It's all about me!

I have been tagged by Bonnie with The Alphabet Meme. So here goes!

A - Available or Taken: Taken
B - Best Friend: I am lucky to have several best friends. I have Nan, Dede, Lee, Elaine, Aviva and most importantly Mom (a.k.a. Granny and even Carole to some!)
C -Cake or Pie: Pie (or better yet - Cheesecake!)
D - Drink of Choice: Arnold Palmer
E - Essential item you use everyday: lip conditioner
F - Favorite Color: purple
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: bears
H - Hometown: Walnut Creek
I - Indulgence: knitting in the middle of the afternoon
J - January or February: January - it always seems fresh and new
K - Kids & ages: 3 - 12, 10.5 and 4
L - Life is incomplete without: friends and family
M - Marriage Date or Most Memorable Date ( and why): the days my three kids were born werethe most amazing days of my life. That's the only thing that makes me sad that I won't be having any more kids.
N - Number of Siblings: 1 sister
O - Oranges or Apples: Apple - Fuji probably
P - Phobias or Fears: walking up or down steep stairs. I absolutely froze trying to climb the Great Wall of China
Q - Fave Quote: "The goal of life should not be to arrive at the grave in a neat, well preserved body but to slide in sideways with chocolate in one hand, a martini in the other yelling YEEEE HAW!"
R - Reason to Smile: my kids
S - Season: Summer
T - Tag 3 or 4 People: Brooke, Lynae, and Judy
U - Unknown fact about me: I'm with Bonnie - if you don’t already know it, I'm not telling!
V - Vegetable you don't like: CHARD
W - Worst Habit: I eat too much.
X - X-rays: OK this is a truly odd question - I have no idea!
Y - Your Fave Food: Chocolate of course, ice cream, steak, salad and berries.
Z - Zodiac Sign: Scorpio baby!

Photo brought to you by my DH who just returned from a business trip to Russia. This is a gorgeous cathedral in Red Square. Sorry for the blurry photo but it was night and he was freezing. He said it was incredibly cold, Moscow is now the most expensive city in the world and they do vodka shots at lunch! No mention of yarn stores though . . .

Good time for Gloves

Despite the lovely photo which was taken on our Mexican Holiday - it is cold and rainy in Northern California. That makes it a perfect time for gloves! Here are the beaded, fingerless "gloves" I made for my Mom for Christmas. They are the same pattern as I used for Horsey Girl I just cast on more stitches and knit more rows. This was the first time I ever knit with beads and while they are a bit of a pain, in general I liked it and I like the result. Mom seems to like them (or at least she claims she does)! Now I have a pattern for a pretty beaded scarf which I plan to get to one of these days!

Nice and Cozy

I have been working on my Cozy for quite some time. I started it back in April but really had a hard time with it. I found the knit 2 through the back to be really difficult and I just couldn't find the right rythm. So I put it down for a long time and just recently picked it back up again. I switched from bamboo needles to addi turbos which definitely helped. It makes the yarn slide a lot better for the difficult stitches. I'm using Cherry Tree Hill 50/50 silk and merino in the Birches colorway. The yarn is nice and soft and I really like the colors. They are a subtle grey, white, pink and green. The pattern used a 100% silk yarn which I would think would be the same weight or maybe even thinner than what I'm using and I even cast on more stitches, but mine still looks narrower than the pattern. I'm hoping it will be wide enough once finished and blocked. It's really slow going but hopefully I'm on a roll.

Welcome Little One

Meet Saphira - the newest member of our household. Isn't she cute? Can't you see her discerning eye for quality yarn (this is Noro she is standing on)? Miss K's green anole lizard died awhile ago and she has been wanting to get a new one ever since. She decided she really wanted to get a lizard that you could play with and would be more like a pet. The pet store recommended a bearded dragon so here she is. Given their love of the book Eragon, the girls named her Saphira after the dragon in that book. Now the only problem? They say she'll grow up to 18 inches long!!! Right now she's a big as a finger - how can she get to 18 inches? I have a theory that if we know her and come to love her as a baby we'll be less squimish when she is bigger. I sure hope it works! Maybe we can give her coffee to drink to stunt her growth . . . .

Redeeming my Yarn Purchases

Thanks to all for your feedback on what to do with the Uruguian yarn (did I spell that right?) I think it's an amazing coincidence that Lynae bought some from the same seller! I originally bought the green colorway thinking of my middle daughter who is obsessed with green. Picture a girl with green pants, a green top, a green sweater, a green headband and even green eyes to go with it! Well I was watching Knitty Gritty the other night (I'm so excited that we finally get it) and they were making the most adorable little shrug. It probably helped that it was green! Anyway, she really liked it so I am giving it a shot. Here it is so far. The pattern stitch is easy but looks really neat - you knit one row and then you k1,p1,k1,p1, etc. on the next row. It's sort of a faux rib that doesn't get as springy. I've never made anything that needs to fit someone before except for some hats so I'm really hoping this fits her. Also it will be edged in crochet which I don't know how to do but it looked easy enough on the show! I'll keep you posted! Also some folks wanted to know how to find this seller on eBay and since I'd love company of others getting sucked in to this here goes it is called Pure Wool or something like that. Let me know if you buy anything!

I'm Blaming Bonnie

My latest yarn purchase arrived in the mail this week. I realize my New Year's Knitting Resolution was to not buy new yarn but I actually bought this stuff back in December so I'm still OK on the resolution front. It arrived all the way from Uruguay in the smallest box imaginable. I don't know how they managed to shove it all in that one box. I bought this stuff on eBay after my good friend Bonnie had sent me a link to this seller's store. It seems that since Bonnie broke her wrist and couldn't knit for awhile she spent way more time surfing the knitting blogs and that is how she got me in to trouble. She kept sending me links of cool yarn and I'm clearly way to impressionable. She didn't seem to end up buying any but I did! First I bought three skeins of hand dyed yarn from Scout and then I bought these. This is 9 - yes NINE skeins of wool from Uruguay! What was I thinking??? Each skein is over 200 yards so now I have about 650 yards each in three different colorways of Uruguaian wool. What should I make with this stuff? I will say that t is very soft and the colors are quite pretty. It was a good buy too - really it was. Bad Bonnie, Bad Bonnie. I think that's why her initials are BAD!

Red Scarf Project 2007

I finished one of my scarves for the Red Scarf Project 2007. These scarves are given to boys and girls (or since they are 18 I guess Men and Women) who have aged out of the foster care program. They are given for Valentine's Day so that's why they are red. This one is actually red, grey and black. I figured it would be good for a guy. It is the yarn harlot's really easy scarf pattern - cast on in a multiple of 4 plus 2 stitches then knit 2, k1 through the back, purl one and repeat until the last 2 stitches then k2. It's really easy but creates a very pretty scarf. I was also making a more femine red one with a sea foam pattern but alas that has taken much longer so it will not be done in time. I guess I'll be forced to keep it!

Happy New Year!

I realize I'm a little late but we spent New Year's in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. We had a wonderful time but unfortunately I could not get an internet connection to post to my blog. I'll have to check in to that before I book my next vacation spot! In lieu of blogging we enjoyed the beach and the mexican markets. The kids took surfing lessons and went horse back riding. I even had some great knitting time to work on my Hyphen Boy bag and my Cozy wrap. Photos of those will follow in future posts. My folks were with us on the trip so for today's viewing pleasure here is a photo of the wonderful scarf my Mom was working on. She is using Cherry Tree Hill silk/merino blend in the worsted weight. I believe this colorway is blueberry something. This is the second scarf she has made with this pattern and they feel and look wonderful. It definitely struck me as a scarf that needed to be photographed at the ocean! While we were there I thought about New Year's knitting resolutions so here goes: 1. I am going to try to purchase less yarn this year and actually knit from my stash (sorry Hollis!); 2. I'm going to try to get some of my UFO's finished; and 3. I'm going to try to attend some of the knit nights at my LYS. So what are your New Year's knitting resolutions? I wish all of you a wonderful, wool-filled 2007!