Mistress Stash Enhancer

Has anyone else had problems with spam comments or trackbacks? I've noticed a lot of spam comments lately, and have closed the comments on all posts over a week old. When going though my archives I found a spam trackbacks, and closed all trackbacks over a week old. It sure would be nice if blogspirit had a word verification for comments!

Yesterday, in attempt to free up some disk space I went to control panel, then to file manager to see where exactly that 7 MG of space was. There was 5.6 mg in the images folder. There was doubles and triplicates of all the pictures, which I i erased and uploaded on photobucket.  I have no idea how so many duplicate pictures where created unless it had anything to do with the crash blogspirit had back in September.

Just some things I wanted to share. Have a great day! : )

Hardy Har Har. I already have a dumb blonde tee. (MandyJ knit up a super cute hedgehog, and needs help choosing a name for him, go help her out! I'll wait) ya back? ok good.

I finished up Hedera socks late Saturday night, Sunday morningish. These where my *ahem* Project Spectrum March socks. yeah, well... umm...

The Specs:

Pattern: Hedera from the Spring Knitty

Yarn: 2 hanks Lorna's Laces Lucky Stripe, bought by Mike at Knit Happens. There is a lot left over, probably 3/4 of a hank.

Needles: 5 metal dpns

Time: these puppies have been warming my needles for a month now! I finished the first sock, casted on the second one,  and then had to start on Lady E.

My though's: I worked 15 repeats on the leg, and 18 repeats on the foot. This was a very easy to memorize lacy pattern, by the time I reached the foot on the first sock I had the pattern down! I wish I would have omitted the last lace repeat and knit for a half and inch before started the toe decreases. Now that I've finished my first LL socks, I'm very glad I have lots of this good stuff stashed! very happy!

One more pic? A close up? OK!

Also, Have you seen this?  Cynthia of Two sticks and a ball of wool she started by collecting pink squares to make a blanket for her niece Grace, and one for Grace's friend Simone who are both sick with cancer. (I hope I have this right) Grace's friend and boyfriend Justin at the Alberta's Children's Hospital is dying of liver cancer and living on borrowed time. Cynthia is in desperate need of Blue Squares to make him a blanket. She needs 63 5" blue squares to make a blanket. If your able to help, leave Cynthia a comment with your email address in it. Thanks.

I still can't believe, I drove all the way to the other town to only discover that I had the games mixed up! DUH!

Sometimes.. I just wonder.. how have I made it this far!!??!! Really, here are a few examples: 

1. Corra and Bryce are on two different soccer teams, both in different age groups, different teams. Last night around 11:30pm I thought I should check the game schedule. (yes at 11:30 at night! For crying out loud) Both kids have soccer games on Saturday, both at 1:00, In two different towns 15 minutes apart from each other! *sob* Why did I just realize this NOW?? Not when the schedule was handed to me? *sob* Today though, I figured everything out, Mandaj's kid is on the same team and has agreed to take Corra to the game (thank you! thank you!!!), and I will take Bryce to his. I'll miss Corra's game (again this weekend, poo!) And I will work on duplicating myself in the mean time... sounds like a plan eh?

2. I always wondered why Blogspirit asked for email addresses, but never gave them to the author of the blog. (God am I stupid) I figured it would be apart of the "ala carte" options that they want you to pay for. Until I started surfing around in the admin area of my blog. (Do I have my moments, or what?!) Guess what I found!! (uh huh!) If you go to All Comments, click on edit comment, you can edit the comment, see the persons name, their email address and blog address. Good Lord, someone help me!! DUH!

3. (the knitting content) Remember this from like a month ago?

please excuse the crappy photo, its cloudy and crappy today.

I ignored her something fierce to finish Lady E, and I am determined to finish these this weekend. One little problem. Just a little one, wee problem, tiny really...

see it? Its GLARING at you! Jumping out and screaming, LOOK at MEE!! You don't see it do you? clicky here and there is a big fat arrow pointing out my mistake (thanks to Mandaj ) that I didn't see until I was almost done with the gusset decreases (damnit) And ya know what? Its staying there. Damnit.

4. My notebook, with all my notes that I could have used for Bryce's graduation (Wednesday of this last week, Pictures soon) that contained my notes for the mini socks, is currently in a very, very safe place. I guess I'm going to have to knit another mini sock to come up with a decent pattern, oh poo!

Some days.. I just wonder... what happened to my mind? oohh.. that's right, I have kids! THREE of them!! I've lost my mind! Because I have no idea what I was thinking... No idea! Really!

Do you suppose Hell is as warm as they say it is?

Cause I bought more sock yarn.... from left to right Pebbles, Lapis and Watermelon Tourmaline in medium weight STR. I swear my mail carrier must know when I'm on the breaking edge, the last day I can possibly weight for my yarn! Because yesterday, before I left the house to pick up Corra from the bus there was this sweet little package from Toni at the Fold I'm already picking out what colors I want next. I need another set of arms! Seriously!

Do you suppose Dad will notice if I hide the socks in the furthest darkest corner of my creepy basement and never ever ever talk of the sock again?? Well... I managed to rip out the toe and re-knit, and rip out the cast on edge and knit a additional 2 inches on one sock. The other sock has been appropriately named

The Bastard Sock

No matter what I do, I can not get to live stitches that are not all tangled up. Its kinda hard to explain. When the angry memories have faded, I think I will just use a needle and weave some waste yarn into a row of stitches and go from there. Stupid sock.

 Also Corra lost a tooth today.

She didn't even know it was loose!!

Monday-Wednesday I will be going to the Head start Spring Conferences in the Harrisburg/ Hershey PA area. Does anyone know of any good knit shops in the Harrisburg/Hershey area? I will be leaving Mike with the kids and need something to soothe the panic. I've never left the kids alone for more than one night!! I will not panic, no, no I will not. *breathing*

ooohhhh... the watermelon STR is calling my name!! Spring twists from the Townsend Socks yahoo group.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments on my Neapolitan socks! Vesper sock yarn is the bomb! ; )

***Updated Corra lost her other loose tooth! As she put it it was one bad tooth, she had to pull on it to get it out! The tooth fairy better be packin some cash tonight!!

I am not a morning person. Never have been, and probably never will be. I like to sleep in. Wait, no. I LOVE to sleep in. Something about being all cuddled up under the mound of blankets in my super comfy bed, with a million and one pillows makes me want to stay there all day. My alarm clock is set 20 minutes fast, some times I wake up and I have reset the alarm time and the clock time to some insane time. (*laughing* like that made since) Every school day, my alarm clock is set for 6:46 am. I hit the snooze till 7:30 am, when Mom calls (if she can) to wake me up and (hopefully) get my arse outta bed. Now most days, I will say just about stinking anything to get her off the phone so I can snuggle back under my quilt and go back to sleep and wake up in a freaking panic at 8:28am. (Corra has to be at school at 9:00) This morning's conversation went something like this. Mind you, this could be a combination of two different sleep conversations, because honestly I do NOT remember:

mom: Hi honey.

me: good morning mom.

mom: where did you get that vesper sock yarn at?

me: on her esty shop.

mom: whats etsy? and who's etsy shop?

me: its like ebay, for craft stuff.  Julia at knitterly things *thinking can i go back to sleep now?*

mom: oh

me: you can also get it at knit pixie

mom: knit picks?

me: no, mom. Knit pixie. kpixie. its a online store. *thinking: ha! knit picks though that people could confuse the two shops, yeah maybe in a sleep induced mumble! ha!*

mom: oh..

me: there is going to be some for sale on kpixie today at 4

mom: I have a dr.s appointment at 4. *she knows the kids don't have anything on fridays* Could you buy some for me if I give you my card number?

me: sure *will this get her off the phone??? I wanna go back to sleeeep! whine* you have to create a account and stuff. look at the colors and tell me what you want.

mom: ok. I will call you later and give you my card number

me: *thank God, I didn't want to find a pen* ok

mom: thanks Amanda.

me: your welcome Mom

mom: I gotta go if I'm going to go online

me: ok, love you

mom: love you too hunny, thank you.

me: thank GOD! I can go back to sleep now! *wake up at 8:22 am in a freaking sweaty panic*

WHAT DID I JUST AGREE TO DO???!!!???

*bring kids to school, go home, call mom on cell, she said something about her cell, didn't she? no answer leave VM, I talk to her at lunch, we talked about colors she liked and wanted. And I got her card number*

3:55 pm rolls around and once again I am in love with my cable modem, wireless internet and laptop. I hit refresh until 4:00. When my palms get sweaty, my heart is pounding and I start to freak out. Where is it? where is it? AHA! there it is! Score! In my cart! My cart! sorry got a little crazy there.

Mom, I scored you one skein of Vesper sock yarn in color Astro. Pretty green, soft pink and white. YUM! I owe you for the two skeins of Claudia's hand painted sock yarn in passion fruit, that I interrupted your work day to ask you for. (Hey! it was life or death trust me! I have needles!) Also Mom, I hope you've learned your lesson. If you want me to do something for you. Call me while I'm sleeping. I'll agree to anything to get off the phone and back to sleep! I hope you like vesper yarn as much as I like it! Love you Mom!

***remember contest is open till Midnight tonight EST. Scroll down to this post to read more. Good luck! I'll pull out a name tonight.

so this isn't a pictureless post, I leave you with my reasoning tome why I needed those two skeins of Claudia's handpaint:

my sock stash is getting low

P.S. Why do I drive my kids to school? Because I'm lazy and those last 2 minutes of sleep are what made me a better person!

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!!

Walking around my house with my camera, I realized. I really like the colors pink and red. I may not wear red all that often, but I apparently like to decorate with it! Take a peak:

Red Linoleum carpet in girls room (don't worry you red that right, its not real its linoleum. circa who the hell knows when?), my soda addiction, red rock ladybug made by Bryce

Sun catcher given to me by my sister, (one) of my tin wall hangings in the kitchen, the start of my Neapolitan sock,

Corra (who will be 7 tomorrow) who loves pink, red vase and (some) of my pink and red yarn, the missing Christmas sock (that caused mass hysteria that was in a bag hanging on the attic door) *ahem*

No way to fit this in so lets just throw it out there!

Corra and I had a nasty stomach bug this weekend, Mike was in Maryland still.

I called him Sat. evening whining, "Hunny you need to come home, I need help!" I'll spare you the narsty details,

 he says "uhh.. I have 2 hours of work left, and its a 4 hour drive.. and the, and the computer show is tomorrow"

me "hunny, I know, I'm sorry. I'm so sick, I can't carry Allysa upstairs. I need help"

He finished work early, checked out of the hotel, drove home, bought groceries, dealt with my whining, and took care of the kids. Yes, most of this was a sleepy hazy dream from the couch. I did have to ask a few times for soup.

But he missed the computer show, to come home to a germ filled house. If that isn't love, I don't know what is!

Now, Since I missed my blog-o-versery, I'm getting close to 100 posts on blogspirit and 200 comments. I thought it would be fun to have a little contest and send some sock yarn off to a better place. So, to make this quick: Leave a comment, or send me an email, between this post and midnight Friday I'll use a random number generator (or just write all your names down, put names in coffee can and have kid pull note out). Good Luck!

I'm going to knit my sock, eat some solid food (finally) and tell Bryce (again) to stop building with the haystacks to the Old McDonald game! 

*warning those with dial-up. Get out your knittin, there's a many pictures here!

Thank you! Thank you everyone with your well wishes!!! I feel so special! Thanks! I'm feeling much better day 3 of Antibiotics. Still a little sick, but doing much MUCH better! And now that Mommies all better, umm... who's gonna clean up this mess?

I noticed how damn bad the kitchen counter is after I picked Corra up from Theater. Theater that she wasn't, WASN'T SUPPOSED TO GO TO!! *breathing* Here's the dish: A few weeks ago the school sent home a interest form, asking parents if there kiddies would be interested in a theater program. You see, I sent that back, and a permission slip for the PTA's bedtime story time. The very smart people got them mixed up! And thought that I sent in the permission slip for the Theater program, Not the story time! GR! I was rip roaring using the polite "I'm going to rip you a new bumhole" voice with the receptionist when Corra didn't get off the bus and I was panicking. Seriously PANICKING! Do they realize, since I didn't sign a permission slip if something happened, the would be soooo screwed?!?! And to put the cherry on top, there was another parent that this happened to as well!!I am still pissed, and that's just the end of my day. The beginning? The middle? Are you sure?? All right.

Today has been one of those days, you know the alarm goes off you hit the snooze button for the next 45 minutes (you know you do!) and then the phone rings. Its your buddy telling you there's a 2 hour school delay. (she knows that you can't hear the radio over all the screaming, and you don't get local channels on the fancy pansy dish!) For freezing freaking rain, what FUN! And you start to wonder, why am I awake now? WHY? oh, because Allysa has pulled the humidifier apart in her room. oh.what.FUN!

After everyone gets dressed, and you notice how damned messy the house is looking now that your better and give a damn. You go to put your feet up on the coffee table once you get back from the grocery, there's a big storm coming after all, and there is no.room.for.ya.FEET even!

 my, why is your blue manos on the coffee table?  That's right!  Christine's brother is sick with cancer. Understanding the fear of just the possibility, and having a higher probability rate ( see #78 on my about me page if ya don't know what I'm talking about)  I jumped right on board and landed on that bandwagon! Weee!! And proceeded to fall onto this mess:

Corra: Oh No! Mommie where are we supposed to EAT?

Please notice the art supplies strewn far and wide across the dinning room table. You love your kids, but um... where's the other one?

Why, she is wondering what ate Mommies hand (see her down there? she's saying Mine, no, MINE! 23 month old, such fun)

arrrggghhhhh!!! *chomp chomp* (click for another picture that shows more of the nifty ribbing pattern. Again on my hand, cause I don't likes feet all that much!) 

You don't even want to TALK, or even hear a whisper or see a snipbit of her bedroom/craft room. We'll save that horror for another day!!  You really wanna see? REALLY??? Are you crazy? oh all right. OK, I give you... her room? Click the thumbnails if you want to see the messes bigger! AH! the horror!

I wonder where she sleeps....

Now that I'm feeling better, and have told the weirdest story I'm still wondering... How did perfection get on top of the tv?

So.... we didn't make it to Cleveland, we ended up in State College PA instead. (Gotta love these people, they're very creative when it comes to naming towns. Frog town, Bird in Hand, Mars, Blue balls, Panic, just to name a few) Did a bit of shopping, had dinner (at Quaker Steak and Lube mmmmm!!) all sans kid-o's!! It was strange!

Here is my Knitting Olympic's sweater

As, much as I love my lil photographer sometimes.. she just isn't interested in taking pictures. Here are some lovely mirror pictures that show the shape a bit better.

I blame the fuzziness on the 75 year old mirror!

Stats:

Pattern:  Hourglass sweater, last minute knitted gifts

Yarn:  Finnian's rainbow, 5 skeins in lilac mountain 1 skein in green.

Needles: size 8 bamboo circ and dpns.

Time: Started February 10, finished the 23.

Size: small

My thoughts: This sweater, as easy as it is, kicked my ass at times. This is probably because I didn't really read the directions, I skimmed them. I had to rip out the collar twice, till I got it right on the third time. I can't explain my stupidity on that one right now. I have a 23 month old climbing around me, making it very, very difficult to write. I will knit this sweater again, maybe using a silk and wool blend.

I hope everyone who participated in the KO enjoyed themselves. I know I sure did!

Ok.. bath time for the monsters! Momma's got a sock to knit! : )

Road Trip! Sunday is my families after-Christmas party, so its back home to the Berkshire's for me! I hope to stop at a few yarn shops on my way, cause I need to find the prefect red sock yarn for the Red Hot Sizzling socks a-long. I think I'm almost ready to go, I think. I always forget something. I just have to clean the house first. I have to or I will feel like something is wrong for the whole trip.

Ok, that's enough babble for now! My parents have dial-up and I just get mad when I use there computer. Yes, I'm impatient! That's why I have a cable internet! See you Monday or Tuesday-ish! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

P.S. I have to share my resent act of extreme stupidity, Tuesday night (I think) I casted on Jaywalker, Wednesday night I had the cuff done, its 12ish I'm tired with two kids sick my mind is wandering more than usual. I tell myself, well lets just get these rows set up, and then go to bed. I finish the second row, and I'm pissed cause I have three EXTRA stitches. I'm like what the hay?!? (you know more illicit words are flying out my mouth at this point) So I rip the whole thing out. Yesterday evening I had the cuff completed again, I get to the second row, and the same thing happens. God I'm such an idiot at times. I tink back a row, read the pattern and decide to write it out.

I was doing this: knit into front and back, knit 7, double decrease, knit 7, knit into front and back, knit 7

I should have been doing this: knit into front and back, knit 7, double decrease, knit 7, knit into front and back,

uh huh, go ahead, laugh! Kids really do kill your brain cells one at a time. really.

Its been almost a week since I said I would be back online. Well... you see I've been having a wee bit of computer issues. Ok, its really more than that. Way more, My laptop has crashed, and is very, very upset with me at this point in time. She, my laptop, is traveling around with Mike. Just in case he might have a spare moment to start working on her. Unfortunately, I have not a clue when it comes to computers! Not.a.damn.clue. I have to use the PC that is in Mike's "kingdom" (his computer room). So, my Internet time is limited to when the children are sleeping. Its also freaking cold as HECK in there!! I have so many FO's to share. But I can't put up any pictures until I figure out how to put computers on this bad boy (I have to find the stupid missing cable, or my HP printer CD's. *grumble*) I still have Christmas crafts to make, because I've been procrastinating like crazy! So, much to do, so little time! Ugh, I hope Mike gets my laptop fixed soon!! I need it!