WhiteStar

Happy Birthday to Me

So I broke my yarn diet. But I had Two Good Reasons.

1) Yesterday was my birthday. I had the day off and I visited two "new to me" Yarn stores. String in Highland's Ranch (nice), and Knitty Cat in Centennial (very VERY nice!). And then I went to the Llama Store.

2) I found out last week I will not be going to the Estes Park Wool Market :( :( The Sangre de Cristo Kennel Club moved their show to that weekend and... the dogs always come first.

So I took the money I would probably have spent at Estes Park and spent it yesterday.

5 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Laceweight Suri Alpaca in three different colors

1 skein of Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in Black Purl

3 skeins of Cascade 220 in flamingo pink to make, what else, a felted flamingo. (How did I miss this pattern when it came out????!!)

8 skeins of Cascade 220 to make the pink aran sweater I've been craving.

10 skeins of pinkish Rowan Silk Aran that was supposed to be for Bonne Marie's new pattern, But I CAN'T GET GAUGE! Anyone have any suggestions on what to do with 700 yards of aran weight silk that was Very Expensive???

3 skeins of SWTC Karaoke to make a felted bag.

3 books, inluding the long out of print Jean Moss Sculptured Knits.

3 patterns.

New Addition

Yesterday when I went out my front door I scared a bird that I thought had been on the eve of the porch. A half hour later when I went out the door again I scared another bird.

It was then that I noticed we had a nest perched on top of our porch light right outside the door. And the birds had been taking off from the nest, not the edge of the porch.

Note the Samoyed hair lining the nest!! How cool is that?

I have no idea what kind of birds these are. They are small and sort of spotted looking with orangey colored chests. The weirdest thing is that there appears to be not one, not two, but three birds taking care of this nest. I looked out the window this morning (and of course scared them again) and there were three birds sitting on the nest!

Is this normal bird behavior????

Anne at 11:10 AM

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Love It!

Saw it last night.

Bought it this morning.

Starting it tonight.

Anne at 10:01 AM

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Ranting Again

VyALtuUM, X&nax, VtAgra, CtAlts, VaLtUm, C/alis, Val/um, VpwyALIUM, V/agra, Vbal/UM, 0EM S0ftware, M0rtgage Ratess, Farmatcy, Pharamacy, Faramacy, All love enhancers on one portal....

You know what I'm talking about.. the new breed of spam that your spam blocker and junk mail filters can't trap.

I think my favorites are the ones from Paypa1 < that's a numeral one not small letter L.... and PaypaI < here we have a capital I instead of an L....depending on your font you can't tell them apart.

And why the hell do spammers pick on poor Chase Manhattan Bank and not Wells Fargo or Citibank?

Anne at 1:24 PM

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In Praise of Lace

Violets by the River is done.

Shown here being "worn" by my favorite model, Office Chair.

As always, my favorite part is the point. I love the points.

This was a very easy knit. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in doing their first lace shawl. The pattern, although at times a bit confusing, was perfect, not a mistake in it. A bit different than the other Hazel Carter pattern I did which did have a number of chart errors in it.

It's been awhile (months) since I finished up the last lace shawl. I had actually forgotten how magical it is. There is absolutely nothing in knitting (and rarely in life) that compares to the feeling you get when you pull a lace shawl off the blocking board. The wonder, the awe, the MAGIC, that you, a mere person of flesh and blood have created something so heartbreakingly beautiful. The most well excuted sweater, sock or scarf in the most intricate cable or fairisle may give intense satisfaction but only lace leaves me breathless.

Okay I could go on and on.... what I'm saying is that if you haven't yet tried knitting lace, you really should. At least once.

Anne at 11:56 AM

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Pupdate!

Pumpkin came home about 5 PM and is obviously very happy to be home but seems quite annoyed at me for putting her thru this :)

The vet said it was a "nasty bad pyo" and I was lucky to catch it as early as I did.

Thanks to everyone that sent good wishes out to my little girl!

Anne at 10:14 PM

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Good Thoughts for Pumpkin

Dirt on my face? WHAT dirt on my face?

Pumpkin goes in today for spaying, the vet diagnosed her yesterday afternoon with a probable case of closed pyometra.

She'd been acting "weird" the last couple weeks. It started with the sudden upswing in the amount of water she was drinking. Until today I had NO idea that was the first sign of pyo.

Then this week she lost interest in food. Second sign.

The past couple days she has just overall not been herself. The weather here has been gorgeous and other than running outside to bark at airplanes (her favorite hobby) she has pretty much stayed inside while all the other dogs were out playing.

In order to rule out possible diabetes, kidney or liver problems, he did a complete blood work up on her. Her white count came back at 31,000, normal is 6000-7000. The vet said other than a massive respiratory infection (which she shows NO signs of) he only ever sees this kind of white count, in conjunction with her other symptoms, with pyo. He says we can x-ray tomorrow if I want to see if her uterus is swollen, but he seems so sure I'm just going to have her spayed.

He says we are probably catching it very early given her overall apparent condition and she should be fine.

But of course I am still worried.

Anne at 8:25 AM

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It Worked

So last Wednesday (One Row Wednesday, you remember?) I complained (do I HAVE to??) about doing a row on Violets by the River.

And I also said the purpose of One Row Wednesday was to remind me what it was I liked about the projects languishing untouched for too long.

Well after putting off the One Row I needed to do on Violets by the River until Wednesday was almost over... well let's just say I can't put it down now!

So this Tuesday Morning Round-up doesn't have any pictures because there is nothing more boring than a big shawl in progress that looks like a ball of wadded up dental floss. And all the other things look exactly like they did before.

I probably should have taken a picture of one of the dogs. Oh well.

Here's the round up:

Violets by the River - just FLYING along. At this rate, I should finish it sometime next week!

Everything Else - other than The One Row, haven't touched it.

Anne at 1:15 PM

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Springtime in the Rockies Part 2

Friday: Blizzard warnings, 2 foot snowdrifts in the front yard.

Saturday 7 am: 27 degrees

Sunday 4 pm: 82 degrees

Love it or leave it.

Anne at 10:27 AM

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Russian Join

What's wrong with this picture?

I wish I could say I've never done this before.... but I can't.

Anne at 8:19 AM

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One Row Wednesday

If Tuesday is Round-Up day (yeah I know I missed the rodeo yesterday) then Wednesday is going to be One Row Day.

I'm going to work at least one row on every project I have "active". I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to be really enjoying a project but then I get sidetracked and forget how much I was enjoying it. And so it sits. And sits. And sits.

Then when I pick it up agin I am reminded how much I like it and I get moving on it again. But sometimes that is ~~weeks~~ months later. With One Row Wednesday in effect, maybe "forgotten projects" won't happen as often? Maybe I'll get more stuff done? Maybe I won't start as many projects?

So far today I've done one row on:

The Diamond Fantasy Shawl, Mystery Shawl 3, Pi@Sunrise Shawl all got a row or two competed and Jaywalkers actually got heels becuase it is physically impossible to do one row on a sock heel:

And the latest Project Spectrum sock has begun:

Still to come... one row on FLAK, the Sea Foam Shawl, Evergreen Cardi and Violets by the River (do I hafta???)

The World's Most Expensive Cardboard Box

An ordinary cardboard box. A styrofoam insert. Two ice packs. And two pieces of newspaper, folded: $114.25

And lucky me, I have two of them: $228.50

If Kelly is pregnant: priceless

Pumpkin says "MOM! Think of the biscuits you could have bought me!!!"

Anne at 3:59 PM