An Arizona Baseball Easter

We planned a trip forever ago to watch some of the Spring Training games in Arizona this year. My BIL used to play in the minors, so this is pretty much a must for my husband.

I had a lot to do to get ready for this trip. I had to plan out all of the knitting projects. Experiment on shorter drives if I would be able to knit/read in the car if I took a Dramamin. This worked like a charm on the long drive except, even with taking the "less drowsy" formula, I still slept half of the drive. I also tried to perfect my driving to Arizona joke for the California locals. -I was driving to Arizona to watch the Angels of Anaheim play the LA Dodgers. You see, this is funny if you tell the joke in the South Bay because Angel's Stadium is 45 minutes South and Dodger's Stadium is 45 minutes NorthEast. hahaha - Bad Joke.Either way. Baseball wasn't so bad. Take this guy for example. He looks as good throwing a ball as he goes getting chased around Wisteria Lane by Terri Hatcher. James Denton was the only guy I got up to take a picture of. I did manage to take a picture of the actual baseball, behind my knitting.This is as much as I got done between two games. By the time we got home I was about 8 inches into knee high boots socks.

Sometime before we left, we realized Easter is super early this year. So, Uncle Brian put together an egg hunt at the hotel . It was a pretty fun Easter .

I'm Trying

You know those days that are so busy that it literaly takes you all day to write a ten sentenced email. Nevermind, a blog with paragraphs and uploaded photos. Then your camera battery goes dead and you can't even get all the pictures off of it.

I tried to tell you about our fun Arizona, baseball themed Easter. But that hasn't happened yet. So, I leave you with this. Yarn that I picked up at a LYS in Scottsdale, AZ.

It's Cloinette Jitterbug in Ginger Cinnabar. A very Arizona-ie color. It's not that great of a picture with flash and all, but think... The reds are a better match to the yarn color.

More to come later.

Finally Done and Mailed

I finally finished my not so secret project to my brother's family. It's secret because I didn't want my SIL to read the blog and know how pretty and soft all these hats were before I could get them to her. But, not so secret because she knew I was making them and in which colors and that there was Malabrigo involved. I'm not sure she knows what Malabrigo is, though?

Each hat and wristwarmer is wrapped together. I thought I would try to get a little creative with the packaging! I was shooting for an older look, before the USPS got all stuffy with there package requirements. All of these then went into a perfectly sized toothbrush box with a couple of toothbrushes, too. One of the nice things about working in a dental office is that you can always find the perfect sized box for anything.Here are all of the finished projects. The picture is blurry, but seeing that everything is on a truck somewhere between Hollywood and Mojave (judging from the postmarks), it will have to due. My nephew has the Swell hat and the red warmers, my B has the striped hat and the black warmers, and my SIL has the green set. Even though it was the first day of Spring that these were finally mailed out, they should get some use out of them this year. It's cold where they live.

Patterns and Sources:
Green Hat - Emilie Hat by Louisa Harding, Knitting Little Luxuries
Green Warmers - Fetching by Cheryl Niamath, Knitty.com
"Wave" Hat - Swell by Kimmie Kemper, Knitty.com
Red Warmers - Kid's Wristwarmers by Krissy Otten, Original Design
Striped Hat - Kim's Hats by Kim Hamlin, Last-Minute Knitted Gifts
Black Warmers - Dashing by Cheryl Niamath, Knitty.com

Yarns: Malabrigo Worsted Merino in Vaa (green), Paris Night (black), and Sealing Wax (red)

One Fell Off and Broke His....Needle?

Two little Monkeys jumping on the bed. This is such a fun sock to knit. Apparently, they like to have fun jumping on the bed. They are quite carefree and playful.Here's a better better shot of the socks .

Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A. (No Purls)

Source: Knitty.com, Winter 2006
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Socks That Rock, Medium-weight in Farmhouse

As far as jumping on the bed. I would of thought that these silly little monkeys would of learned something about being cautious from the needles they were knit with. The needles were very careless, running around town tossed in a bag, letting everything hang out. In short, I broke one of my 5" sock needles carrying it around everywhere. I tried to switch the sock to my 10" #2 double points. This was impossible. Then I realized that if I were ever going to knit something that required 10"#2 double points, I would need to just buy a circular needle. So, I took one of those long needles and turned it into two needles (on the the left). They are the same length as one of my 5" sock needles (on the right).How did I make such nifty needles? I took my kitchen scissors and cut them exactly in half. Then it was off to the pencil sharpener. After I had as close to a point as I was going to get, I filed the point with a course nail file and smoothed it with a fine nail file. The points are a little more blunt than the original tips, but the work like a charm.

Elijah

Pattern: Elijah by Ysolda
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino DK in dark Purple (and I used every last scrap of the yarn. In fact, one leg is just slighty shorter than the other).

This is Elijah. He is going to McKenna. McKenna is still in Shawna's belly, but since Shawna is having a "Give my Belly Presents Party" I made this little guy. I get the feeling that I am going to be making these for any more babies that come my way. It was a really fun project to make. The nice thing is you stuff it as you go. No seams to sew. So, once you knit the last stitch, your done. You have to love that in a project.

First Kid on theBlock

We are proud owners of the first Nintendo Wii on our block. It is taking up so much valuable knitting time, but it is so much fun!!! We've had to push all of the furniture completely out of the way. It is a kick to watch Haley bowl. We've had the Wii for a week and already have a small arsenal of video games. As if the DS didn't take up enough of my time. If I'm not playing, I'm supervising all the neighborhood kids that now want to hang out at our house.

I also happen to be the first on my block with Bobert B. Dog on the back of my car. My LYS owner gave it to me as a thank you for doing the interview for the local newspaper. The article was funny to read. I was quoted about making a fashion statement with my hobby. And that people are impressed with that fact that I made an piece of clothing. Also, that I just love going in the store and touching all of the fibers and colors.

It really cracked me up when one of the dads at the play group asked me if I was in the paper. You can check out the whole article here.

Last of the 30 Day Photo Challange

Here are the last of the 30 Day Photo Challenge. I started this because my sister was looking for contenders. It's been fun, but I'm glad I don't have to try to remember to take a picture every day.

• Feb 23 - We had breakfast down at the beach . I like that there are million dollars homes all lined up next to each other like dropout beauty queens.
• Feb 24 - Here's the Little Miss playing on my computer. (Do you like my computer desk? It's Disney princesses! I could share the real desk with the husband and not get to play around as much as I would like.) What got me to take the picture is that Haley is wearing two hats. The adult hat and then the matching kid's hat on top of that. I promise you, I'm not that big of a Grinch on the heating bill.
• Feb 26 - The guy on the right is my arched nemesis. He loves to dig up all the soil around my plants that I have a hard enough time keeping alive. He'd probably be in love it if all the peanuts he buried in there would start to grow. Apparently he has found a friend, too.
• Feb 27 - This is the back of a video I found. It's a really cool watch us ski a hole bunch of radicule mountains around the world. I just can't get over the hairstyles and fashions.
• Feb 28 - Finally, here si the building next the office. They were so loud all day long. But, check out the fellow on the far left. It's the one armed man!!! The first time I saw this guy, he was laying down tar with a cigarette hanging out off his lip. Well, that's it. One month's worth of the crazy stuff I see from day-to-day.
  

I Wish...

I wish I could say that I have been laid up in the hospital...

I wish I could say that I've been out of town with a family emergency...

I wish that I could say that the google browser hasn't been letting me post...

I wish that I could say that I were dirt poor and unable to pay my cable/internet bill...

I wish that I could tell you anything other than that I've just not been in the mood.

Blogging has always been a "happy place" for me. I try to share my knitting and the funny little things that happen to me. I love reading what others are doing. Sometimes, I feel like I am participating. Like with the 30 Days of Photos (I owe you one more posts of these) or the fun memes that roam the net. I love to see your latest knitting projects or photo of you kids, and get excited to share what I am doing. I've always tried to keep my blog upbeat, so I apologize now for the downer mood that this post is setting. I wish I could only have positive things to say.

I started this blog because I love to knit. I don't have many local friends that knit, so I had to figure out a way to share what I was doing. I thought that I would join the vast community here in the knitting blog world. I'm horrible at taking pictures and I hate writing. But I shared anyways. People liked the stuff I made and think that I am actually funny. I don't really feel like I write this for myself any more but for the absolute and complete strangers that I have meet either through commenting or Ravelry.

Then one day I feel like I just lost it. Someone I personally know, left a very unkind comment on the blog. I feel like they wanted to hurt me and they did. They took away my happy outlet. I didn't want to post anything because someone that is a part of my life might be unkind to me. I know it has only been 3 weeks since the last post, but it has been longer than that since the comment was made and it has just weighed on me. Screaming at the top of my lungs hasn't gotten the feeling out and I end up just wishing it would go away.

I know that wishing doesn't get you anything, you have to work to make a difference. So, I'm taking a deep breath, I'm counting to ten, and I'm going to start blogging again. So, I'm going to show you my latest projects, share my 30 Photos, and keep telling the funny stories of the silly things that happen to me.

And I thank all of you that have lifted me up. You have done more than you can imagine.