Baa, baa black sheep - four bags full

Today's seven items were the simplest to assemble. My daughters went through their closets and I went through Youngest Child's closet to prune summer items - four bags full.

After I cleaned out the hall closet and removed two small three-legged tables with glass tops and my embarassing large stash of curtain rods (obviously, I was worried about production shutdowns), that took me up to six items. Number Seven was on my front porch. I love the colors of this ceramic planter but it doesn't fit any plants sold in the Twin Cities. It doesn't look nearly so good when the purchased Mum is sticking halfway out the top.

In the knitting world, I've been working late into the night on Puggy's Shruggy. I have had some row guage issues that she, Superior Knitter, did not have. That means I've been changing decreases and increases left and right. When you see this pattern, you'll get that joke! I've also decided to be part of Lolly's Soctoberfest; Luckily, I've been planning on a pair of socks since I cleaned out my stash boxes and found two skeins of sock yarn! Maybe for me, maybe for Dear Husband. Hmm. . .

First fiber swap offering sent off!

I am participating in a Themed Art Fiber Swap (unwieldy title, that) which centers on Halloween and bugs. Lime and Violet clued me into this group but it's run by Yarnpunk over at Spinning on the edge. She has some amazing yarns! I think mine are fairly pedestrian - they are strictly for knitting with. Yet they are mine own and that's what I like about them.

When I went to mail the package today, the postal worker asked me if anything was flammable, etc. and I said, "No, it's fiber and it would take a lot of work to light it on fire." He said, "A whole box of fiber? Like, fiber you eat?" I flashed on a giant moth there for a second but replied, "No, wool fiber. For yarn." I am not sure he believed me.

Just for the record, my "bug" theme was "Spiders" and I put in all kinds of things for making a shadowy yarn or a cobwebby shawl. Grey shetland, purple corridale fleece, lavender Angora goat and plum/silver/black beads. I also made a few stitch markets, added a free pattern for beaded shawls and to round it out, tucked in some chocolate bars and a fantasy/horror novel I found which featured "the Queen of the Unseelie, the queen of darkness and shadows." She's a baddy, through and through! Oh, and a few spiders.

This message brought to you courtesty of Lime (and Violet, too!)

Lime and Violet are officially my favorite podcasters!

As the official podcast of LazyDaisyKnits, they receive: nothing, nada, zero and zip. Sorry, Ladies! But I do take them everywhere and I'm having great time listening to back episodes. What I didn't enjoy was trying to save their darn button! I must be the only blogger who has such a blinkin hard time getting this set up. It all sounds so easy and then, two hours later, I've got nothing but a mess. You out there, you just listen to their podcast. They have earned an explicit rating over at ITunes but it's just because they let a few juicy words fly every once and a while. The actual topics are interesting and hysterical! And they really know their "Yarn Porn" - I've been checking out almost every yarn they mention. I'm especially interested in one yarn Lime is using called "Wicked Forrest." I definately think I'm more of a Lime than a Violet but they go perfectly together. Like peanut butter and chocolate - two great tastes that go together.

Unlike Saturday (when it poured rain and I cancelled a bike ride in order to listen - fully dressed for riding and with a bike in the car - to Lime and Violet), today is lovely so we're off to the gym. Later, a trip to a spinning/knitting store in order to pick up some extra fiber bits for the Halloween themed Art Fiber exchange on Swap Bot. I'm thinking spiders and cobwebs because I have some lovely soft grey shetland top to send. I'll post some pictures when I've got the whole batch put together.

Good things sometimes make lousy photos

I think I mentioned that my husband, Oldest Daughter and I biked the 30 mile version of the Saint Paul Bike Classic on September 10. It was a great bike ride despite the horrible weather. Andy just looked at me and sighed as we drove to the race start. By the halfway point, we all agreed that it was a great ride and the Peace Coffee served midway at Como Lake pavilion was excellent. We do most anything for a free teeshirt and some free Aveda lipbalm!

So it's no wonder we look so crappy in these photos!






Note to family: I am begging for a new helmet for my birthday this year - this is possibly the all time dweebiest head protector ever.




As for the Saturday Seven - The photos are horrible. Mea Culpa.

I had another little bag of boy clothes for Baby Karl, including a lovely new pair of Merrills. The saleslady at REI was the first lousy clerk I've ever had at that store and she basically sold me the exact same size Youngest Son was wearing instead of the next larger size. But she wouldn't admit it to me. So, enjoy them, Karl. The other nearly unidentifiable items are a purse I am returning to my sister and some clothing for the Saint Mark's rummage sale. A pair of boots, some too-small bike shorts, a swim suit, and a pair of zip-off combination pants/shorts - minus the lost pants part. Some hiker will someday find those pants legs and wonder, "What happened to the rest of her?"




As for knitting - the Puggy Shruggy marches on - and I've been spinning again. I spent today with the indigo dyed fleece - it's spinning up a lovely faded jeans color - and overdyeing the failure fleece/yarn a great green. I promise I'll make those pictures soar!

Ahoy ye mateys!

Not much piratey action going aboard the LazyDaisy. It was almost a case of "PuggyShruggy, we hardly knew ye!" when I discovered that my row gauge (not the stitch gauge, the one that I was checking out constantly) was horribly, terribly bad but I simply ripped it out and started over again. Some things you just need to face head on. Oh, and it turns out I am a slacker kind of pirate - but with good boxes!


Tell you about that one later!

Seven simple things . . .

Some days you really have a lot to say but that's not today. I've spent the week learning how to use Freecycle and getting items posted on their "free" bulletin board and I've been amazed at what people are wanting and needing in my community. I posted our old rug and it was gone the next afternoon.



The sofa - it will be gone by Oct. 4.

I took the shoes (never worn but lovely), my husband's old laptop bag, and Middle Daughter's old lamp (replaced by a cooler sparkly lamp) over to St. John the Evangelist for their sale.


The duck towel rack came from my second house and we moved/installed it in every kitchen since then but it needs a new home. It flew the coop to St. John's as well. Oh, and the seventh thing? I gave my friend Melissa back her "Yard Sale on Saturday" sign. We've had it since last September.





As for knitting? The horrors! I had to rip, rip, rip out the Puggy Shruggy back to the beginning of the back. I've been using Combination knitting and I did one row distractedly in "Western Style." Boy did it ever pop out at you! Back to the needles. Luckily, I'm watching "Big Fish" with the girls to be followed by "Kyle XY" on Tivo. "Big Fish" is an excellent movie about fathers. Lots of imagination out there.

Speaking of imagination, knitters will enjoy this one . . .

Finally, a few hours of daylight . . .

Like most bloggers, my best (and usually) only blogging is done late at night, ie., after my children have gone to bed. My free time is either spent trying to get in a little exercise (bike, run or swim), keeping a household on an even keel (about 45 degrees is the best we can do), cooking, preparing to cook, cleaning up after cooking and answering the question, "What's cooking?" (I have teenagers and toddlers - the bottomless pit of hunger combination!) Laundry, yard work, walking the dog, reading books, doing Sudoko and, of course, knitting are all quite incidental to what ever is planned for that day.

But, Youngest Child is now in preschool for two afternoons a week. Ahh! Near Silence!

I though I should use this time to update on the knitting front. Andy's brown sweater. Still working on it, don't rush me! Puggy's Neato Shruggy - love it and I'm about to the middle of the back. Baby Green Sweater - decided to change from Cottage Creations to Elizabeth Zimmerman's yoke sweater. I hated starting on the sleeves first so I ripped the whole thing (all of, what, three inches?) and started anew. A certain French teacher's Christmas present - which I will have to keep under wraps - but it is red, made of linen and uses a free pattern from Tia Judy's String and Air page. My lame-o green socks - I so tired of them only because I can't cable the Combination Knitting way on this pattern. Add in a few unfinished objects (a beaded bag, a needle felted bag, etc.) and I have the rest of my year planned out.

I have a short knitting attention span, don't I?

But, just to keep things fun - don't forget National Talk Like a Pirate Day, next Tuesday, September 19!



Try whipping up a little support at your house with Hello Yarn's wonderful free Winter Pirate Hat or Moth Heaven's great Kid's Pirate Hat. Ahoy there mateys, prepared to be boarded!

Another (pre) Saturday Night . . .

This has been a hectic week and I am glad to be sitting down. Youngest Daughter had her birthday on Labor Day, school is already going at full speed, I had an emergency turn as carpool driver on Wednesday and we are getting ready to redo our parlor so that means looking at furniture, rugs, picking out paint chips, etc. We are trying to do this in a frugal manner - we are doing the painting and no wallpaper this time. We are also investigating recovering a favorite chair versus buying a new one - that kind of thing. But it all filled my week!

As a result of all this furniture talk, I am now an official member of Freecycle here in Saint Paul. This is a bulletin board kind of group finding new homes for all kinds of items from a new set of king sized sheets to church pews. Next week's Saturday Seven will mostly be furniture and larger household items.



I'd like to say that the theme for this week's collection was "luxury items" but that would be pushing it. I was looking for my biking shoes in the back of my closet this week and found a bunch of purses and shoes that were hiding out. The two purses - Coach brand! - are still in great condition but they are both over 12 years old. I've owned the brown one since before I moved to Minnesota! I used to have only one standard when it came to purses - they had to be large enough to fit a videotape and/or a diaper. I was only looking for a Utility Purse. Now, I'm looking for something a little more fun. The really amusing thing is that these styles are still being offered at the Coach Outlet Store near me. Someone will get a good deal. The shoes were just poor choices for me - I can count the times I wore the flip-flops on one hand, the loafers are Wide (my Youngest Daughter contributed those), the tennis shoes stretched when I wore them during pregnancy, the black sandals make an annoying "flip" sound when I walked (I admit being picky!) and the boots are just too pointy to be in style. They'll be going to Saint Vincent de Paul on Monday morning.

On the knitting front, I've been toting around my smaller knitting project, Puggyknits' Puggy Shruggy, all week. Unfortunately, I've only gotten to the end of one sleeve and the start of the main back. It's a lovely soft project but the yarn sheds and makes me sneeze! I'll need it soon - tonight the temperature will go down to 48 degrees F.





I've tried to get some detail in the second photo but I am hopeless at photography. I'll have to pick up that skill right after crocheting, quilting, web design . . .

Seven Scattered Things

After a long day, I'm just checking in to display today's Saturday Seven. In fact, if I don't hurry up, it will be the Sunday Seven.


The first was my monthly bag of boy clothes, donated to Baby Karl. He's the first boy child in the family so I'm sure they can use hand-me downs.


The second collection is a much more mixed bag of donations. These four items were an extra cotton blanket, some outgrown teen clothes, a stack of religious-themed books that really should be passed on and a soccer net. I don't know how we got the net - we don't even have a soccer goal that it would fit. I dropped these off at St. John the Evangelist for their huge sale.


The two books are great resources for parents of gifted children and I am passing these on a parent at my church.


The last photo is a shower attachment for a tub. We bought this when Oldest Daughter had a broken leg and couldn't shower or bathe easily. She came up with her own system and we never even opened the package. Off to Goodwill! And the lovely blue background? My new wallpaper!! The kitchen may not be finished yet but it is very colorful.

As for knitting - I spend yesterday evening on Andy's brown sweater and tonight on my blue shrug. We also took in a very funny movie, The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club, about life and love in a retirement community. Very funny in a classy, Doris Day, 1960s kind of way.

Oh, and I biked this morning. 18 miles through the Grand Round in Minneapolis. A great trip.