Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

halloween is absolutely my favorite holiday of all time!! Maybe it just appeals to the evil that resides in me! Mwahahahaha!! Of course it could just appeal to the orange lover in me ( Oh my Gawd!! Please do not let me suddenly start loving valentine's Day when Tony starts driving the red/white car!!! Oh god that is scarier than any Halloween monster!!) For the record I loved orange before Tony started driving it.

Tarot cards are a good lead-in to halloween

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Snow Day! We have a snow day!

It was a cold rainy dismal day at work this morning. I was entertaining myself unloading trucks in receiving ( Dan's on vacation so they actually need my help this week) My daughter texts me. It's snowing by my house. Yay! This is why I drive 22 miles downhill to work. There is a wonderful little climate zone line about 8 miles east of here. It's funny how often it's snowing and then as I cross that line on my way to work it changes to rain. Yay!! I Love Snow!! Especially since Tuesday is not carpet day, so it doesn't affect my truck.



Next to my front door.



Iced geranium and lavender

Knitting updates

Ruth, The Yarnarian, Penny Roses yarn ( She may have more aliases who knows?) is having a mystery sock knit-a-long. Now normally I do not do mystery anythings. I really don't want to put in that much work to end up with an item I either give away 'cause I don't like it or frog it because I don't like it so much I don't want to even burden someone else with it. Before I get a lot of irate comments, I'm not saying all mysteries are bad, ugly or whatever. just that there is no perfect pattern and it's all a matter of personal taste and what I may love you may hate and vice versa. But i do not have a lot of knitting time right now, and I would rather use it making something I love. now socks. Socks tend to be a problem because I hate socks that come up over the ankle bone. All my socks are invisible if I'm wearing sneakers. You only see them if I'm wearing my crocs ( love those shoes) or slides or timberland sandals - I think I have one pair of sketchers mary janish shoes also. The number 2 wearer of my socks is my daughter - who likes her socks even lower than mine. So most sock patterns have a leg part. I don't do the leg part. But I love the pictures of Ruths socks , and I love her yarn ( see a couple weeks ago - my first purchase) So I am going to attempt to do the top rib part of the mystery sock and then catch it at the start of the heel flap. Wish me luck!! Oh yeah and here's another kicker. The pattern calls for solid color yarn. I don't like solid color sock yarn :( So I have the Eclipse above or this yarn below. Anyone with an opinion on which one I should use please comment. I am leaning toward the one on the bottom, but I'm not sure. ( Grace if you're reading this you think outside the sock yarn box - help me!)




Here's the latest update on the afghan from hell. I am almost done. Just starting on a black stripe. Need the black, orange,white, black orange and white. All in the 6 row stripes. So 36 rows and bind off! but it has to be done to be mailed out by Monday!! I still also have to finish seaming my red/white/blue 'ghan and crochet 2 rows dc on ends sc on sides of red, white and blue so 6 rows around to make the size right. Also to be mailed by Monday.



The 'ghan is kinda rolled up a bit because I'm in the middel of a row.

Then because I'm in total denial about the 2 afghans needing to be done and because Min says she needs some more yellow squares, I made 3 of these lacey squares. ( I rationalized saying the 'ghan was too big to work at the laundromat)



It looks kinda mustardy in the pic but it is really bright bright yellow.

Bad bad bad sports weekend!

Bad sports weekend! very very bad. Not even willing to discuss it. Nope, not at all. No comment. Ok The Irish won and so did the Aggies , so they redeemed themselves from the week before. pro sports? i think my daughter was looking on line for elephant tranquilizer darts! ugghh...

On to better news. Tony came in second to Kenny Schrader saturday nite in the charity All Star 25 at Dixie Speedway, a dirt track outside Atlanta. Proceeds went to the Children's Health Care of Atlanta. Dave Blaney was 3rd, David Gilliland 4th, Kasey Kahne 5th, Bill Elliott 6th and Ray Everham 7th.
Tony at the pre-race autograph session

Caffeine is my shepherd
I shall not doze
It maketh me to wake in green pastures
It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses
It restoreth my buzz
It leadeth me in the paths of consciousness
For its name’s sake Yea,
though I walk through the valley of
The shadow of addiction
I will fear no equal
For thou art with me
Thy milk and thy sugar
They comfort me
Thou preparest a carafe before me
In the presence of Thy Starbucks
Thou anointest my day with pep
My cup runneth over
Surely richness and taste
Shall follow me all the days of my life
And I will dwell in the house of Mocha Forever
Amen


I am reprinting this from the caffeine addicts forum on Ravelry. She got it from a friends blog. (photo courtesy of flickr commons)

I've been terrible about posting this week - my apologies to everyone. I figure I'd put in the hymn of caffeine to commemorate my afternoon at Mara's with my Ravelry knitting group. Jacqui and Marygo missed it ( I swear we will one day get Jacqui and Grace together!) Sandy and Grace were there. I had the most amazing salad and soup for lunch while I was there. After debating a while I did decide to bring Curt some peach pie from Mara's.

If only there was something in the Hoosier State besides Tony

You Should Live in Indiana

If you don't want to live in Indiana, you might also consider: Alaska Colorado Michigan Nebraska Texas

What State Should You Live In?

Hey It's my 100th Post!!

Yes, I made another cowl. This time with some Moda Dea Tweedle Dee shaded yarn I had stashed.



And I also finished the giant granny square. I ran out of the original yarn, so I made a border from Bernat's Soft Boucle, I had to hold 2 strands together to match the original guage. I also ad-libbed a few rows on 2 ends to create a rectangle shape, and then did 3 more rows all around. I now have 15 days to finish the ripple 'ghan from hell and seam up my red/white/blue 'ghan.

If I do this again next year, it will be maybe 2 afghans and some squares. And I will finish one before starting another. AACcccckkkkk!!!

Plans for today - football the 49ers are playing the giants. Since I work with a lot of giant fans I really want them to win. Sigh.... The Raiders are playing the jets and Jet fams are so obnoxious when they win, but Carmen can outdo them all with his obnoxiousness, so I'm torn.

Martinsville's race is the Tums 500 - I may need tums by the end of the race! I am hoping to channel the stress into some rows on the ripple ghan. I'm at the point where I just don't want Jimmie Johnson to win another championship!

The Devils won in 2 OT's last night. Good they won, bad it took 2 OT's to do so.

College ball - sigh. The aggies were leading going into halftime, then fell apart. And to texas Tech too. Not good. the Terps won, which will make Moe happy - although Angie is mad at him because he STILL hasn't brought her anything from a game.

Have a great week everyone!

Knitting Meme

I haven't seen a meme i wanted to do for a while now. ( probably since my last one) anyway this one was cool!


I found this survey on http://www.lizzzknits.blogspot.com
The rules:
Bold the things you've done.
GREEN the things you are currently doing.
RED out the things you've abandoned or will never attempt.
Italicize the things you want to try.

Afghan
American/English Knitting (vs.Continental)
Baby Items
Bobbles
Buttonholes
Cable stitch patterns (including Aran)
Cardigan
Charity knitting
Continental knitting
Cuffs/fingerlessmitts/arm warmers
Darning
Designing knitted garments
Drop stitch patterns
Dyeing with plant dyes
Dyeing yarn
Entrelac
Fair Isle knitting
Freeform knitting
felting
Graffiti knitting/knitting items on or to be left on the street
Gloves
Hair accessories
Hat
Holiday related knitting
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies.....)
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewelry
Kitchener Bind Off
Knitting a gift
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting for a living
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies
Knitting in public
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting socks
Knitting to make money
Lace patterns
Longtail Cast On
Machine knitting
Mittens: Cuff up
Mittens: Top down
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Olympic knitting
Participating in a Knit-a-long
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book
Purses/bags
Rug
Scarf
Shawl
Short rows
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers
Socks: toe up
Socks: top down
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Stuffed toys
Swatching
Sweater
Teaching a child to knit ( does it count if she gave up?)
Teaching a male to knit
Thrumbed Knitting
Textured knitting
Toy or doll knitting
Tubular Cast On
Twisted stitch patterns
Two ended knitting
Writing a pattern

Well there you have it. If you decide to do the meme let me know I'd love to read your list!

Visit NaBloPoMo



November is apparantly National Blog Month or something. So one of the bloggers on my ravelry group created a group for needlecrafters on NaBloPoMo. You join ( don't actually give your full name unless you want it all over. i thought just your nickname showed up, but I was wrong so i changed my name to tony fan. Then you post every day for a month. Apparantly they do this every month, but November is the BIG month. There are prizes and stuff as well. I don't know if I am going to make it for the whole 30 days - we may have in addition to the ever popular wordless wednesdays - Mute mondays, silent saturdays, shh sundays, tongue tied tuesdays, ---- would that be cheating??? Just kidding , although I'm not ruling some of it out!

Also kinda cool in the world of blogging : ceci9293 (ravelry id) had a contest on her blog. Apparantly my comment on the best way to deal with computer issues is to marry a sugar "it" daddy came in runner up so I win a prize! How cool is that?

Worstedknit (also on ravelry) also had a contest a few weeks ago and I won something! And i never win anything!!

i think I'm going to have to come up with a contest here. My blogversary isn't until May, but my birthday is in November. Stay tuned for further details, once I think of them!

AAARRRRGGGHHHHh

Ok, bad sports weekend - very very bad sports weekend. Surprised I didn't have a stroke. Seriously. Friday night the Devils won - YAY!; Saturday they played like crap and had to go to OT to get the win, but at least it's a W. saturday nite, Tony gets caught speeding down pit road, ends up with an 11th place finish. Jimmie Johnson is still in 1st place by 69 points now over Jeff Burton. Ugghh. And Tony is 230 something points down. I just can't wait for this NASCAR season to be over with. If Johnson wins the championship you will hear me screaming no matter where you are! College football - Notre Dame gets spanked by the Tarheels, I mean I figured they would lose, but at least show up! Tha Aggies rolled over to the Wildcats - seriously they lost by 14 points. Ok so Sunday I could watch football without cutting back and forth to the race. But of course the 2 games that mattered most to me - actually 3 games were all the 4 o'clock games. Ugghhh. The one game I wasn't rooting against the Cowboys, they literally give away in overtime. ( I really didn't want the Cardinals going 4-2 )the 49ers were holding on until 4th quarter, one interception and they fall apart. 23 unanswered points . That's like an entire game's scoring in one unaswered quarter. My husband was ready to shoot me with a tranquilizer dart. He threatened to disable the tv's next weekend - i asked him if he really wanted me watching in a sports bar somewhere - and he better have bail money set aside. Arrrgghhhhhhh

Cowls and socks

I got my yarn orders on Friday. The first one I dove into was Malabrigo chunky in Paris Nights. I got from The Backwards Loop . I am test knitting the unpurled cowl for sunnyspirit23 on Ravelry. I did this one with the optional 3 extra rows to make the taller cowl.



This is the same pattern done the original way the pattern is written, done in Charrua that I got from Eat Sleep Knit .





I got these 2 sock yarn from The Yarnarian during her sale last weekend. She lives in Morristown, and unfortunately everytime we have a gettogether at Mara's she can't make it. i'd love to meet her as she does beautiful work as you can see. The top yarn is iridescent a mix of purples and pinks, as soon as Angie saw it she was asking that yarn is for something for me isn't it? She didn't know what she wanted but she loves the yarn. The bottom one is Hot cha cha - it actually has a lot of orange and yellow which doesn't show up in the photo. That will be socks for me as soon as I'm done with the pair I'm working on and the 49er socks.

Tony's doing Jailtime

Ok, now that I have your attention. it's a jail and bail fundraiser the Brienne Davis foundation scholarship fund. She was the Nascar official killed last April in an auto accident. The scholarship is for a $10,000 scholarship awarded yearly to a promising female to attend nascar Tech. Juan Pablo Montoya, David Stremme, Ron Hornaday, Aric Amirola, Ricky Stenhouse and Michael McDowell also participated.

On to other stuff. As you can see I'm posting really early today. yes, I am already home from work. Yay! I already took care of my appointment I left for and Angie is off from school for the holiday which makes it pretty cool. So we'll be hanging out all day, other than getting our nails done, I'm not sure what she wants to do. She is still in her coma so I can't ask her until later.

have to take pre-felting pics. i needed a break from the ripple ghan from hell, so i knocked out 2 of the dumpling bags from the last issue of Interweave Knits. I did one in a dark red and one in black. i still have to do the embroidery part before I can felt them though. I am STILL waiting on my Malabrigo yarn which supposedly shipped out on Friday. Jeepers, and I just realized I'm not actually sure if the postal service is working today due to the holiday. Arrrghhhhhhhh. I ordered yarn from a dyer in Morristown over the weekend, so I think she posted on her blog, she was mailing them out on Monday - That's not here yet either ( even though there are definitely 3 pairs of socks ahead of that sock yarn I want it in my greedy little paws.)

How odd is this, I was at the executive board meeting (hee hee hee) of the fencing booster club last night ( yes me, hee hee hee). It was a last minute thing, because since the general meeting was cancelled last month due to the Jewsh holiday, we needed to meet up before the winter sports kick off meeting next week. Since it was last minute, we couldn't reserve a room at the school so we had it at Applebees. Let me tell you a Sam Adams oktoberfest makes it much easier to make it through one of those. but I digress - The treasurer saw my bag ( which I've been using for a year now) and asked if i made it. She then told me her niece works in one of the yarn stores in Montclair but couldn't remember which one. Of course I've been dying to go to both stores I know of, but A) need to find time B) need to find them w/o getting lost C) need some $$. Sigh.....

Well. I'm hungry. Maybe the smells of breakfast will wake the dead (angie)

Ria

Quick check in

First the most important news - Tony won! Tony won! Woo Hoo Tony Won!! A bit of controversy at the end but Tony won!!

Unfortunately, the 49ers gave away the game, especially 3rd quarter they were actively trying to lose.

Of course, the Cowboys won .... sigh.... Makes Carl and Moe way to happy ( Ok - haven't seen Carl this week :( yet so I'm just assuming...) And the fact that Jeff Gordon crashed early in the race will balance out some of their happiness ( why oh why do I keep making friends with Cowboy fans and Jeffie fans?)

Last night I went to Carmen's son's 8 year old tackle football team. I forgot how small 8 year olds are. He was more amusing to watch than the kids. His Raiders won 13 - 0 . There were some good passes from the Hornets, but they never managed to make anything of it. One pass on the Raiders side, the ball hit the kids hands, bounced on his chest hit the facemask then fell to the ground. i thought Carmen was going to have a stroke. The littlest kid was the biggest nut.

Today, I met up with some of my knitting friends at Mara's. Grace had some suggestions for a possible shawl. I have to think about it. I had a great spinach and portabella quiche, but forgot to ask for no onions on the salad and had to pick them out, yes that is a way to impress people huh?

Tomorrow I have to meet with the executive board of the fencing boosters ( sounds impressive hee hee hee hee) at applebees since we screwed up and scheduled the last meeting for the first night of Rosh Hasshanah ( can't spell) so kind of coincidentally it's the night of Yom Kippur, but it's only the board and none of us are Jewish. Thursday, it's Lauren's to get my nails done and hopefully the farmers market. Some week, It will be a miracle if I get any knitting done at all.

Afghan Updates

This is the most recent picture of the afghan from hell. Yes, it is very pretty and very very soft and comfy, but it is sooo boring to knit! And one row goes forever!!! My plan of knitting on it every lunchtime hasn't worked as well as planned because I keep taking 30 minute lunches. As soon as I finish my giant granny square, I am going to have to start working on the 'ghan at home as well because it has to be done by Nov. 1st to mail out.



This is the giant granny square ( ok not quite giant yet ) it was actually the brainchild of my daughter. I really hate seaming. especially seaming crochet. So I was whining because I didn't finish the red/white/blue squares n time to mail to Min, so I have to seam them myself. My daughter said you should just make one giant square that you won't have to seam. ( did I ever mention she can be absolutely BRILLIANT when she wants to be?) So since I also can't stand boucle yarn, and I bought a bunch of Lion Brand Boucle for 99cents a skein before I knew I hated it (it's just really hard to knit off the needle I think) and the 2 colors I bought look good together i am using them. I kinda wish I had a bright green to throw in, but lets not get crazy. Depending on how big it turns out, if I need to get in an extra inch or 2, I may hit AC Moore or Michaels and see if they have any to make a border with.

As I have already mentioned the red/white/blue ghan is still just a pile of squares. Sigh. I haven't gotten much farther on my socks either. I really want to get them done so I can start my 49er socks. Maybe if I work the ripple at home, I'll bring the socks to work on at lunch. As they are SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than the 'ghan at least I'll get more than 3 rows done a day. Then Friday I ordered 2 skeins of Malabrigo chunky. I bought a skein of paris night from The Backwards Loop - it's shades of darker blue. I bought a skein of charrua from Eatsleepknit - blue and brown. A friend of mine - sunnyspirit23 on Ravelry has created her first original design. It's a cabled cowl ( I think that's what you'd call it- kind of a short tube that goes around your neck instead of a scarf) , but with no offsetting purl stitches. She needed volunteers to knit some up, so she could make sure the pattern was ok, and I really do love cables, so I signed up. I figure I'd make one for Anna and one for Erica, for Christmas, since it's hard to figure out anything remotely fun to give them ( poor Angie - her aunts are 2 big what NOT to do's) I also have to figure out what pattern i want to use on the NORO I posted about a while back. Thinking shrug, but am considering looking for an EASY rectangle lace shawl. Will have to ask Grace if she thinks it will work for something like that (she's lovincomfortknits and the rate she cranks out shawls is nothing less than jawdropping. Of course I would also have to block it myself - every time I sort of mentionhow great her husband Tom is at blocking, Curt tells me not to even dream it)

Angie wants to go to the college fair at the County College of Morris today. It starts at 12, the race starts at 2 or 2:30 so I'll be letting her drive over. maybe I'll stay in the car and work on something. ( the weather is co-operating it's been really cool which for me at least is very conducive to knitting) OK sad story here. Yesterday morning she drove her father's car to breakfast. We were going to the diner which is right at the on/off ramp we usually take to get on route 80. She needed directions to get there. She has been going there maybe once a month since she's been alive. She has been going even more regularly because after games and other events at school she ends up there with her friends from school. Sigh. i told her grandfather (he's always calling me the week before an event and asking what to get her) that I was giving him 3 1/2 months warning that for her birthday (when she hopefully passes her drivers test) she needs a Tom Tom or Garmin or Joe Joe or whatever. The child will get lost in a paper bag. I have been thinking about this for a while now because her friends parents complain about the same thing. I think it is because when we were kids if we wanted to go somewhere we got on our bikes and pedaled over. Today, kids are driven everywhere. They are so scheduled with activities, that they've never had to figure out what to do for an afternoon, so they've never had to just get on there bikes and ride over to tommy's house or whatever. They need to go to dance ( the closest studio is like 4 miles away, Angies studio is 12), Rec leagues are at the field which is 3 miles away, the library is only like 2 miles, but you have to take a windy narrow road which barely has room for 2 cars, and there is no sidewalk. So none of these places are really bikeable. SO even around the town they grow up in they never really paid attention to how to get places.

Well - Tony is in kind of a no lose race at Talledaga today. He's in 11th. It is mathematiclly impossible for him to fall below 12th. So he can take some chances that the drivers in the first 6 to 8 spots can't. This also means that when he takes these chances, I will be having a stroke. so go Tony! and someone plase put 911 on speeddial! The 49ers are playing New England. going to be tough, but they can win this one. dallas is playing cinncinati so they are probably a shoe in for the win. sigh. I will tell you about the conversation I had about that another time. Buffalo is playing the cardinals. I really need Arizona to lose but that game can go either way. So - basically will be a rough sports weekend for me. (at least I no longer have to stress over the mets)

What's in Your Name

What Your Name Says About You

Your name says that you are mostly: Energetic but impatient Your name also says you are: Ambitious but stubborn Fiery but unbalanced Artistic but extreme

What Does Your Name Say About You?

What Maria Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Presents

Since Angie couldn't come to the race on Sunday with us, I bought her a t-shirt and got a bunch of drivers to sign it, including Dexter Bean, Ricky Stenthouse Jr, frank Kimmel, Andy Lally, J. Lofton, James Hilton etc.





On Tuesday, I went to Mara's to meet Grace for dessert. Angie came after she conducted her "business" at the bank - depositing her confirmation money. It was Grace's birthday, and I had remembered she said something about stitch markers on her blog a few weeks ago. So I looked in my boxes of beads ( beading just not happening with my nails, but stitch markers I can do) and made these up:

Sunday's Pics

Yes I have a second driver! He races in the ARCA series. if he ever ends up in the same race as Tony though, he'll have to settle for second. I kinda picked him at Pocono in June because I really really like Glocks. But after watching him run - the kids got talent. Last Sunday was his first time EVER on a road course. The team used info from a Nascar East team to set up the car because he really didn't know what he wanted. Apparantly he spent a lot of time talking to scott speed (boo) and must have learned something. It took him a lap or 2 to get passing so he fell from 7th to 9th, but hung in there and was driving the turns on the same line as Andy Lally who is some kind of Porsche driving Road course ace ( you have to ask curt - that's more his racing than mine) He was on a different pit cycle and took the lead, hanging on to it until he had to pit again. Unfortunately he seems to have the kind of luck that I bring Upon a driver - bad. Right after the pit stop there were like 17 raindrops falling from the sky, and they called the race!

funny story- I used to work with a guy named Gerry ( I called him Gerry - atric because he kept stabbing my carpet rolls in receiving. The only time we really got along was talking racing - although he's a big drag race fan - more my brother's style) Anyway, I saw him a few weeks ago after I had unloaded my carpet truck ( wink) and since he knows my driver for longer than I have we were talking for almost an hour! He had been delivering race fuel to NJMSP all summer, and I had just been there for the Rolex race. Anywho - As Curt and I were walking around while the cars were being lined up and sent out onto the track, I'm looking at the fuel truck, trying to decide if the one guy looked like gerry ( serious generic white old guy looking) when he starts waving at me. So we walked over and talked until a few crewmen were waiting for gas. Curt was like - I can't take you anywhere!




Andy Lally



J. Lofton





Frank Kimmel





Curt plays in the mud!

Thank you Scout!

Check it out! There is a KAL on the 49er fan Ravelry group for scarves, but I don't want another scarf . Scout designed this colorway with I believe Rockymoreno on that group in a bulkier yarn. So after a little difficulty with the e-mail, she said she could dye the same colors in a superwash sock yarn. Isn't it gorgeous? my toes can't wait until I knit these up! I'd cast on right now, but I need to wait for my husband so he can help me get this in a ball without it being a 400 yard tangle! 49er socks yay!