Free skin cancer screening

This is a short post that I want to put out as a single topic post, because it is important and it's good to be screened.

Olay is again sponsoring a free skin cancer screening. If you go to the web site below, you can go to the site, follow the link to find a Dr. in your area to receive a free skin cancer screening,

http://www.skincancertakesfriends.org/sctf08/

We can make sure that not only ourselves, but the people we care about are skin cancer free.

urban sprawl in who ville

I spent yesterday doing some cleaning. I decided to do some laundry and began by stripping the bed, it had been a week since changing and so I washed bedding. Before remaking the bed I thought, hey, flip the mattress and box spring to access cleaning the floor easier.
HOLY WHO VILLE BATMAN, urban growth and sprawl had hit Who ville, It had become MUCH larger than a microcosm. I guess its been awhile because dust bunnies does not even begin to describe the dust carpet I found (there will be NO pictures).
Undisturbed the allergen blanket was not much of a problem, disturbed, I was in trouble. I am feeling better today, but I can't get the screams of the who's, resounding over the whir of the vacuum cleaner out of my head.
I need to find a decent mask that does not allow dust in the sides of it, nothing I buy seems to fit well enough to not allow air seepage through the sides, even the heppa ones, maybe just need to walk around like a space alien in a respirator.
Too bad I don't have a neighborhood kid I can hire for those dust jobs.

New books, Whisper shawl

The mail came and I am now the proud owner of a couple new knitting books, plus the Wonderful Wallaby leaflet.

I purchased a pre-signed copy of the Yarn Harlot's Things I learned from Knitting and had it shipped (I have had a bad cold and did not go pick it up) with a copy of the Wonderful Wallaby Sweater. The two books from the Yarnery came in the mail today with my Amazon order, containing a copy of Wendy Knits came in the mail as well and I am going to be busy going over my buys.

Sadie is whimpering and watching a squirrel out side the window, running up and down the tree gathering nesting material.


Whisper shawl, modeled by Kimberly.









My Whisper shawl is complete and Kimberly modeled it at knit night, She looks so cute and wears the shawl well.
The shawl still needed to be blocked at that time, the blocking is now complete. I am so proud of it, that I can't seem to let go to borrow it out. A local shop wants to borrow it and I was going to let them, but I am so unreasonably attached to it I am having a tough time thinking of letting it go for a few days over Mothers day weekend.

Finishing this shawl has given me renewed energy to get back to finishing two other shawls I have in progress. One is the Highland shawl form the Folk Shawls book and the other is the Angel lace shawl form fiber trends.

Sadie, socks and more

Sadie went to the groomer today, and she is so cute in her little bows, I just had to take pictures.
Sadie's usual MO is to wiggle and move so much that she does not hod still for bows.



I think this is good that she is comfortable with her groomer and was calm.






This is a side view with a little bow on her ear.

She was not yet dressed, there are little panties to go with her top, and there are little ties that keep them up with the top, I just did not put them on.


I just bought a very cool pattern on Ravelry called Severus, it is a lace sock pattern with buttons on the side. so awesomely cool, I need yarn to knit them.
I don't think I can publish a Picture because I am not sure of copyright laws, however I will publish a finished picture of the socks I knit from the pattern.
My new favorite yarn for socks is Louet gems, the colors and solids are lovely, I will knit Severus in solids, there is a cute ruffle at the top of them in a contrast color.
Ravelry is my favorite place on the net, I may have said that in a prior post, but there are so many wonderful features and people to chat with.
interweave knits summer issue is coming out soon, I saw the preview notice on Ravelry. So many cool projects, if only to have twelve arms to knit several projects at once.

I just received my booby socks pattern in the mail, a breast cancer sock. I need six arms just to knit socks with.

I have made good progress on my whisper shawl, the main body is finished, Wednesday I broke the yarn and added the beads, reconnected and began the picot bind off on the bottom, I am about 80% finished with the bind off, then I will need to pick up for and knit the lace edging around the sides and neck.
My blocking wires came yesterday so I am all set to block when I finish knitting.
I will post pictures of the finished shawl soon. My knitting queue is bursting at the seams, I have tops and socks and shawls , oh my!

Back to the bind off, so much knitting to do.

Making progress and other info.

I am making great progress on my Whisper shawl, about 10 rows to go in the main body, then it's the bottom bead trim and lace edging around the sides.
I can't wait to wear it and now the weather is warming, I might wear it anyway.

Needlework unlimited http://www.needleworkunlimited.com/Outlet had a yarn sale this past weekend, I was sick but did sneak out. I now have 32 balls of Lana Grossa Riso in Pink. $2.00 per skein, it would have been $1.50 per skein since I bought more than 30 skeins, but I did not buy them all at once, I had to go to the bank and bought the rest the next day.
I love doing things that help and keeping them a secret, and I will continue to do this; I want to find a good knitting turn to make, and keep it a secret, this is my new mission since the sale on Saturday. it's because of my knitting Angel, whether or not you believe in Angels or good Samaritans or whatever you call them, I had on e Saturday.
I had not gone to the bank and forgot my check book when I went to the NU sale on Saturday, I found myself standing next to a fellow knitter and we talked about the 30+ skein prices, I found the Pink Lana Grossa Riso,and wanted to get as many balls of it that I could, so like a goof I pulled out the $ 28.00 I had and was going through and counting out the change in the bottom of my purse to maximize my purchase, found that I could not get two boxes (each box has 10 balls), and my knitting Angel handed out the money to make sure I could get two boxes, I tried to say no, wanted her name to pay her back and she refused. Knitters help each other she said, now you can help someone else, I know who to help specifically in turn for this.
I was just so impressed by a stranger wanting me to have yarn! bless her and her whole family.





Here is my yarn





Mock crab corn chowder

In sauce pan, saute:
1/2 med to large onion chopped
1 celery stalk chopped

when caramelized add:
1/8 tsp. garlic powder or 1 tsp. chopped garlic
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 C. orzo pasta
1 package chopped mock crab
1 1/2 C. corn
4 C. skim milk
stir in two tsp. cocktail sauce

Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Yummy!!!!

A few of my favorite things, and Sadies favorites too.

I will not add a video with me singing the song, no one needs that torture.

Sadie here is my shadow and my favorite animal friend (she needs a trim in this picture).


I write about knitting and spinning so of course those are on the list of favorites, beyond that I love to have new information and learn about my favorite things. One of the things I found this year, is Ravelry. Absolutely love the organizational aspects as well as the help forums. If you are a knitter or crocheter or both, definitely check it out.
Through Ravelry, I learned about Mezzo Diva and Campanula for the cure socks. A link to Mezzo Diva's blog is on my blog, along with a few other bloggers I knew about and found this year. When I donated to and received my campanula for the cure information, I found an embedded link to a PDF for short row toe and heel by Wendy Knits; A link to her blog is on my page and a link to the PDF is in this post.
Wendy's short row toe is my FAVORITE for toe up socks and I will probably adapt it to all or most of the toe up patterns I knit from now on. Life is good Thanks to Wendy for the short row help and Mezzo Diva for the link to begin with. My favorite Bloggers are linked on my page, they are knowledgeable, funny and an inspiration to me. I enjoy reading about their projects and adventures, They do some wonderful work.

My favorite people beyond the bloggers I read are, my close friends and fellow knit and crocheters I see or speak with every week.
My sisters Becky and Heidi who give moral support, encouragement and loving advice while being my sounding boards.

SALES! Who does not think sales are among their favorite things? Yarn shop sales to be more precise, Linden Hills Yarn in Minneapolis is having a sale through the 19th of March. The Yarnery in St. Paul is having a sale, and I ordered a lace blocking kit from JoAnn.com for half price! Amazing things these sales, I purchased some Cashsoft Aran yarn at Linden Hills, I graphed out a scarf pattern, with the Cashsoft in mind, for my other favorite person, my house mate who is always so good to me and I decided he needs a cool scarf, the merino and cashmere blend is sooo soft and wonderful, I think he will love it.

Lace is cool, I am more than halfway through the Whisper shawl, using suri alpaca lace yarn from The Alpaca Yarn Company.










I have beads to work into the bottom of the shawl, before working the lace edging on the front. I am looking forward to wearing it.

The Jane Austen series wrapped up on PBS over a week ago, I bought the complete collection of seven novels from Barnes and Nobles, it includes a little known book of hers called Lady Susan.











Sadie's favorite new person is our mail carrier; Sadie likes to sit on the arm of the couch and watch for her out the window, when she sees her she goes nuts! We greet her at the door and of course a doggy biscuit is involved, Sadie ignores that and sucks up the attention, then goes for the biscuit when the mail carrier leaves. Sadie loves people, her favorite neighbors live next door and she always tries to sneak a peek to find out if they are outside when we go outside to walk. Sadie's favorite people are children, especially babies, she can't get enough of the little ones. I just wish Sadie could learn to knit and have it as one of her favorite things.

Sadie loves to shop at Petco and go visit our friends when we can. Sadie will be happy on Sunday when we go buy more food for her, it's all about the exposure and attention for her.

I did not order this

I did not order snow, I swear! It is rather pretty and is coming down in large chunks and flakes. Ahhh, life in Minnesota; if you want predictable weather, you won't find it here.
At four A.M. it was misting when I took
Sadie out to go potty, when we went out again at 10:30, it was doing this.
Wouldn't it be cool if mother nature was a real person and you were she? Hmmm, what kind of fun would that be?



On Friday my sister Bec called, she was with her family at the Radisson in Bloomington, they were going to the water park in the hotel.
A nice surprise, we met for dinner and visited. I took her vest to her, it has been on my Ravelry site as a finished object.
I love it, it is a bit big, she has lost weight. Good for her! See how cute she looks.





Her son Mattie ran into the picture as I was pressing the button; just a little camera ham.
I said one more and he flew into the view. His twin sister and older brother are off to the side, they did not have the same need to be photographed.






I am expecting a double treadle kit for my Ashford Traditional wheel, it should be coming tomorrow and then I can make more progress on spinning all the wool I have.
I am still happy with my progress in spinning, after not having spun for at least a year, my results were not hideous, or bad enough to send me screaming from the room.

I have until this coming Saturday to finish my March sock club sock, may not make it but I will give it a good try, although my fingers itch to jump around on different projects.

My stereo's calling for summer songs and the Beach Boys, I am going to pretend I am in Tahiti for the rest of the day.