reads my blog, I have to be more circumspect about my stash(es).  "No, Honey, that's not new/expensive/an impulse purchase!" 3.  The scarf that I made for Friend Husband, my very firstest.  I also got the pattern, sort of, from Crazy Aunt Purl.  Only I didn't count correctly, so some of the squares were rectangles rather than squares.  It's made out of Lion Brand Homespun, which is pretty but is a wily sort of yarn.  Friend Gina hates it with a passion.  I haven't run into the problems that she has with it, yet, so I don't hate it but it's a bit annoying. 4.  A cat toy that I made from the remnants from Keziah's hat and scarf.  It's just stockinette stitch, seamed up the side, and stuffed with catnip.  Ari loved it. 5.  I apparently didn't take a picture of my very first ever project (it was rather ugly in its production), so here's the first half of it.  The Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth. 6. 6.  At some point, I got enamored of the Mason-Dixon Buttonhole Bag and made a few.  This is the one I made myself, first.  This is the first time that I actually drooled over yarn.  (Well, not actually, but you know what I mean.)  I loved these colors in the ball and I love them even now, when I've been carrying this puppy around for a while.  The yarn was Paton's Classic Wool, I think:  brown, whatever variegated that is, and the purple, whatever they call it.  Too, too yummy. Man.  Now I'm all itching to make a Buttonhole bag. 7.  At some point, I voiced the opinion to Friend Gina that I wanted to learn to knit socks.  She told me that I needed to make Fuzzy Feet, in order to learn the process on big needles, with big yarn, before I progressed to little needles and little yarn.  As with most things, she was right.  Although I whined and whinged, she continued to say, "Do what you want to, but I think this is what you should do."  And I finally did.  And I love these guys.  They are soooo warm.  Of course, I finished them in something like August, so I couldn't wear them for a while, but I'm enjoying them now.  (Yarn was Cranberry Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks.) 8.  The Fuzzy Feet were, of course, the gateway drug to yet more sock knitting.  Like this: I loved these socks because 1) they're green and I love me some green anything and 2) they fit my size gigantor feet to a tee.  Yay!  Sadly, they are now not my favorites because the yarn leaves something to be desired.  It's a good-enough yarn, just not really meant for socks.  (Sinfonia)  It's cotton and apparently doesn't keep its shape so well after washing.  Oh well...they were fun.  The pattern was Silver's easy sock pattern. 9.  And yet more socks:  Whitby socks by Nancy Bush from Knitting on the Road in J-Knits yarn that I got in a blog award.  Sadly, I had to gift these to Rachel, as the heel was too tight for my ginormous clown feet. 10.  And then these: Made with Friend Gina's leftover Lion Brand Magic Stripes, for Dave.  Pattern is here.  Dave loves these socks in the snow.  Well, with boots on too, but they keep his little tooties warm when it's cold. Boy do I miss knitting socks. 11.  Here is another buttonhole bag: 12:  Here are more dishcloths: (It says "friends".) Yeah, y'all get the picture.  Here's a great place for patterns of all sorts, not just dishcloths.  I probably got all of these patterns and more from this site and its links.  I still wish I'd taken a picture of the Longhorn dishcloth I sent my sister as part of her wedding gift. 13.  And then I decided to get ambitious and knit a sweater.  Quite frankly, it's been rather a bore.  But it's almost finished and I'll take a picture of it when it's finished. See, Autumn, I told you I'd knitted a bunch of stuff!

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