Another dip in the frog pond

Sigh. Why is my knitting fighting me so?
I started on the sleeves of hubby's cardigan last night. As I sit here working on them now, I realize how hard it's going to be to keep the cable pattern correct while increasing. So, I decide I need to work from the top down instead. Frog frog frog frog.
If you see a story in the paper about a woman in Illinois who strangled herself with her knitting WIP, that'd be me.

Only 15 more days 'til Stitches Midwest

Changes

OK, I went and changed my sidebar slightly. Instead of photos of my WIP's and FO's, there are links, which is probably better for people viewing this with dial-up anyways. I get so frustrated, though, when I can't get stuff to show the way I want it to!

Testing....testing....

Are other people having trouble seeing the images on my sidebar of my projects? They don't seem to want to come up when I'm on the computer at home...just wondering if I need to fix them, or if it's this computer being uncooperative.

Just checking in

I haven't had time to knit much lately. I did get started on the ribbing of the sleeves (hubby's cardigan) last night. That's it. After I finish this post, I'll try to get a few more rows done....
I finished HP4 on Saturday (actually Sunday, at about 12:30am), and I finally finished painting the shutters this morning! Having those done will give me more time to knit while hubby's working on my office....
Stitches Midwest is coming up fast! Oohhh, I can't wait. My pocketbook is trembling in excitement, ready to fling money here and there...I'm running it through some training exercises now.

Oh yeah, I've been on the phone quite a bit, trying to get that $$ that was overcharged to my card, and I found out it was the bank's fault. Oops.

One of those weeks...

Well, I thought our nice weekend away was too good to be true. I found out last Saturday that the spa at the Interlaken Resort charged me not only the $45 I paid for my massage (after a $35 gift certificate) on Saturday the 9th, but then charged me $40 on Monday the 11th. The kicker is, I wasn't at the resort on Monday the 11th! I have called them on Saturday (16th), Monday (18th), and Tuesday (19th). The spa director called me on Wednesday the 20th...the exact conversation: "Is this Lori Simmons?" "Yes" "This is Val from the Interlaken Resort, and I'm just calling you to let you know I've taken care of the $40 charge" "OK, thanks" "Goodbye" "Goodbye". She NEVER apologized, which ticked me off...and makes me think this happens quite often. It's now Friday, and the money's not in my account yet. Sigh. I guess I get to call and talk to Ms. Charming on Monday, oh boy! Can't wait. In the meantime, I will write a lovely letter to the hotel manager detailing all the bad service we received the two times we've been there. Actually, I do love writing nasty letters to companies that provide lousy service. I'm quite good at it. Too bad I've had a lot of practice...
Not a lot of knitting going on at the homefront. Just a lot of sitting around in the evening in front of the boob tube, drinking. And me trying to speed read Harry Potter 4 and 5 so I can get started on 6, since I totally forgot what happened in 4 and 5.
Hope y'all have a great weekend. I'll be painting (I promise, it is happening this weekend!) inside, so don't worry about me outside in the expected 100 degree weather, there's no way in hell you'd keep me out there for more than a few minutes at a time! And I'm hoping to get some more done on the LC, or start on the sleeves of hubby's cardigan. I'm putting off the frogging until later. Way later.

I started the 'Lapis Convertible' Tuesday night at knitting group. It took me a while to get going on it, since I was having a blonde moment trying to decipher the chart PLUS this yarn is a bit of a pain in the a** to work with...splitty and slippery (yes, splitty is SO a word!)

The walls are gone! On to phase II


Here are some cool paintings I found for my new office...the left one says "Calm", and the right one says "Relaxing"

Frogging. Need I say more?

UGH. I just started the sleeves of hubby's cardigan, and I found I needed to redo the sizing on them. Guess what? I get to frog part of the body (which was freshly finished) to adjust the armholes. Which is OK, they were big gaping holes anyways; will end up taking about 3.5" off the length of 'em. NOW I see the sleeve ribbing I just started is in the wrong size needle. Son of a *&^%#!!
I. Hate. Frogging.
Hubby. Better. LOVE. This. Sweater.
Hubby. Better. LOVE. Me. For. Making. Sweater.

TGIF!

Happy Friday, all! Not that it's anything special for me, since I usually work on Saturdays and the rest of the weekend then goes by in a blur. Let's see.....this weekend we're going to Rockford to buy drywall. And I get to paint the shutters and front door. Fun! I just know y'all are lining up to help. I was hoping to take pictures of the demolition-in-progress, but I haven't. No excuses. Just...haven't.
I did use my new swift the other day to wind up some of my Flash yarn. I think I drooled a little when I was using it. That is absolutely the best $$ I have spent in quite a while. Anyone that is waiting to buy a swift...don't. Stalk Joann.com until they have a 40 or 50% off online coupon, then get a swift! It's not one of those have-to-sand-and-finish wood swifts, you just pull it out of the box and use it. Fantastic. Plus I got the body of hubby's cardigan done (it's a little big, which is worrying me; but better a little big than too small).
I'm also starting to *hint* at what I'd like for my birthday (August 8th), which basically means telling my husband, "I really really want this", and handing him a piece of paper, or sending him an email link. This year, it's the Creatures of the Reef shawl kit. And any of the multitude of knitting books on my Amazon.com list. Or an IPod. Or a PDA, so I can get rid of my big, clunky appointment book. Or $$ to spend at Stitches Midwest (which is only 4 days after my birthday). I hope he's reading this! He doesn't understand me sometimes, especially about birthdays. To me, birthdays should be celebrated. Cake, gifts, maybe go out to dinner, whatever. When we first met, I found out his birthday was a few weeks before and he didn't do anything. So I offered to make him a cake. He thought I was weird, but nice. So he learned pretty quick about The Importance of Birthdays. I can't believe I'll be 31 this year. Yikes. And you know what my secret birthday wish is? The one I haven't told anyone in my family because, well, it's not something you can just drop in the middle of a conversation? My secret birtday wish is, just once, I'd like to have a surprise party. I've never had one. I might not like it. Hate it, even. But I'd like to say I've had one.
Oh, by the way......only 28 more days until Stitches Midwest!!! I have goosebumps! I already have the first draft of my "To Buy At Stitches Midwest" list done, and of course it's saved in MS Word so I can go in and update to my heart's content. What I'm sooo looking forward to is meeting some of the wonderful ladies from the Knitter's Review Forum. Fun fun.

I Love Patternworks!

They have a special place in my heart, Patternworks does. The yarn I just received (see photo below) was an exchange, and took quite a while to get to me because I needed 25 hanks, and they had to order more. Well, when I got the yarn yesterday, there was a note in it explaining that there were two dyelots enclosed (they couldn't get it in all one dyelot because the yarn is being discontinued), and if I didn't want the order for that reason, I could send it back. They didn't charge me shipping because of it! *happy yarn and free shipping dance*
Patternworks is awesome. Order lots and lots from them, people!

Yummy yarn. This is the Flash yarn I've been waiting on to make the "Convertible" sweater

Hmmmm....

You know, I'm not so thrilled with the secret pal program. Maybe it's just cuz it's my first time. I dunno. But I don't like that:
I was paired with someone overseas, which shipping one package to her cost 40 bucks! The good thing about the pairing is that I get to learn a bit about a different country, especially since she's in London, not far from where the bombings took place...so I kind of get an "insider's viewpoint" of what's going on there right now. I try to email her on a semi-regular basis, since I can't afford to shower her with lots of gifties.
And my secret pal seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. I got two or three emails and one package about a month ago....and haven't heard from them again. Sigh. That's kind of a bummer.
Anyone else doing the secret pal program that's reading this? How's it going for you? If it's your first time, would you do it again? And if you've done it before, does it get better the more you participate in it?

Weekend getaway

Wow, what a fun weekend! It's always nice to get away, isn't it?
We went to the Geneva Greyhounds dog track on Friday night for the fish fry buffet and some gamblin'. Then Saturday we went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire and met my pal Kristy and her boytoy Justin there. I got a henna tattoo (I really want a permanent tattoo, but as of right now I'm too chicken, so I'm living vicariously through henna tattoos). Kristy and I rode an elephant; here is the conversation leading up to said event between husband and wife:

Brad: Why don't you take a ride on the elephant?
Me: I rode one when I was like 6 at the circus. Once a lifetime is enough.
Brad: C'mon, please?
Me: You just want to take pictures of me to show to everyone.
Brad: Yeah, so? Plus I need a new screensaver.
Me: Sigh. I'll only do it if you pay for it.
Brad: Here you go. Now gimme the camera.

We ate gobs of good food, and I even found a glass place that had knitting needles with handmade glass toppers on them, so I snagged a set. Then we had to hurry back to the hotel so I could get a massage (I felt a bit guilty being the one to cut the afternoon short, but it was for a massage, c'mon folks!) which was wonderful. Then we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant for a prime rib buffet, which was good, but the service there was terrible! *Cough*Interlaken Resort*cough*. We had two, count 'em, two bottles of champagne, then I (blacked out) til 10am the next morning. Then we packed up and headed home.
Hope you enjoy the pictures, and had a fantastic weekend yourselves!

Here is part of the view from our hotel room. Nice pool, huh?


Sunrise. Ugh. Can't remember the last time I saw a sunrise before this. You definitely can't call me a morning person


Another view from our room. Behind the umbrellas is a deck, which is where we got married last November (aaaawwwwwww)


This is Tom. Tom works at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. Tom does kickass henna tattoos. Thanks Tom!


Here is my tattoo


See the elephants? How 'bout the guy with the shovel behind the elephants? Know what his job is?


Looky me! Riding on an elephant! (I'm the one in the green shirt, the redhead in front is my friend Kristy. **hi kristy**)


Another "Hey, we're riding on an elephant" photo....


Doesn't Justin look manly holding Kristy's parasol? No, there aren't any pictures of what Justin did to Brad after finding out Brad took this picture. It wasn't pretty though. Trust me.


Oooh, knitting needles from the Ren faire


Here you can see the cool beads on top

Felted Fourth

Well, I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July! We didn't go and see any fireworks (I know, we're boring). But I did make the moebius sling bag from "A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting". It worked up really fast, plus I really like how the felting turned out....especially since I'm a felting virgin! I can see why people like felting so much. I'm thinking about making moebius baskets for Christmas gifts this year.....
We spent oodles of $$ this weekend on doors. New screen doors for the breezeway (and hubby already put them in, awesome!), plus a new door for my home office and closet. He said he's going to put the office door in today. Glad I won't be home for all that swearing! The room is pretty much cleared out, next comes ripping out the carpeting and tearing down the walls. Ugh. Can't wait for Friday to get away from all that mess for a few days...we're going to Lake Geneva for a mini-getaway. Fine dining, a massage for me, and the Bristol Renaissance Faire! I may try to sneak in a trip to a LYS, too.

Here is my purse before felting....


And here is the purse after felting!