A Little Story With a Worthy Plug

I felt like I should explain what the "Give Kids The World" fundraiser thingie on the right is and why I would have it on my blog.

My daughter Stefani was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia 4 years ago. When she was past the worst of her chemo and began maintenance, she chose to go to Disney World for her "Make-A-Wish" trip.

Well, when you go to Disney World Wish you stay at a place called "Give Kids The World Village" where they supply you with tickets to the different amusement parks...more than just Disney(we even went to GatorLand)...and give you tickets to dinner theaters. They provide you with a villa to stay in. Your food is provided free of charge. You get to meet Disney characters EVERY morning. They give you gifts, on top of gifts, on top of gifts.... You get to meet Disney artists, Santa Claus, and Mayor Clayton (he's the mayor of the Village). They have mini-golf, a theater, several pools and small water parks, a new CandyLand play area, a really cool building that houses toy trains and boats you can drive by remote, and I can't forget the Ice Cream Palace that serves banana splits, cookies and other various things ALL DAY! They encourage you to eat banana splits for breakfast, LOL! The other favorite for our kids was the Castle. It had a carousel that looked like a mushroom. The inside of the castle was magical. It had a wishing well and a starry-night ceiling and a game room. You could make and stuff your own feather pillows, they had dress up clothes and a throne-room....and some pictures that talked. It was really neat. They also have pizza for delivery until like 1 in the morning or something like that. We only used it once...but it was fun!

ANYWAY...all of this is done, worked, completed, and is made to happen ONLY through donations and volunteers. The Disney characters and handlers donate their time to the village....the people that serve you breakfast and dinner are all volunteers....the people that walk around making balloon animals are all volunteers...the people that run the carousel, train building and mini golf are all volunteers.....Are you getting the point? They run solely on donations and they are such a worthy cause. Even the smallest donation makes the biggest difference.

I can't tell you what that trip meant to our family. It was truly once-in-a-lifetime.....

FO's...and...WIP's

Ever been in a funk and couldn't seem to drag yourself out of it...craftywise?

I'm there. I'm so there.

So, we'll start out with what I have been able to accomplish in the midst of my funk.

First, I re-found Beth's Little Star Afghan pattern. I had made it once before. I do love the pattern, it's super quick and easy to do, so I thought...why not?! The first one I made turned out to be more of a preemie or 'lovey blanket' size. But, I thought...this time I'm at least ahead of the game the next time somebody tells me their having a baby. Instead of the usual scrambling to make something.

This star afghan is made out of Caron Simply Soft in Off-White, Soft Pink and SS Brites in Blueberry. All leftovers from other projects. *A funny side note (it might only be funny to me)* I literally had 12" of yarn leftover on that last round of pink. I was praying towards the end...let me tell ya.

Then I started on this one, but got sick of it fast cuz it was getting so big and my brain was going numb from dc row after dc row.... So even though this one got completed, it was finished last.
This one used only Red Heart Super Saver in Baby Pink, Light Raspberry, Warm Brown and Coffee(more leftovers). I'm beginning to understand yarn snobbery. Red Heart can feel like a brillo pad after working with super soft yarns.


Instead I started this one and finished it in like 2 days. I used Bernat Softee Chunky in Taupe, Orange, Blue, Black and Green. I can't remember their technical color names... I just wasn't paying attention. Anyway, these are the leftovers from my nephew's Christmas sweater in this post! I still love these colors together. And it's super soft. I was able to use a K hook on this and it whipped up fast.


So even though I made the star afghan....I still had some Softee Chunky left over. Not enough to actually make a blanket or anything like that. Just enough to be a pain in my butt and take up space. So I decided to make potholders with them. I love this yarn. 10 rows and you've got a potholder. I also made a scary, "ultra left over yarn", potholder...but I kept that for myself, so it's not pictured.



Anyway. After I got those done. I drug the afghan that I started making for myself ,about 2 years ago, out of the closet and sat down and finished that. It was waiting for 10 rows and some tassle. How lazy is that? 10 rows and some tassle and I just couldn't bear to finish it? My ability to be totally pathetic has hit it's peak. Let's hope. It is the "Carnival" pattern from Afghans from the Heart..or something like that. I've had the book for ages. I've made two of these afghans now..this being the second. It's a super easy pattern. But I don't think I'm making it again soon.


I used Red Heart Warm Brown, Light Sage, Buff Fleck, Aspen Print, and Lilac. The Lilac is not available anymore. I can't even begin to tell you what I had to go through to get the skeins I was able to get about 5 years ago. I'm literally down to the last skein. It's sort of sad. Cuz it's my absolute favorite periwinkle color. You can't even find anything close to it anymore.


Ok to cap the last three weeks off, I made spiral scrubbies. God awful easiest pattern on the planet. And requires absolutely no brain power, at all. Was the perfect thing to drag along on Dr's appt's yesterday! And, yes, you can literally get this many done in a day.....


I still have some fairly large balls of the scrubbie colors left, so I'm sure I'll be making more of them before long.

As for WIP's...I'm still plugging away at my dad's afghan for Christmas. I haven't gotten much further since the last picture, so it's not worth taking another one right now. I did, however, switch it over to circular needles, so it's a whole lot less taxing on my arms. Hopefully, that will be enough for me to pick it up and get some serious work done on it!

I need to start on the afghans for my nephews for Christmas. They should be simple enough to complete...so I should just get on them....

Hello. I am a procrastinator. *sigh*

Flame Socks

These are pics of the unfinished, unblocked single sock in the "Flame Wave Socks" from Favorite Socks by Interweave.

I wanted to make a sample pair of socks for the store with the new Patons Stretch Socks that I just got in stock. I am using the olive colorway for this pair. I have discovered that you should not bother using a subtle pattern stitch with this yarn. It doesn't show up at all. I have done a close up of the pattern....I hope you can see it. I wanted to make this pattern and didn't really give the color a whole lot of thought..I should have.

The yarn itself is great. It's got great drape. It's super soft and nicely stretchy.

I am, however, suffering deeply from 'second sock syndrome'.....I don't wanna make the other one. This is my first time with SSS...EVER! Keep me in your sock prayers...

On A Lighter Note...

It was a cold winter day. An old man walked out onto a frozen lake, cut a hole in the ice and dropped in his fishing line. He was there for almost an hour, without even a nibble, when a young boy walked out onto the ice and cut a hole in the ice not far from him. The young boy dropped his fishing line and minutes later he hooked a largemouth Bass.

The old man couldn't believe his eyes but chalked it up to plain luck. Shortly thereafter, the young boy pulled in another large catch.

The young boy kept catching fish after fish. Finally the old man could take it no longer. "Son, I've been here for over an hour without even a nibble. You've been here for only a few minutes and have caught a half dozen fish! How do you do it?"

The boy responded, "Roo raf roo reep ra rums rrarm."

"What was that?" the old man asked.

Again the boy responded, "Roo raf roo reep ra rums rrarm."

"Look", said the old man, "I can't understand a word you're saying."

The boy spit the contents of his mouth into his hand and said, "You have to keep the worms warm!"

An Article by Me

I am not eloquent. I am not scholarly. When I am passionate about something I am loud, I am brash, and I am opinionated. I wrote this 'mini-book' during Stefani's chemo treatments and finished it closer to the end. I must say she is living proof that God's Word is true with every subsequent blood test.

If you ever really wanted to 'know' me. Then read this article. If you don't care, then don't read it. If you read it and don't agree...that's your choice.

WHEN DIAGNOSIS COMES - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: WHEN DIAGNOSIS COMES

'Tweener Project...for all you wine drinkers...*wink*

Here's another 'tweener project. I copied this pattern by Drew Emborsky ages ago. I found it last week while I was rifling through some papers. Since I am currently experiencing 'project funk'...I thought, "Ok, I'll give these a try." I totally fell in love with them...totally...

They are THE easiest things to make ever. AND they are totally practical and functional when you are done. I discovered that you can get 8 flip-flops from one solid ball of Sugar 'N Cream...and 6 flip-flops from one variegated ball of Sugar 'N Cream. I still haven't made it through the whole ball of white. You can get an awful lot of flip-flop straps out of one ball of white.

I decided to make these for wedding gifts. All the colors pictured represent sets of 4 in each of the colors. I'm going to throw together the 'leftovers' from the variegated sets into a mix and match set.

As you can see from the first picture and the last picture, I embellished some of the flip flops. The first picture shows some that I beaded. The last picture I just put matching butterfly buttons on the front of the straps. You can do quite a bit with these to make them individual.

Sort of like wine glass charms...only not. And now the wine glass won't leave rings on your tables. Of course, I don't drink wine and don't use wine glasses, so I have no idea if they leave rings or not. I just assumed they did..:)

Fingerless Mitts

I have been on a fingerless mitts kick lately. These are pictures of only 3 of the pairs that I've made. I have been using this pattern:

Size 6 DPN's
CO 40 st. Divide them 12,12,16 on your needles.
K2,P2 for 40 rows
BO 6 st- finish row
CO 6 st- finish row
K2,P2 for a total of 60 rows(women's), 63 rows (men's)
BO

Super, dee-duper easy. And they take about 50g of WW wool. First two pics are Patons Merino Wool and the last pic is mercerized cotton.

Thank you Dooger and Tony for being my hand models!

Log Cabin Blanket for Dad- WIP

Obviously these are progress pictures.

This is from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book. However, I'm using stash yarn. I am only using wool for this blanket. So far I have Patons Merino wool and some Handspun Llama in there. Oh wait, also a yarn called Melody. That's the lighter green in the second picture. I wanted to show you my progress....but I had just cast on another row..grr..

An Intimate Thought- Rated PG-13

I hope you don't mind if I ramble for a minute or two.

As I was sitting here knitting this morning my mind wandered back to Tuesday night while we were playing games with some friends. We were playing Scattergories in 4 teams of 2. Tony and I decided to be paired together...seemed the natural thing to do since we are married. Anyway, teams would scoot away from the table so that we couldn't hear each other whispering our answers. Well, Tony was writing the answers and I was supposed to be all brilliant and tell him all kinds of things to write down...yeah, right. The first time we scooted back I rested my face on his shoulder to see the pad of paper...well, my mind went blank. And not because I couldn't think of anything...I had a few brilliant moments...it was because I was touching Tony. LOL

I know that sounds wierd. We've been married fifteen years. You would think things like that don't happen anymore! Not so. I think sometimes life gets soooo busy and soooo involved that we forget what an intimate thing it is to be able to touch another person. It wasn't like Tony was dressed super nice or had done anything special to himself, although he did smell good..but he always smells good. It was just the warmth of him and the strength of his muscles through his t-shirt that made my mind go all gah-gah. I think men have a secret stash of muscles that they pull out for moments like that! LOL

So anyway, I wasn't much help until Tony handed the pad off to me and told me to write the answers down..LOL Then I couldn't rest my face on his shoulder anymore...*sigh*

Sometimes when life is moving so fast it's hard to appreciate the little things. Every day is so busy and everyone is always so tired. As a married couple you fit love making in where you can...sometimes you are even awake enough to enjoy it..LOL...but life isn't only about love making and having sex. It's so much more intimate than that.

The smallest of touches. The tiniest whiff of the warm scent of your lover. Revelling in the sweetness of their smile, the twinkle in their eyes and the way their eyes soften when they look at you, the way they love their children....all of it is so telling. Learning to appreciate the friendship that you have, being able to enjoy the same forms of entertainment...just hanging out and watching football and nascar together. The fact that even though he doesn't understand how to do it, he still appreciates all of our knitting and crocheting efforts and understands the work that goes into it.

They may not do all the 'little jobs' we have for them. They may be lazy and not pick up their socks and undies (or hang up their clothes after church). They may be neater at work than they are at home (how that happens??? I don't know). They may not always say "I want this specific item for supper"...instead of always leaving it up to your imagination. But, ya know, if that is the worst of it?...I'd say I have it pretty good.