It's been an age again since the last post, but I'm back and even have pictures today!  It almost wasn't meant to be, because when I first tried to log onto the blog to write it gave me a network error.  It figures that the one day out of a month where I want, and have time, to blog it would be down.  But a last minute check before giving up showed that whatever the problem had been it was resolved.

   So where to start?  Well, since I already mentioned the work we had been doing on the house I will start with pictures of that.  I recently showed pictures of the front of the house when we took the tree down, so I'll skip that part.  Somehow I only have about half my house photos, so there'll have to be a continuation to another day to see the finished front of the house.  I played with making a mosaic for the first time, so hopefully it works:

   If you can't tell, we took off the white aluminum and uncovered the lovely green asphalt siding, and then we put up the khaki-colored.  The porch is now cedar with rust-colored spindles that look great, and the caps on the posts are a dark bronze color.  The shutters will be navy.  Also, you can just barely tell that we replaced the storm door with one that has a screen you can roll up invisibly into the door.  We love it all.  Can't wait to show you how great the whole front looks now.  Not sure why those pics didn't upload, but for some reason they are missing.

   Something else that is new in the last 2 weeks is that we have a new puppy.  Here is our older St. Bernard, Beau, with the new puppy, Cerabelle (pronounced Sarah-bell). 

   Beau does not really appreciate her because she likes to chew on things - and especially him.  Every once in a while after being chased around for a few minutes he will jump up on the couch to get some relief.  Chewing on his tail is much better than the other things she sometimes gets hold of. lol  Here they are outside playing with our friend Jeremy.

   Beau is 14 months old now and Cera is about 7 weeks.  (By the way, I just noticed the disaster area that was our living room in the picture above.  It doesn't always look that bad, I swear.  The loveseat is just buried under a load of clothes that I just put there to be folded.)

   I have been busy this last month working both my old job and my new one, which has contributed to no time for blogging.  I'm now spending 2 days a week in the old job and 3 days a week in the new one.  Between that and the other umpteen things it seems that we do there really hasn't been a ton of time to knit.  I have squeezed some in whever possible.  However, at least part of it is Christmas knitting - the unblogable kind.  Friday I made an attempt to put some almost FOs to rest.  I finally blocked the Celtic Icon and Ribby Cardi sweaters!  It's only been a year or so since they first needed it.  lol  The goal was to put zippers into them yesterday after they dried.  However, an incident with the Celtic Icon necessitated a second washing (thus extending the drying time into today) and the zipper for the Ribby Cardi is apparently too short.  So after I leave work this afternoon my plan is to go buy the next size up.  Hopefully next weekend I can attempt the zippers again.  Here is the Ribby after blocking - and folding. 

   Not so exciting, but I didn't want to unfold it again and the pictures have been scarce around here.  Here is the Celtic Icon.  Gotta love my very professional blocking techniques huh?

   I didn't have any boxes to spare for blocking and pins just don't stick into wood very well.  So this was the best I could do on short notice.  The boys and I went to the apple orchards in Wisconsin with my parents last weekend and I made caramel apples for them yesterday.  Alex put his life in his hands when I took this picture....

   One thing I can blog about is a pattern that I am working on writing.  My very first. Laurel at TYS had shown me a picture of a scarf that she had found in an ad or catalog for clothing somewhere.  It was for a reversible polka-dotted scarf.  She asked me if I was interested in writing up a pattern for her to sell.  I agreed to play with it and am planning on selling it in hard copies at the store and also maybe on Ravelry.  After searching on Ravelry I didn't find anything like it, so it looks like an original.  Here is my progress on it so far:

   And here is the reverse:

   This version is being done in sock yarn, but I'm planning on writing it up in DK weight, and might modify it to make a worsted weight as well.  It isn't a hard design at all, doesn't take a whole lot of attention after the first pattern repeat, and I think it looks neat.  We'll see if anyone agrees I guess.

   Other than that, I just have some stash enhancement to show.  In August (roughly) Knitpicks had a sale on books and I ordered a few that were interesting me:

   I have picked up a lot of the new fall magazines lately as well:

  There is one older one in there, but it was 50% off at TYS, so it was a deal.  Here are a few more things that have fallen into my bag lately:

   There are 2 new magazines in this batch that I pretty much just bought to encourage new knitting magazines.  Neither one really has anything I can't live without.  The Noni bag and the mitten booklet were also 50% off.  The Bags Two booklet was included with the Knitting magazine.  Finally, the Shetland Chunky book was a purchase with a 40% off coupon at Joanns a few weeks ago.

   Oh, wait.  There is one lst progress pic for today.  I really haven't worked on BPT a whole lot, but do have at least a little progress to show for the last couple months.

   And I think that is enough for one day.  TTFN!

   Not much to talk about today, but thought I would at least put something up a little sooner than next month.  lol  We have been working on the front of our house in the last week and it is starting to look great.  We've been taking pictures as we go, so as soon as the siding is done I'll post the whole series.  DH appreciates it when I am around to help - even if helping is standing around twiddling my thumbs waiting to be a gofer - because he figures it is my house too and I shouldn't get to relax if he isn't.  I see his point, but that means little to no free time to knit or do anything else.  I did manage to break away for a couple hours on Saturday morning and finally made it to The Yarn Shoppe for the first time in a month or two.  It was nice to visit everyone again.  And with one exception for a Christmas present I did not buy any yarn.  Instead I bought magazines.  Lots of them.  I'll take pictures of those for documentation purposes when I get a chance as well.  OH YEAH!  I actually finished something!  One of my teal and brown socks is done as of Saturday as well.  Again- pictures soon.

   Well as much fun as all that was, without pictures it isn't nearly as exciting.  I'll let you go - TTFN!

   Okay, this is getting kind of ridiculous.  I managed to miss posting in the entire month of August!  Now, this is not because I haven't been using my blog - I still manage to work on my daily reads at least 2 or 3 times a week.  My normal procedure is to read my daily blogs and then post myself in the afternoon before the end of the day.  However, between an 8 day trip to Vegas for the national pool tournament, going down to work a couple days a week in my new department, and just being generally busy, I haven't even managed to get through my daily blogs in well over a month!  I finally caught up on the Yarn Harlot the other day (my favorite by the way) and had to go back to July's entries to start where I left off.  In fact, Zeneedle is the last on my list and I haven't even attempted to catch up on hers yet because she posts almost every day.  Somehow there just hasn't been enough time in the day to do everything.

   Since I mentioned it above and posted a little about it earlier I did want to mention I got a new job.  It is still for Deere & Company and still in the same building, but is in a different department on another floor.  My current department has let so many people go at once that I am transitioning down to the new one until November 1st when I will start full time.  The new job is a lateral move for me rather than a promotion, but will hopefully put me in good position for future promotions.  Its kind of an educated gamble.  Anyway, it is something new for me which is what I really need, and I am looking foward to the new challenges.

   Another item on the agenda is to post a little about our family vacation from over the 4th of July.  A long time ago, I know.  But there were a few pictures of the family that I like well enough to share.  We kind of started off with a very loose idea of wanting to make it to Niagara Falls, but we took the scenic route.  We went down to Nashville, TN, over to Gatlinburg, TN, up through Virginia to Washington DC, up through Hershey, PA, to Niagara Falls, to the Erie Canal, and back through Columbus, OH, home again to Davenport, IA.   It was a ton of driving time and we always seemed to be getting where we wanted to go in the evening, but we had a good time and have a good idea where to go back and spend more time later.  We pretty much just went wherever the inclination took us.  The first stop was Metropolis, IL - home of Superman.  Who can pass up a sign that says it is the home of the world's largest Superman?  And of course there were some photo ops.  Here are the boys with the statue:

There were a couple of cute pictures that were worth sharing.  This one of Alex just seemed perfect:

   And this one of DH was good too:

   Besides Superman, Metropolis also had Fort Massac and a really nice state park that we went through.  DH drove my van down the boatramp and parked it with the front wheels pretty much in the water, pretty much giving me heart failure.  In spite of my need to hold completely still so the brakes didn't give way, DH insisted we get out and take pictures standing in the river the fort overlooked - the Ohio maybe?  Here we are, standing in the river (not that you can tell that):

  And here is a good one of the whole family at Fort Massac in front of a statue of Lewis (from Lewis and Clark).  Again, the photographer was more worried about us then the scenery:

There are lots of pictures from the trip, but my next favorite are from about 2 days later.  We had driven through Pigeon Forge and it was a traffic nightmare.  It took 3 hours during which we were all just irritated and we ended up not stopping anywhere.  However, after leaving the edge of town we were on the edge of the Smoky Mountains and between the two directions of traffic there was a gorge with a stream.  We stopped at a scenic overlook and climbed down to the water and played in the creek for a while.  It was beautiful and something we all enjoyed.  Here are the boys:

  This was about the time they were taking their shoes off to play.  Here is one of DH and the family friend that went along with us:

   And my favorite of this set is the four of us together:

   See?  We took an extra person with us so we could be in family photos!  The next place worth showing pictures of was Washington D.C.  We again got there at night and by the time we found the capital building it was dark.  It was light enough to see easily, but just dark enough to make picture taking a little rough.  This one turned out exactly right to me though - it shows the boys' attitudes perfectly:

   And the family photo:

   The next picture was just too pretty not to share.  Once again we managed to get to Niagara Falls just before dusk, and once it got dark the lights came on and we took this:

   We actually got to watch fireworks over the falls that night also.  It was beautiful.  The next day, after making a quick trip to the Erie Canal just because it was close, we headed back towards home and had to stop to see Lake Erie just because it was there also.  We stopped at the last exit in New York on Interstate 90, drove a half mile or so, parked and found the water and a nice beach.

   The boys changed into their suits and we waded and played in the water.  It was my second favorite time on the whole trip.  We spent a couple hours playing and skipping rocks and everyone had a good time.  I got some neat pictures from it too.  Here is DH with the boys:

   The lighting was a little tricky since it was once again heading towards sunset.  Here is one that was just good timing.  Alex is being tossed into the water and this is just before he hits:

   This next one shows how clear the water was and was taken just before the boys changed into their suits:

   I had taken the time to curl my hair and there was no way I was messing it up by swimming, so I stayed on the beach taking pictures and playing in the small rocks on shore.  Here is one of DH and I that I think is really good:

   And that is probably enough pictures for everyone for one day.  We all had a good time, and we got more family pictures of us in different places than we have in years.  The boys enjoyed everything even with the long drives and we have plans to go back to Gatlinburg, Washington D.C. and maybe Lake Erie at some point.  In my eyes the best times we had were the ones that didn't really involve any money or tourist traps, so I would be happy just hiking or doing simple things like swimming in the lake again sometime.

   As for knitting, not a whole lot has gotten accomplished.  I took a sock on my trip, but didn't really work on it much.  Glee is coming along and I'm at the point where I need to pick up stitches for the neck and haven't made myself yet.  Once I get some update pictures done I will post them here along with more info about what I've been up to.  My third blog birthday went by on the 31st of August without even a mention.  Time just flies too fast.  And speaking of time, I am out for the day.  TTFN!

  Doesn't it always seem like I am playing catch-up?  First up this time is Tyler's (my oldest) eleventh birthday - way back on June 20th.  He wanted to go camping, so we all went out there and spent 2 days with the boys catching frogs, fish, bugs, and whatever else caught their attention.  They got filthy and enjoyed every minute.  In between mud baths we did manage to get a cake and presents done.  Tyler really isn't a huge fan of cake, so I picked out one I liked.

   Here is Tyler with his cake:

   And here is Tyler just a few seconds before being silly as usual:

   One topic down!  Next up are some of the progress pics I have been promising forever.  I finally remembered to upload them to Flickr last night before bed.  First up here is BPT from Knitty.  This was tough to start - that first row or two took me an hour or three.  However, once past the initial figuring out where the increases went it is much easier and I got a couple inches done one day (and it hasn't been touched since...lol)

   I have been putting in some orders and getting packages in the mail.  One day it was just like a birthday with all three packages I had coming showing up at the same time.  It was great!

  DH of course thought I was nutty for taking pictures of boxes.  The Knitpicks box contained, amoung other things, a 47" cable that I was able to use to try on Glee to make sure that it was going to fit.  This is what it looked like on the 32" needle I was using:

   I love the subtle shading in the yarn.  Here is the front:

   Not the most flattering pic, but you get the idea.  The point is that this should fit just right.  Not too tight and not too loose.  And here is my attempt at showing you the back.

   I really haven't had any time to do much more work on this, so it is only an inch or two longer than these pictures show.  Instead, we have been doing fun things like taking trees down.  Woohoo.  Here is a picture of what the tree in front of our house looked like:

   The retaining wall in the picture is something new that DH and I put in and he is very proud of also.  It isn't quite complete here as there is a row of caps on it now as well.  But back to the tree.....One Saturday a couple weeks ago we came out of the house to find a huge crack down the trunk.

   See the tiny little ratchet straps we tied around it to try and hold it until we could cut it down?  There were 3 on it at one point and one of them just snapped by this point.  This picture gives a better idea of the size of the tree:

   DH went and rented a bucket truck and had a friend or two, the boys, and I help to take it down and clean up the mess.

    A little farther along:

   The tree is down to just a short 5 foot or so tall trunk - we're gonna miss the little bit of shade it gave us.  Somehow I managed not to get a single picture of DH in here, but many thanks to our friend Jeremy, who is in the bucket in this last shot.  It was an interesting process for sure.

   There are still more pictures to come of the rest of the contents of the packages above.  I think that is enough for one day though.  TTFN!

   Well, we survived our vacation and made it back last Tuesday night - only one day later than planned.  I will have to write about it when I manage to get the pictures uploaded to Flickr.  The camera was in the van this morning so I thought I could hijack it and load the pictures while at work today, but DH had already cleaned the SD card off and only left things that I didn't want.  So that didn't work out so well for me.  lol 

   There really hasn't been any knitting done for a little while, due to vacation, school, etc.  A major time-consumer is the organization of our pool team fundraisers.  One was held last Saturday and we did fairly well.  We are still going around to local businesses to get donations for our raffle which we will hold on August 9th.  We're going to sell jello shots at some of the bars we have league play out of in the next few weeks and somehow that is entirely my baby since noone else has offered to help or shown up if they did offer.  Imagine that.  We also want to hold a car wash or two between now and the 9th if we (meaning I) can get it organized.  Everybody wants to have a share of the profits of these ventures, but it seems like there are only a couple people actually doing any work.  Right now, between our winnings from last season and our first fundraiser we have pretty close to what we need to cover the basics air and hotel costs of the bulk of the team.  It would be nice to be able to go and not have to worry about starving or anything while we are there though.  lol

   School is getting close to being over.  I feel like I am missing it all though.  Two weeks ago I had to miss because we had to take down the tree in front of our house on short notice.  I could probably have gone, but DH wouldn't have appreciated being left with all the work and the cleanup.  Then last week we didn't end up getting back from vacation until after class had ended.  Oops.  So for class tonight I have 3 assignments to turn in - two and a half of which are actually done.  Hopefully there is enough time after work to finish the last one.  I feel really guilty for missing so much of class, and am hoping he doesn't dock my grade too much for it.  I'm pretty much teaching myself the material, so maybe I should just ask for my money back....lol.

   Well, the day is pretty much over and I've got homework to do, so TTFN!

   Travis-    Long time no hear!  I was going to send you an email, but you didn't give me one to respond to!  Heard you got a new job - congrats.  The cake was great, although Alex didn't eat his because neither of the boys really likes cake for some reason.  Not sure how that happened.  If I didn't know better, from their eating likes and dislikes I would think they were someone else's kids.  lol  Drop me a line at meghanrenee5796 at hotmail dot com sometime to say hi.

   For anyone else who is hanging around, I have pics to update with and will do so soon.  However, if I don't get a chance today it won't be until next week.  We're going on a trip with the boys - not sure where even though we leave tomorrow morning.  DH is just going to pick a direction, but we are leaning towards Niagara Falls over Mount Rushmore.  Flying by the seat of our pants as usual.  Had a little excitement with a tree in front of our house that decided to split in half and give us a scare about whether it would stand until we could get it cut down.  We lucked out and it survived from Saturday until we could cut it down yesterday.  DH did it himself - a real pain in the butt, but saved us a ton of money.  Of course there are still a couple very large tree trunk pieces in our front yard too.....I'm going to miss that tree and the shade and wind protection it provided.  Got pics of that too.

  All right, if I'm going to get a chance to give you a real update I've got to get a few things done here at work.  TTFN!

   You know it is time to post when your dad points out that you've only posted twice in the month of June so far.  LOL  I swear I have been knitting, but just moving along on the stockinette body of Glee makes for some very boring update info.  It has gotten longer, but it is also at the 'is it ever going to end' stage.  I work on it whenever I get a few minutes free.  It still makes me a little nervous that it might be too big and not as fitted as I would like, but putting it back on waste yarn stinks so I haven't done it.  I was bad and made a purchase that should make it easier to try on when it gets here in a few days.

   The other day while at work I was bored and in the mood to buy some things that I had been looking at for weeks.  The final straw was an email from Knitpicks about their 40% sale on books.  Since they normally have good prices that isn't saying a whole lot, but I took the opportunity to break down and order three books that I had been wanting for a while.  Since they didn't quite add up to the $50 needed for free shipping I had to get a couple other things too (obviously).  I added a couple of color cards for some yarn lines that interest me, and then I threw in a 47" cable for my Options sets and a set of single pockets.  The only reason I got the cable at that length was so that I could just switch out the cable on my needles in order to try things on and then switch it back fairly easily.  We'll see if it works as well in practice as it does in theory.

   I have mentioned before here that I have been doing some searching for yarns for a couple of projects.  After coveting a couple things from afar for quite a while I broke down that same night and put in an order from there as well.  I ended up with two projects worth of yarn and a couple of color cards to look at for future projects.  It looks like both orders were shipped on the 23rd, so should be here soon.  I hope the yarn is as nice in person as it was online.

   Besides spending money online, I really haven't done too much.  I spent a whole hour and a half at The Yarn Shoppe this afternoon just visiting and knitting.  Yesterday there was a quick trip in to see if Laurel had one more skein of the Manos silk being used for Glee, but she had to put it on order for me.  She is also ordering the Make It Modern book from Classic Elite for me to go with some of the yarn coming from Elann - possibly among other things.....but I'll save those for another time.

   Tonight is my last night on third shift - hopefully for a very long time.  If I am still in my present job in November/December there may be about 4 weekends where I would have to work Saturday night/Sunday morning, but the plan is not to be here by then.  I've been in the same place for 4.5 years and it is becoming time to move on to something new.  I had an interview and received a job offer on one job already, but turned it down.  Something better came along and turned my head.  Now I have interviewed for the better position as well and am just waiting to see if it pans out.  Sounds like I won't know until the week after the fourth.  Cross your fingers for me!

   Speaking of the fourth, DH and I are planning a family trip somewhere over that long weekend.  I had two days of vacation to use up and a long holiday weekend is a good time to do it.  We were thinking of South Dakota and Mount Rushmore, but now we are leaning towards New York and Niagara Falls.  DH thinks the drive would be more interesting.  Both would be good places for the boys and I have no objections either way.  It will be a fairly tame vacation as we aren't planning on going to any amusement parks or anything.  Maybe a zoo in Ohio or something, but our planning tends to be pretty lax so we will probably wing it for the most part.

   The only pictures I have to offer today are ones I uploaded weeks ago and forgot to post when I was talking about sewing.  I mentioned that I used to sew a long time ago, and I took pictures of the only two things that really got worked on in the last decade.  First is a strip piecing wallhanging I found in a magazine and made while visiting Mom and Dad one holiday.

   I did the piecing on the top and then Mom surprised me by finishing it out and having it quilted.  It was a fun and easy project, but I don't remember what magazine it was from at this point.  The second project is still actually not finished in its entirety.  And to be honest I'm not even sure if I did all the work or if Mom did some of it, but I remember picking the fabrics at the very least and know that I did some if not all of the sewing.

   It is wrinkled at the moment as you can see and doesn't have any bindings or anything on it yet.  I believe the nine-patch pattern is called drunkards path, which brought to mind the bees.  The small bees you see on the hive are actually ceramic buttons.  Not a finished product, but I like it anyway.

   Well, that is about all I have for now.  TTFN!

Yeah, I know the title is lame - but it is what popped in my head.

   Last Monday, I headed to my parent's house to spend the day sewing with Mom.  I gathered up my new machine and a few of the projects I had recently bought and headed north.  On the way I stopped in Dubuque at a quilting store to see about getting a quarter inch foot for quilt-piecing and ended up picking up two of them to try out.  However, once I got to Mom's and actually got the machine going it ended up that the needle position is adjustable and two of the many programmed stitches are used to sew a quarter inch from the left and right of the basic foot it comes with.  That is an awesome feature to have built in!  Mom is going to take back the more expensive of the two quarter inch feet I bought, but it was still inexpensive enough that it wouldn't have been any big deal to keep it.

   After winding my first bobbin I went to town playing with a small piece of muslin to try out the basic stitches.  I bought a Brother CS-6000I, and it is really a nice machine.  Mom uses a considerably more expensive machine and she even was impressed with the things mine could do for the price.  After getting the hang of it I decided to cut out the pieces to make the sewing caddy I had planned out.  We talked it out between us and I got busy, ending up with a finished item in only an hour or two.

   It is very basic, but accomplished what I set out to do, which was relearn things.  I used a decorative stitch to topstitch the purple background piece.  There is a small piece of quilting batting between the two layers.  Each of the pockets was also two layers I sewed on three sides and then flipped rightside out to give some more stability.  It turned out well enough for me to be happy with it. 

   Next up was a lining for the knitted bag I made for my sister-in-law for Christmas.  The bag is done, but not blocked.  I cheated and stretched it out to a size that looked good to me and measured that as the finished size.  We'll see whether that bites me in the butt later I guess.  For the lining I just used a double layer of fabric and made a piece I turned inside out again to feel more finished.  That way it has a double layer for strength inside the knitted bag.  Not pictures of that until the bag is completely done though.

   Finally, Mom and I started working together to make a fabric bowl.  She cut out enough pieces to make two bowls and between the two of us we got them both started.  Once it got to the point of doing the satin stitching I took over and ended up finishing my bowl.

   It is a very shallow bowl, but it turned out well.  Here it is from the bottom:

   Finally, here is one a little closer to see the fabric itself.  It is kind of a multi-colored peacock feather design.

   I still have the purple, yellow, and green fabric that was orginally intended for the bowl.  We didn't buy the pattern for the bowl we saw at the quilt store we were at that day and I may go back and get it sometime to use with this fabric.  Or it could get used for something else, who knows.

   In the meantime, I went to Hobby Lobby the other day just to look around and found these fabrics that I couldn't pass up:

   Is anyone else starting to worry about me having to find space for another stash???  I'm having an urge to take these 2 fabrics to the quilt stores to find coordinating fabrics - for what I don't know.  Oh wait!  I have those 2 bag patterns I bought recently that I could use these for. 

   I have been working on the increases on Glee when I get a chance here and there.  It was a long road to get to the 390 stitches needed before seperating the sleeves, but the goal was finally reached the other day.  Last night before work I knit the next row and put the sleeves on waste yarn.  Now the rows should seem considerably smaller with almost half as many stitches to work each time.  I'm loving the fabric the Manos silk is making.

   While at work I have been scouring Ravelry to find just the right yarns for a couple of patterns that are in my queue.  One of them calls for a linen blend, which is something I haven't used before.  It is tempting to use linen in some form just to try it out, but it seems so stiff to work with that I haven't tried it yet.  Laurel is supposed to be getting in a linen or hemp yarn one of these days at The Yarn Shoppe, so I'll have to try it out then.  Other than spending hours of time on Ravelry to kill the working hours that is about all that has been accomplished knitting-wise.  Not enough time in a week, let alone a day.

   DH and I played in the local tournament for our pool league this weekend and our team ended up winning first place again this year!  It is a different set of team members than last year, other than DH and I, but we did very well and are looking forward to another trip to Vegas in August.  I'll have to call Mom and Dad before they can read this to see if they will watch the boys again then.  They have been incredibly helpful and have watched them the last two times and I feel a little guilty asking again so soon, which is why I haven't said anything to them yet.  At this point I am almost wishing that the tournaments were held in different places each time because we are going to get Vegas'd out at some point. 

   This entry has taken two days to write because of work things popping up at the last minute, but I think it is finally done for now.  TTFN!

   The other day I posted about possibly starting up three new projects.  When I went home that day and before we went camping that weekend, I wound some of the yarn I would need for each and lined it up.

   Left to right, that is two skeins of Araucania Atacama in pink sunset, two skeins of Manos silk/wool blend in a turquoise color, and 2 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cathay in a purple color.  I headed to the Yarn Shoppe on Friday, the 23rd, to start one of them.  I cast on for BPT, but the directions weren't written quite as well as they could have been and after an hour of messing around I had all of this much:

   There hasn't been time to work on this at the moment because it takes a little more concentration than I have had time for.  It will be picked up one of these days and I expect it to get easier as the pattern becomes more established.

   While we were camping I cast on for Glee in the silk/wool and have gotten quite a ways on it.

   This is done up to about 10 increase rows before the arms are seperated.  The number of increases was making me nervous and Ravelry seemed to indicate that Zephyr patterns run a little large, so I put it on waste yarn and "tried it on" so to speak.  It is snug fitting now, so it seems as if the remaining increases should be ok.  It will be put back on the needles as soon as I get a chance.  It is pretty mindless, but that is good for a lot of the times I actually have a minute to pick it up.  Can you see the subtle variegation?  I tried to get a good shot of it for you:

   The above one was taken inside.  The following one was taken outside in sunlight:

   Neither really shows it well, but you can kind of get the idea.  The variegation is very subtle and is exactly what I wanted for this project.

   I didn't really take many pictures while we were camping, but I did like this one of DH, the boys, and our St. Bernard Beau, playing together.

   We celebrated Alex's (on the left) 9th birthday a week early while we were camping.  Here he is with the chocolate cake he requested.

   His actual birthday was May 31st (still today for me since I'm working third and haven't been to bed yet).  Mom came down and we went out to eat together.  Before leaving Alex wanted to open his present - I say it in the singular because he didn't really have a very long list almost everyone got him money, so he only had one present to actually open.  He opened his box and inside found a bag of freezer pops - for weight - and a bicycle seat.  Now this tells you how great a kid he is.  His bicycle seat had gotten eaten by one of our dogs at some point and he had mentioned needing a new bike because of it.  However, when he just saw the seat alone he was perfectly happy with it.  He was really excited when he saw the rest of the bike that went with it.

   And he was off!

   After going to a chinese buffet for lunch, Mom and I headed to a couple quilt stores.  She had looked at my new sewing machine and wondered why I hadn't tried it out yet.  Still a combination of time and intimidation I'm afraid.  So when we went to the first store I decided to get some fabric to make a sewing caddy for under my machine.  It should be a fairly simple, straight-forward project to re-introduce me to sewing and my machine.  Here is the fabric I picked out:

   The purple will be the base color with pockets out of the other 3 pieces.  Then we went to the second store, and I got sucked in by all the pretty colors......and I came out with two more small projects.  lol  One of the projects will be one of those fabric bowls made with pentagon? shapes.  Here is the fabric I picked for that:

   These are just fat quarters, so this is only about $8 worth of fabric.  I'm a sucker for purple and green, so I had to find some kind of project for these colors together.  The second project is a small purse made out of these fabrics:

   Again, these are just fat quarters, so with the pattern and the zipper when I buy it the whole thing will cost less than $20.  The colors just called out to me.

   After shopping for a little while we went back and Mom played a couple games with the boys before heading home again.  Then a short while later I took a nap before heading to work for the night.  Overall I think Alex had a good day.  He enjoyed his lunch, Grandma brought him a big monster cookie, and he has quite a bit of birthday money to spend. 

   I have a couple days off again as I transition to working the second half of the week for the month of June.  I'm thinking about going to Mom's for the day on Monday with my machine so she can help me learn how to use it.  It is a 2 hour drive each way, but it would be fun.  Sunday afternoon and evening we have pool league playoffs.  We ended up getting high point finisher for our Sunday 8-ball team, and the playoffs determine the division winner.  We also won our the division playoffs on our Wednesday night team.  So overall we ended up doing well this season.  The Local Tournament Championship is next weekend, where we will take out 8-ball and 9-ball qualified teams to play for the chance to go to Vegas in August.  Cross your fingers for us!

   Well, that is about all the time I have for today.  TTFN!

   Today the fates finally let me get the rest of my pictures taken.  So finally you get to see some pictures of the Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie!

   Tonight, between school and work I managed to finish the second pocket for the cardi.  So hopefully in the next couple of days I can sew those on.  Knowing me blocking won't happen before the sewing on part.  I hope that doesn't bite me in the butt.  lol  Here it is from the front - without pockets of course.

   The edge is curled under because it is only a 2 stitch edging on either side.  It doesn't look like much here, but the back is pretty:

   I tried it on after seaming the hood, fixing the holes under the arms, and sewing in the ends.  It is a little hard to get an exact idea of fit with the way the edges curl, but it seems to fit exactly like I want it to.  Just large enough to fit a top underneath it, but not too bulky.  The extra length I put in the body helped to make it exactly the right length too.  It hits in the middle of my hip like I wanted it to.  I really can't wait to put the zipper in.  First, the pockets have to go on though...

   After that, I think the first victim for a zipper will be the Ribby Cardi.  There will be three that need zippers at that point, the yoga hoodie, the ribby cardi, and the celtic icon, and the ribby cardi is the one I would mind the least if I messed up.  After testing out the zipper process on that I will venture to try one in the yoga hoodie.  Of course, since I haven't ever put a zipper in ANYTHING, I will be playing with some scrap fabric first.  Just because I'm willing to experiment on the ribby doesn't mean I'm anxious for it to be ruined.  lol

   Last time I mentioned that there is a new project in my WIP list.  It is the Tank with Peplum from the Vogue Summer 2008 issue:

   The tank itself isn't that great a pattern really.  It is more the construction and the chance to play with color that drew me to it.  The first piece that is knitted is the bottom fair isle rectangle.  I cast that on the other day and really like the little that is done so far.

   The rest of the colors are here:

   The colors just make me happy, and are actually pretty true to life here - at least on my screen.  The plan is to use the aqua and blue for the fair isle pieces.  The section directly above that first piece in the picture is kind of a corrugated look using two colors.  The color in the foreground (kind of a sage color in the picture) will be the celadon color with the aqua in the background.  That will make the aqua color the edging on the finished tank as well.  The pieces in the tank that look a little like a giraffe in the picture will be the dark peach on the light peach background.  This project is really just for the fun of a new experience, so I probably won't stick just to it. 

   Last night while killing time at work I made a list of all the projects that I have stashed in my yarn closet.  Not counting socks and small projects I have 32 specific projects worth of yarn, plus a couple of things that aren't earmarked for a specific pattern yet.  The bad part is that I stashed all of those things because I really wanted to make all of them - and still do.  Now I just have to figure out which one will be next.  I would list them all here, but the idea of making all those links kinda makes me cringe.  lol  The problem is that I still want to make all of them, and obviously starting all of them at once is not a good idea.  Cardigans are apparently my thing, because they account for 12 of the items on the list.  It is kind of getting late in the season and a little warm to make a winter sweater though.  I should be leaning towards spring or summer knits if possible, but for some reason I seem more likely to finish a cardigan or pullover than a tank top.  How can that be possible?

   Smaller projects seem like good ideas, but working on mittens, hats, scarves, etc. seems a little silly at this time of year.  If you don't work on them now though, you don't have them when it gets cold enough for them.  Dilemmas, dilemmas.

   Alright.  After looking at the top few items I'm thinking about casting on  three things.  I just stashed the yarn for BPT recently, but have wanted to knit the pattern since I started knitting almost 3 years ago.  I bought Araucania Atacama in pinks (and just realized I forgot to take pictures) from Elann, and it just sounds like a fun knit (and the fact that pink is my thing right now helps to make that decision).  Since that isn't exactly a summer knit I will also probably start Fifi in the Debbie Bliss Cathay that I bought last summer.  Since it is a pattern that will take some attention, and the cables in BPT also take attention, I might also start Glee in the Manos silk blend purchased recently.  It should be a pretty mindless knit for when I need one, or when I need a break from the others.  Starting three projects makes me feel guilty right off the bat, and it will slow the entire process down.  However, it may be that once I start one I won't be able to put it down or something and one will get finished before the others.  Who knows?

   We are going camping this weekend and I have off of work until next Tuesday, so it will be a good time to start some things.  The boys usually take off in the morning, come back for meals, and are gone until bedtime playing.  Since it is such a small campground in the middle of nowhere it is pretty safe for them to do so, which is nice.  DH usually gets out his RC cars at some point with his dad and they keep each other busy for hours.  That should leave me at least some time to knit.  Because of pool league playoffs and school for the boys we don't get to go up until Friday, so that also gives me the next two days while everyone else is at school or work to play.  This will be the first time camping this year, so I'll have to spend a little more time packing things up and stocking the camper for the summer.  The nice part is that once it is done we pretty much just pack clothes and perishable foods and go.  If I think about it this weekend I'll take pictures of our home away from home.  We're spoiled for sure - it definitely isn't tent camping.

   Besides the knitting pictures I also took a couple of some sewing projects - past and future.  However, I think that is about enough for one day.  TTFN!