This, That and the Other

As of this morning, here is where I'm at on Ravelry:
You signed up on June 18, 2007
You are #9929 on the list.
2539 people are ahead of you in line.
11766 people are behind you in line.
33% of the list has been invited so far.

...SIGH.....I guess I should be glad to finally be out of the 3,000's.

On the knitting front I'm still knitting the fish although I need to step up the speed of production (the May fish challenge burned me out). I'm down to 32 left.

I finally finished the baby blanket I was working on but really messed up on weaving in the ends.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


In person it's really obvious, but in the pics if you look carefully you'll see a pinching, bunching, almost scar-like effect happening where I was weaving in the seams. Not an attractive look!

I guess it was due to the thickness of the yarn, my pulling too tight (surprise surprise), and the fact I suck at weaving in ends-I just want to be done with it already-I have no patience when it comes to weaving in. So, with the confirmation of my fellow knitters that it indeed took away from the cuteness of the blanket and bottomless mimosas at our favorite SnB hang out, I de-wove, un-wove, ripped out my weaving (whatever the term).

The plan is to split the yarn so it won't be as thick (and make for twice as many ends to weave in) and be really careful with any pulling or tugging. Trust me when I say I'll be so glad when that is done!

I finally decided to try out an audio book and am listening to this. It took awhile to get used to the narrator's voice and just listening (a challenge for a visual person like me) but I am really enjoying it! The book even has an underlying knitting theme (with patterns) to it which helps too.

I can tell my summer vacation is starting to come to a close. I received my first call from school yesterday to set up a department meeting....sigh.... I know this next week or so is going to fly with end-of-summer lunches, buying school supplies and planning for a new school year!

Guy Smiley??!!

Here's the latest quiz of sorts to be making the rounds. Check out Courtney and Mary's!

Your Score: Guy Smiley

You scored 60% Organization, 46% abstract, and 33% extroverted!

This test measured 3 variables.

First, this test measured how organized you are. Some muppets like Cookie Monster make big messes, while others like Bert are quite anal about things being clean.

Second, this test measured if you prefer a concrete or an abstract viewpoint. For the purposes of this test, concrete people are considered to gravitate more to mathematical and logical approaches, whereas abstract people are more the dreamers and artistic type.

Third, this test measured if you are more of an introvert or an extrovert. By definition, an introvert concentrates more on herself and an extrovert focuses more on others. In this test an introvert was somebody that either tends to spend more time alone or thinks more about herself.

You are mostly organized, both concrete and abstract, and more introverted.

Here is why are you Guy Smiley.

You are mostly organized. You have a good idea where you put things and you probably keep your place reasonably clean. You aren't totally obsessed with neatness though. Guy Smiley is your average Joe. He'll dress up and look nice for his game show, but he's not a neat freak.


You are both a concrete and abstract thinker. Guy Smiley uses his imagination to come up with ridiculous game shows. However he's concrete enough to stick by his rules and perform his role as host. You know when to be logical at times, but you also aren't afraid to explore your dreams and desires... within limits of course.



You are introverted. At first glance Guy Smiley may appear to be an extrovert given he hosts a popular show. But in reality he struggles to relate with other people. His prizes tend to just be Guy Smiley merchandise. For whatever reason you are a bit uncomfortable in social settings. You may have one or two people that you are close with. You'd rather do things by yourself and you dislike working in groups where things are always so inefficient.

Link: The Your SESAME STREET Persona Test written by greencowsgomoo.

Rockin' Tuesday

I am thrilled to be christened by Kim as a Rockin' Girl Blogger . What a neat surprise, although I mentioned to her in my comments that perhaps "Off my Rocker Blogger" would be more appropriate. I mean who else would take on the knitting of 160 fish as one of their first knitting projects? And here it is a year later and I'm still knitting fish (almost done though). Thank you Kim and now I'm going to take my Knitting Needle and name 5 more Rockin' Girl Bloggers:

1. First off is Dawn who is my artistic idol. Anyone who can create these is just magical in my book. Our paths cross more during the school year so I am looking forward to seeing her more this Fall.

2. I also chose Mary because not only does she knit the cutest teddy bears ever, she does DIY stuff and makes the best brownies!

3. Next is Amanda who is also knitting the fish blanket and created this awesome sweater pattern.

4. Enid is also a Rockin' Girl in my book with all she has going on in her life: baby, school, and somehow finds the time to knit too! I don't know how she does it!

5. My final Rockin' Girl Blogger is sister Betsy. I love reading about her life since I can't be with her in person.

There are so many other Rockin' Girl Bloggers it was hard to stop at just 5. Just know that if you are reading this I consider you a Rockin' Girl Blogger too!

For those of you I named Rockin' Girl Bloggers, you are now supposed to name 5 more Rockin' Girl Bloggers.

Meet LuLu-Take Two!

Yesterday I had posted an entry about Lulu and then for some reason had "Poster's Remorse" so went back in and deleted it. Just didn't like the way the post read.

So, here I go again. Here's the new sewing machine I bought yesterday:



I've named her "Lulu"-she's a Huskyst@r E20 .

I was hoping to get the 500 yr old sewing machine repaired that I had inherited from my Mother but found out it was beyond repair.

After several days of looking online and talking to some friends, I felt the best fit for me at this point was to get another (that's what kind Mom's was) Viking/Huskvarna although a very low-end model. I only wanted a basic sewing machine and figured I'd need a refresher course since it's been 22 years since I last sewed. I know I could have gotten a cheaper machine at W a l m a r t or the like but knew I'd do better with buying a machine that came with a good warranty and user support. I was surprised at how reasonable the price was considering I'd been eyeing them on E B A Y, plus since I got the floor model I received an additional 10% off. It worked out perfect-Saturday I'll have my class(free!) on getting to know my machine and will hopefully be ready to start my first project shortly after that.

SnB Field Trip

A group of us decided to visit Enid and son for a SnB field trip.



Since having the little one, Enid hasn't been able to make it to SnB in San Antonio, so we decided to bring SnB to her! Betsy was gracious enough to host the gathering at her coffee shop . We had so much fun! Making it even more special was the presence of Janna (former S.A. SnBer now living in Iowa) who was in town for the week. Good friends, good coffee, great conversation, and of course knitting-who could ask for a better way to spend the day?! The only way the day could have been better was to be joined by some of our other knitting friends who weren't able to make it or who have moved-we miss you Eileen, Susan, and Kim!

The Group


Mary, Chris, and Enid-with her little one.


Michelle and Chris getting their knit on!


Thank you Wendy for driving! Thank you Betsy for hosting! Thank you Mary and Michelle for organizing!

Sisterhood of the Traveling Purse

Similar to this series of books, my sisters came up with a traveling purse. Younger sis bought the purse which represents where she works and wore it for awhile, then gave it to older sis who also wore it for awhile and then added a "good luck" crystal inside and gave it to me when I was visiting MN last month. I will then add something to it and pass it along. I love looking at the purse and feeling like I have my sisters with me even though we are several states away.

Speaking of purses (nice transition-huh?). I bought a new knitting bag. I was getting tired of looking at the bag I had been using which also doubled as my school bag..and was black..and who wants to use a bag that reminds you of work and in such a dark color for the summer?! So I looked in several stores and finally came across this bag.


I found it in the gardening center(there are some neat things there) @ T a r g e t. I wasn't sure about the pockets on the outside but they are working out really well!

You may be wondering why I've included the following pics.


DH accidentally washed his cell phone while soaking his yard work clothes in the sink (I'm so glad he did it and not me)! He's in the process of trying to dry it out in the sun and even tried it in the oven last night. We think it's pretty much toast (there was so much water in there he could have housed a teeny tiny goldfish). Luckily he still had his old phone and was able to salvage the sim card and does have a working phone. I'm pushing him to get the iphone as a replacement-he could have my phone and could get the iphone. Lesson learned: check pockets!!!

I'm still knitting (fish and a baby blanket). Oh! I also took the 20 some year old sewing maching I inherited from my mother to the sewing machine repair place to get some TLC (it works but just needed to be oiled and recalibrated) before I venture in to my next craft passion-so be looking for some sewing projects soon!

Fish Blanket update

I tempted the rain gods this afternoon and laid out my fish to do a progress check-neighbor didn't help my odds by mowing his lawn either. Luckily I was able to lay out my fish and get the pic taken before it started raining again. I laid them out in the pattern I'll be seaming them in so there are some blank spaces for the fish I still have to knit.


I only have 33 fish (out of a total of 160) left to knit! I haven't figured out how I'm going to do the seaming and will focus on that when the time comes. At this point I'm using my 40% off coupons from Michael's to finish purchasing the needed yarn. I was able to score with 2 coupons this week! I only have 3 more skeins to buy-woo hoo!!!!

My knitting production has slowed a bit since being on vacation. I knit when I feel like knitting and for however long it holds my attention. Some days I get a fish done, others I don't knit a thing. I'm just taking it as it comes and I like it that way.

Knee Deep in Receipts

I'm finally finished with my month-long traveling/workshop adventure. I got back to San Antonio Friday night after spending the week in Dallas attending a conference with 4,000+ other teachers, including 8 people from my school. It was a quite an experience and had lots of practice with being patient...sigh...

There were people EVERYWHERE, it rained everyday (I didn't bring an umbrella) and the trying to coordinate lunch/dinner plans with 8 other people in addition to all the traveling involved with my sessions for 5 days started to become challenging. Evidentally not everyone is an earlybird like me or even on time!! I was staying at"Hotel A" would have to take a shuttle bus to go to my morning session at "Hotel "B" and then take another shuttle bus to go to the Dallas Conference Center for our afternoon sessions. The conference was so huge that they had the morning and afternoon sessions at 6 different locations.

In the end I learned lots, met some REALLY interesting teachers from other states and really fell in love with Dallas. I also lucked out by having a great roommate for the trip.

Although we had shuttle buses to get us to our various locations, we also maneuvered our way around using the DART system (especially when it came to finding places to eat dinner). I sure wish San Antonio would get something like this!



We stayed at this fabulous hotel and even found time to zip up the tower and enjoy the incredible skyline.

Our days were pretty well booked, my shuttle bus left at 7:00 a.m. for my morning session, and our afternoon sessions usually ended around 5 p.m. It didn't leave much time for sight seeing although a few of us from my school used a long lunch one day to go to the 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza . It was something to see in person these places that have been talked about so much in the media.

I am so glad to be home and finally officially on vacation. Tomorrow I have to turn in all my receipts from last week (which are stuffed everywhere and in no particular order) so I can get reimbursed for "incidentals".

I didn't get any knitting done or was able to visit any yarn shops up in Dallas (although I bought plenty of yarn while up in MN). I'm looking forward to getting back in to my knitting niche.