So what is Miss Lulu doing this evening?

Hey, Miss Lulu, my view isn't of lots of trees but I do have some wine . . . come on over and I'll let you play with the stash (I know where she hides it).

A simple little square

So for the Whoduknit March project, we are knitting 12" squares. A simple thing. Bought the woolese in lovely shades of green, decided on a couple of patterns (and printed them on 4x6" cards so that they are handy).

And probably have frogged the stupid thing more than just about any other project (well, except for Lindsey's KnitWit hat . . . which I hate and will probably leave behind somewhere). The biggest problem is that it is like doing a swatch, a large swatch but a swatch nevertheless. So, I started the first one which had a couple of repeats of a simple cable pattern, figured out how many stitches, did a couple of measurements and figured that I would be about a 1/2" short of 12 inches, which could easily be adjusted with a crocheted edge (even made a note to self: "SELF: don't forget to measure and adjust final row to end up with an 11-1/2" square").

So, cast on, do three or four rows, and, keeping in mind that my pattern is on a 4x6" card, I whip out my card, use it as a psuedo ruler, only to discover . . . its about 12-1/2" and not 11-1/2". So then, thinking that maybe the cards aren't really 4x6" but maybe a tad off, I find a ruler and remeasure. F-R-O-G. And, because that was so much fun, I did it again with the same pattern, fewer stitches and still ended up making a mess of it, plus I am having to adjust the repeat on the pattern.

Then decided that I would try a new pattern.

Well, then I decided that I would just do a simple knit . . . no pattern, maybe a seed stitch.

BLECHHHHH.

So, now I have a very nice square more than half way done. A simple pattern, reverse diamonds. While I'm not thrilled with it, and have decided that the pattern would be better in a finer yarn and smaller needle, it is nice, a little blurry but nice.

Of course, it is also sitting on the dining room table. Stupid square.

Yarn Harlot's coming to Cleveland & I can't go

I wanted to go New York to be part of the knitters invading New York for the Yarn Harlot. I really was hoping to go but I have two finals and a paper due on Saturday (and shouldn't be visiting blogland).

But the Yarn Harlot is coming to Cleveland on March 30 @ 2:00p. Unfortunately, I will be at the very first class of the capstone course (my very LAST class for my MBA) . . . and the stupid syllabus is big enough that it can be bound in a friggin book . . . so I cannot go there either.

I am hoping, however, that the prof announces at 1:00 p.m. that he has to leave because there is an important speaker at Jos.Beth at Legacy Village. Or maybe if he sees me working on my knitting, he might pop up with "did you know that the YH is at Jos.Beth today? Why don't you leave early?" It can happen. Oh, look, and there goes another flying pig!

Books . . . read or to be read

Look at the list of books below: * Bold the ones you’ve read * Italicize the ones you want to read

* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. If you are reading this (and haven't participated yet), tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Other things I would recommend:
A. Wicked (the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West) (Gregory Maguire)
B. Artemis Fowl (all of them) (Eoin Colfer)
C. Haunted Ground (Erin Hart)
D. Lake of Sorrows (Erin Hart)
E. Cross (James Patterson)
F. Eragon (Christopher Paolini)
G. World is Flat (Thomas Friedman)
H. Freakenomics (Steven Levitt)
I. Beyond Bullet Points (really lame for actual reading but if ever need to do more than one powerpoint presentation and people have fallen asleep during your first one . . . this is a must) (Cliff Atkinson)
J. Knitting Rules (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee)
K. Knitting Without Tears (Elizabeth Zimmerman)
L. Scarlett (Alexandria Ripley)
M. Son of a Witch (Gregory Maguire)
N. I'll Always Love You (Hans Wilhelm . . . children's book about a boy and his dog . . . my kids love this one as do I . . . "I'll tell them every day, I'll always love you" a perfect message to your children)

There are many others . . .

Saturday morning . . .

Saturday morning was lovely . . . it is Spring break so no classes for me. Zachariah came trotting in around 6:40 wanting to know if he could climb into bed with me . . . too early, go back to your room for awhile. 7:15, he was back and I was too. You know, he always wants to snuggle, but then starts squirming and doing the countdown "what time are we getting up? 7:30. 7:30? Its 7:18? How much longer is it until 7:30?"

And then when I got up and opened the shades, it had snowed. AGAIN. Bah humbug.

So, I worked on the info necessary for my final in Innovations & Technology class, including the 12 page paper that is due Saturday. Finished work on the taxes, played Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and Hang Man with Zachariah, cleaned Lindsey's drawers (the 13 year old princess (and yes sunshine just because you can get your skinny butt into those jeans, doesn't mean that Momma will let you wear them in public)) and convinced the 20 year old that taking public transportation to the parade was the best thing to do (and no I do not want to go with you or even anywhere near the parade, thank you very much).

I did not make pancakes or waffles but did make eggs to order (actually, green eggs . . . the scrambled we added blue food coloring to and the fried eggs got green food coloring added to the whites . . . the scrambled looked icky, the fried had a lovely varigated design . . . didn't take pics though).

I never left the house the entire weekend. We were going to 8:00 Mass on Sunday but I woke with a splitting headache (staying up until 3:00 a.m. working on taxes a direct contributor) and horrible aches in my hips and knees (probably from the drawer cleaning).

Lindsey is leaving for Florida on Wednesday with a dear friend and her husband. She will end up missing three days of school. We did the battle of what all a 13 year old needs to pack when she is going some place that has a washer and dryer and will be only bringing a carry-on on the return flight. She was most particularly upset when I informed her that she could not bring large bottles of anything as she will be flying home.

Oh, yeah, and I blocked my entrelac scarf! Finished, blocked and done. And, I wish I had made it just a tad longer . . . ah well.

Entrelac . . . pseudo blocked

Here is the scarf which is almost done. I am on the last tier but needed to get a pic done for the Whoduknit KAL. I love the colors and love doing this. It is not complicated although I did have to frog on more than one occasion.

I am also working on some squares for the Whoduknit afghan project.

Next up is socks for the April project. I have the most perfect yarn. Very spring!

Lindsey tried on her entire outfit for graduation and Confirmation. She picked out the shoes first (big mistake). They are in a madras plaid. THEN we got to find an outfit that would go with the shoes. The other problem that happens is that she just turned 13 and has a 20 year old sister. Often she thinks she should be able to wear stuff that her sister does. In any event, I think we did good.

Victorian Lace Today

Wow, oh, wow!!

Look at what I got from my SP8 . . .

I have been lusting over this book ever since I read a preview by Grumperina http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/archives/2006/11/replacement_in.htm

This book is to drool over. The photos are fabulous and the colors of the lace are just incredible. Most of the lace has been made up in different weights and yarns and the author gives a grand background of the origins of the lace.

Now while all the yarn and scarves and shawls and photos are fabulous, if you ever have the opportunity to lay your hands on this book, there is the obligatory techniques, cast-ons and basics, BUT this book continues where others just dream of going. Go to page 180 which starts with Understanding Lace Design, How to Make Your Own Wide Border, Other Borders and, finally, on pages 184 and 185, an honest to Pete discussion on how to design your own lace, including plotting repeats, etc. FABULOUS.

Wow!

He cleans up well

Isn't he just too cute. Sometimes, Zachariah and Lindsey will get dressed up for dinner. Usually, his hair is standing on end and he looks like the wild man. He cleans up really well.

While now its all slush . . .

This pics are from a couple of weeks ago . . . actually, it is how we spent Valentine's Day! The girls were working the drive, in front of the garage. Dave was doing closer to the street when a neighbor came over with his snow blower!! Thank you very, very much.

They had waited until after most of the blowing had stopped, but you can see from this pic of Lindsey, that there were still times when the blowing was still going on.

This is the garden. It is important to note that we used raised beds and the beds are 10 inches high. The vegation that is poking through are the dead pepper/tomato plants from last summer. In the spring, we (i.e., Dave), will rota-till all the dead stuff, including the tree leaves that were dumped on the garden back into the whole thing.

And then it all started clearing out and we were left with this wonderful sunset. A perfect end to a snowy and blowy and cold Valentine's Day!

The scarf . . . a love/hate relationship

I love the entrelac scarf. And it is beautiful:

but, what is that you say, "is it done?" Don't be silly. If you look real close, you can see the needle up at the top.

The thing I despise about this, is frogging it is a royal pain . . . both in the pattern AND the yarn.

So "don't frog" you say. Ha! You must frog when you discover that somehow you got twisted around and started going the wrong way.

And, then you ask "how did you get twisted around?" Its easy, especially when you don't complete a tier and then pick it up and start working on it, on the bus going home, when you are so sleepy that the only thing you should be doing is listening to your book (Haunted Ground by the way) or maybe just closing your eyes and relaxing (although there is the fear of snoring).

I have to say that I am so tired lately that I can hardly stand it. I get home from school on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:00 and usually Dave and I will sit and talk, enjoy a glass of wine and spend sometime together (it is rather nice to have the kids already tucked up and I do very much enjoy this time and the fact that he waits until I home to go to bed . . . he usually goes to bed at 9:00 cause he gets up at 3:00 to grade papers). But on those days where I'm not getting home late, I too have been going to bed by 9:30 (fortunately, last night Grey's Anatomy was a repeat). But I'm still tired in the morning/afternoon/evening. Arghhh, I'm sleepy and making stupid mistakes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have bought the yarn for the Whoduknit from Joann's. I bought Lion's Brand Wool-Ease in a Forest Heather Green. It is very lush. I have yet to decide on what pattern I will do but have to look at the patterns to find one with a repeat that will even out to 12 inches . . . or maybe and 11 square of pattern with 1/2 inch edge all around. We will see.