Fair Frenzy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even Ginger is trying to figure out what is going on.

Well, Ginger, it's officially Fair Frenzy time! This is the time that work on projects hits high gear. Last minute trips to the craft store are a common occurrence. Ripping out and resewing or reknitting are also common around these parts. I'm ready for this fair to be over. I want to drop this stuff off at the fair and never look back. And I am not even the one entering stuff in the fair! It's all R! I'm only the official driver, financial backer and watcher of the crafting taking place, but I am so tired.....

There are some perks to hitting so many craft stores. At one of our favorite crafting haunts, Sugar and Cream has gone up to $1.79! Can you believe that? While wandering around Wal-Mart yesterday, waiting for some 8x10s to be developed, we hit the two crafting aisles they have left. (Isn't that sad? Just two aisles.) We happened to notice that some of the Peaches & Creme yarns were $1!!!!! So, into the buggy went $1 yarn! Dishcloths for Christmas gifts and maybe another towel for the oven bar are on the list of To Do projects thanks to the new stash. I guess there are some perks to this Fair Frenzy. Pray for me...I need it.

By the way, pictures of all the projects will be posted as soon as the judging has taken place. I'm not allowed to show anything to anybody until then, according to the crafter extraordinaire. I guarantee that the wait will be worth it though!

I noticed that one of the blogs I regularly get onto - Monica Knits Alot - had a pray request on it. Her sister lost her husband suddenly. What a horrible and unexpected loss. With all the hoopla going on in the world today with finances, elections, wars, etc. it kind of puts it all in perspective, doesn't it? So, if you are inclined, please pray for Monica's sister. I'm sure she will welcome it.

Mason-Dixon Scores Again

I have been looking everywhere for a hanging towel pattern. We have a tendency to hang towels over the oven bar only to end up with towels with a tendency to not want to hang on the oven bar! So, when 'Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines' came out and I saw they had a pattern for one, it was my first project from the new book. There's no shortage of cotton yarn in this house, so I grabbed the first skein I could get my hands on and started knitting. The only difference I made was using size 6 needles instead of size 7. The only reason for that was I had size 6 and not size 7! Since I enjoyed knitting this and know we will need more than one, I have remedied that situation. The next one will definitely be on size 7s.
I dug through my button jar as soon as I was finished and found the perfect button! It kind of livens it up a little, don't you think?

New Fall Socks

I finished my latest pair of socks!
The completion of socks is always a cause for celebration around here.
This yarn was interesting. I had picked it out last year from Knit Picks and thought I really liked it. I made it into a ball and there it sat in my sock yarn basket for almost a year. It just wasn't speaking to me. One day last week I decided I needed a project to work on while I was at the doctor's office and thought of this yarn. I started three separate patterns, but I just didn't like the yarn! Finally I decided a generic sock pattern would have to do because I needed some mindless knitting for the week. The next day I went outside and knit in the natural light and this yarn just came alive! It was so pretty that I couldn't stop knitting. Before I knew it, I had both cuffs done. Then I had both legs done. Next thing I knew, I was turning the heel and picking up stitches! So much for mindless knitting at the doctor's office...I was almost finished before my appointment day! Last night the toes were graphed and I have my first pair of fall.
Hmmm, what to knit next? I did get my new Mason Dixon book in the mail yesterday and lots of cool ideas are popping off the pages at me. Maybe I'll find something there. Wish me luck!

Does Your Dryer Do This?

Imagine my surprise when I was greeted with this this morning! I must have finally found the special 'fold' button on my dryer or I have a laundry fairy. Either way, it made my day!

Are you jealous? It's okay. I would be too!

Yo Ho Ho

It is officially talk like a pirate day! So, ARGH mateys. I thought I would share my booty with you. No, not that booty. The computer screen isn't big enough for that and I wouldn't want to lose any of my readers!

Here's the rug hooking kit the kids got me for my birthday. I just finished it last week in time for this wonderful day of days.

Of course we can't forget the mittens of '06 that R knit for me for Christmas.

Even my tape measure has to get in on the action.

And there's some of the booty that was shared. Here's the hat I made for my nephew who's in the ARRRRmy.

Last, but certainly not least, is the bag R made for me for Christmas. See, pirate booty can be cute. Go out and have a great day - that's an order matey!

Knit Picks Orders and Finished Socks

How can you have a bad day when something that looks like this shows up at your front door? Well, you just can't! Do you know how much restraint I had to have to take this picture???? Quite a bit. Hmmm, what is in this box????

Well, this is what's in the box right now. She has claimed it as her own!

This is what was in the box when I opened it. What's it for? I can't tell you. Why? Is it a surprise? It is to me. This isn't my yarn. R ordered it and I haven't the foggiest what it's going to be. Maybe it's already told her what it wants to be.
This is going to be a sweater. I've been told at least that much. It's a very pretty dark blackberry.
This is what I was waiting for! They were down under the flap in the box. I was getting nervous looking through all that yarn and not seeing my needles! They will be under lock and key so none of them will be used for evil. What, you might ask, does using them for evil mean? It means when 'somebody' sneaks off with them and takes them up to 'their' room and doesn't return them in the same decade. You can probably tell that I'm not bitter though, right?
Here's a close up of the latest finished socks. Thank you very much to Thimbleanna for suggesting the pattern. It's Mockery Socks by Katie Grady of Live 2 Knit. The yarn is Blue Ox from Knit Picks. It's color is somewhere between the gray it appears to be in the above picture and the blue it appears to be in the picture below.

The color isn't really me. Hmmm, might have to be used for a gift giving occasion that is in the near future. Time will tell....

What do I do in between knitting socks? Well, I knit dishcloths, of course. This pattern is from http://homespunliving.blogspot.com and it's the waffle knit dishcloth. It works up fast even if you're easily distracted while watching television. I made these out of the self striping cotton yarn from Sugar'n Cream. I really like the way they turned out.

I guess you're all caught up now. Have a great weekend!

God Bless America

Hummingbird Rescue

I just got an e-mail from my aunt in Tennessee with news of a hummingbird rescue at their house. Apparently this little bird got caught in their garage and couldn't get out. Her son was able to free it from the garage. Dazed from its afternoon, they put it on their hummingbird feeder where it was able to regain its composure. Here it is on my aunt after its exciting day.

I think that's pretty amazing!

Not much has been going on around here. R is still on 'fair frenzy' pace. L is spending a good deal of time playing a new computer game online with one of his buds who is off at school. I'm trying to get school together for L as well as everything else I need to do. Sock #2 is coming along nicely. I'm turning the heel now so hopefully there will be a fixed project by the end of the week. I guess that will have to do until there's something a little more exciting to post. However, I think the hummingbird probably feels like it's had more excitement than it ever wanted in its lifetime!

Things Are a Little Weird Around Here

Mom and Daddy came over for dinner on Labor Day. It was nice to have them over and I think they enjoyed getting out of their house. We ate some dinner and then vegged out in front of the television. So much was going on with Governor Palin and the hurricanes that we just left the news on all day. Right smack dab in the middle of the news, a commercial came on. We normally talk during the commercials or take a potty break. However, this time the commercial really - and I do mean REALLY caught my eye! It was a commercial for Mass Mutual (first commercial listed on the site for those of you who need to know). There's this guy sitting in this fancy office and he sees his daughter's picture on his desk. He sort of looks out the window like he's wishing he was at home. The next scene, he's still looking out the window, but this time it's from a home office and he's watching his little girl in their pool. It's a nice commercial. BUT what exactly caught my eye????? My cousin! My cousin was the guy in the commercial! I recognized the scar on his forehead. I recognized his hairline. I recognized his nose. I recognized, well, everything! I stopped everything I was doing and said, "That's Bobby!" Last we heard he was doing stunt work, so what a huge surprise. It was such a big surprise that Mom said it wasn't him. Couldn't be him. He didn't do stuff like that. It was driving me NUTS! I knew that HAD to be him! I waited and waited for that commercial to come on again. During the RNC last night, it came back on. I watched that commercial like I've never watched a commercial before. I recognized EVERYTHING about him again and called Mom to tell her I KNEW it was Bobby and I was going to find out. Normally when Bobby has done commercials before we saw his face for a split second or maybe just his right shoulder! I finally found the commercial on the Mass Mutual website and watched it a couple of times. Then I started exploring on the internet and YES!!!!! It is Bobby! I am so happy that he has finally gotten his face on a commercial - even if it's only for 30 minutes! It's been like old home week watching him. Makes me feel good to see him since it's been a couple of years since we last saw one another in person. He's such a sweet guy and deserves to advance in his career. Way cool, but still a little weird to see someone you know and are related to on real television.

As for knitting, I'm still plugging along. I'm making a pair of socks. So far I'm on the foot of the first sock. I'm anxious to get it finished so I can move on to the second one. I normally try to work on them at the same time, but this time I only had one set of needles instead of two. So, I started this pair one sock at a time. To remedy that in the future though, I noticed that Knit Picks had their dpn set on sale for over 30% off! I ordered them and plan on standing next to the mailbox for the next few days until they get here. So, if you don't hear from me for a while, that's where you can find me.