Big Jumbo McHuge!!!

First and most importantly, thank you to Nichola and Kiki for your concern. All here are well, but stressed, and posting has been shunted aside for far too long. (Nice to know someone besides me reads my blog, though!)

Here's what's shaking:

I am now working in a new office! Same crazy job, but in a new, larger location! I'll try to get some photos posted next week. Suffice to say, moving a medical office that's been in the same place for 20 years took some doing, and I was one of the main "do-ers" over the last week. All praise, however, to Lynn, my fabulous office manager. I would eat broken glass if she asked me to, but I hope it won't come to that.

I have finished Marion's tank top. It's light blue on the front and darker (but not navy) blue on the back, and it has an unintentional yet fashionable stripe across the front. The straps were bald-facedly stolen from a purse strap featured in Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living, and the pattern itself was adapted from Kerri's beautiful tank top for her small childie, the Mission Tank. Links will follow in the next post, I promise. (You can Google it for now if you really need it)Thanks, Kerri!

Our computer went walkabout for a while and I don't have my photo-posting capabilities going (AGAIN), but I will get that up soon and put the photos on. I really have them, just can't show you right now.

My darling redhead is plotting the overthrow of his idiotic bosses and planning to start his own business. I must finish stressing about my job so that I can stress about his.

Girlie is off at a sleepover with her best friend. She is loving third grade, although we are way more than fed up with the AIMS crapo and Pres. Skippy's "No child left behind" propaganda which is forcing her teachers to be automatons. We are thinking about private schools, yet that combined with starting a business is a somewhat tricky equation....

In short, life continues it's mad, merry pace here in Arizona. It is cooling off, and we have been enjoying the patio and the birds and the 70-degree mornings. We're moving into the season which reminds us of WHY we live here. Yay!

Summer's almost done! Wool coming up! BAAAAAAA!

Hooray for Friday

Do you know The Sweater Song by Weezer?

"If you want to destroy my sweater,
Pull this thread as I walk away,
Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked,
Lying on the floor, I've come undone..."

I've liked that song since before I became a knitter.

I can't believe that out of 500+ participants, my Secret Pal guessed me! She's amazing! I never did scroll through all the blogs listed, and trying to find out who's gifted me (HELLO, PRINCESS CASPIAN!! IS EVERYTHING OK?) seemed a Herculean task that was beyond my mere mortal capabilities.

I'm zipping along on Marion's cotton tank top, based on and adapted from Kerrie's Mission Tank (Thanks for the helpful hints, Kerrie!) I'm using size 7 needles and the front has taken almost a skein of Cotton-Ease, and I'm nearly ready to start the back. Photos soon.

It's still too hot here.

I frogged the entire tank top I was trying to make for my girlie. My husband innocently queried if it wasn't a tad large for a sprout of a child not yet eight, and I cheerfully pshaw-ed at him and kept circling round and round, pleased with the texture of the Cottonease in it's Popsicle blueness.

Alas, he was right. I could have kept on and tried making it into a top for me (I am a bit stockier than Miss M), but I was annoyed, and frogging seemed the right thing to do. Will try again in a smaller size, maybe on larger needles to speed things up? Hmmmm.

Anyone know of a nice substitute for Trendsetter's Dune that comes in a lively red and won't require me to cash in my IRA for 6-7 skeins? I've a nice pattern for an easy wrap I'm imagining for someone, but neither Dune nor Lion's Moonlight Mohair come in a good, vibrant RED.

In other news, Princess Caspian, are you out there? Everything OK?

Ok, I'm officially confused.

My FSM button is back. Maybe it's just something about the great and mysterious ways in which He works, but I dunno.

Thanks to Angela at the Nashville SNB (she has a marvelous blog, by the way) for letting me swipe the "Knitters Against Bush" button from her site. Someday I will find out how to get links to come up properly when I put buttons in or mention someone in a post. Many thanks, Angela! Love your veggies.

Hmmmmm....

My new button, mentioned in the last post, has disappeared! It was a fab-o logo from The First United Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. More info to be found on the website listed in the last post.

Darn, now I have neither a "Knitters Against Bush" nor a "Flying Spaghetti Monster" button on my blog. I may just curl up in a ball and start whimpering.

Then again, I may just drink some more of this lovely Yellowtail Chardonnay and eat Snapea Crisps until I am immobile. After all, it IS Friday!!

Woo-hoo!

Working on M's tank top in the blue Cotton-ease which I snapped up at Tuesday morning. One of the shops still has some, and I may go back and get more, BECAUSE I CAN!!

Wednesday

My new button comes from here:

http://venganza.org/

Still trying to figure out how to get the buttons to show the address when you pass over them...any advice from you better-informed bloggers?

Truer color on le bag petite. 

The latest

I had leftover yarn from the felted bag, so I used it in this little ditty. Made the strap out of some stash Brown Sheep, and I love the textures so much that I don't want to felt it! Hai-Jung gets the final say, but she sounded enthusiastic about it when I told her what I'd come up with.

Details on the Virginia trip and our short-but-sweet San Diego trip soon, I promise.

Crazy devil-child model. 

What's your bag, baby?

In this case, it's the "Everyday Purse With Flap" from Beverly Galeskas' Felted Knits. Hai Jung, my dear friend, liked my FMB and wanted a bag all her own. She settled on this pattern and chose black yarn with a novelty yarn knitted into it.

Taking her to the yarn shop was a blast! She was the proverbial kid in a candy store with all the sequiny, furry, and fun novelties to sift through. I changed the strap to one from "Sophisticated Knits" and enlarged it a bit, and we are both pleased with the end result.

Marion and I had a great trip to Virginia--more on that when I have photos and a bit more time to post.

Happy new bag, Hai-Jung!

Happy Hai-Jung Choi! 

You can see that the strap has the same wild yarn intertwined--looks great against her raven tresses! 

Hai-Jung decided that it looks good enough to eat! 

Close-up to show off the fun yarn. 

Hai-Jung's bag, pre-felting. 

I love England!

I want to tell every British person that I am sending them a big, warm hug and all my best thoughts and wishes. It's so terribly ugly to see London under siege. Our family loved the time we spent there a few years back, and I've said since then that London is the one big city I've visited in which I'd love to live. I'd still love to give it a go.

Everyone we met there was kind and pleasant and clever. We send sympathy and love to all those who lost a loved one, and wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured.

Special, special thanks to HRH Princess Caspian for the treasures she sent! I could barely stand to unwrap the crinkly brown paper, and when I did, the goodies inside were such a delight. My husband and daughter enjoyed the whole ceremony of opening the gifties.

Love the magazine--makes me crave more time in the UK. I'm reading Bill Bryson's "Notes From a Small Island", so I think the fizzy bath bomb and soap will accompany a good long reading/soaking binge. And what can I possibly say about the lambie/tape measure? I crowed about it and showed it off to eveyone in my office, and they all got a huge smile out of it. It's just the sweetest thing, and I'll love using it and thinking of my secret pal!

Thanks so much, my dear British pal! Please know that I'm thinking of you and sending my best to you, your family, and everyone on your delightful isle.

I'm away to Virginia for a week's visit with my oldest pal--updates as possible or on my return. Bye for now!

What a sweet parcel of goodies!  

Mad dogs and Englishmen....

I was trying to tidy up in the kitchen yesterday when I heard a "peep" that sounded distinctly young. Peering out the kitchen window, I saw a small finch perched on the handles of my garden loppers, obviously taking advntage of the fact that we keep an evaporative cooler going during the day out along the back of the house on the patio.

It was cheeping and preening, and fluffing itself in the somewhat cool breeze. It was joined by another finch, and the two companionably sat, singing and chatting about how clever they were to have discovered this fabulous mystery cooling system.

We originally started leaving the cooler running for the dog. My husband says Spot is a bit daft, and when I saw that two tiny birds had figured out what Spot has been missing for three years, I will say it makes me wonder.

The very bright housefinch who found out that an evaporative cooler is a wonderful thing on a hot Arizona afternoon.

The dog who can no longer be deemed a birdbrain.