Halloween Wishes

I know my visits to the blog are few and far between,
But I'm stopping by a moment now to say "Happy Halloween"!

Hello. My name is Kathleen and I'm a Knitaholic.

I took this little quiz and found out I'm a knitholic of the worst kind. But I'm not ashamed to admit it and I choose NOT to join K.A. Nuff said. Take the quiz and see where you rank on the knitaholic scale!

Have you ever...
•decided to kick the habit only to "fall off the yarn wagon"?
•knit alone or first thing in the morning?
•gone on a knitting binge?
•had a craving for just a little yarn fix?
•been a pusher, turning others on, even minors, to this habit?
•experienced blackouts..finding yarn in your stash you swear you never bought?

Are You...
•an adult child of a knitter?
•a compulsive overknitter?
•living in denial...
•telling yourself you actually save money by knitting clothes and gifts?
•believing you can save on therapy bills by knitting?
•certain that you can quit any time you want?
•calling yourself a social or recreational knitter?
•Has your cat ever gotten "messed up" after getting into your stash again?
•Is your definition of a "needle exchange" different than that of non-knitters?
•Is too much yarn never enough for you?
If you can answer yes to...
•10 or more questions - you may be a knitaholic
•8-9 questions - you may be a compulsive overknitter
•6-7 questions - you may be a yarn junkie
•4-5 questions - you may be a chronic social knitter
•0-3 questions - you are living in denial or you're at the wrong web site!

After The Sunday Funnies....

I tried roller blading...once. I fell and broke my leg the first time out. Haven't done it since. But I guess I would strap them on again in exchange for kids getting interested in knitting or crocheting...or something creatively different to help them see there's more to life than cell phones, texting, video games and computers. Maybe next time I'll hold some yarn while blading to keep my balance. Yea. That's it. I was 'improperly' balanced when I tried it the last time.... ;o)

Time For A Pop Quiz

I found this little quiz in one of the knitting daily newsletters I get in my email. I took the quiz and found out I'm 100% WOOL...no nonsense. It was fun! Take it and see what kind of yarn you are, then pass on the quiz to someone you know! Copy and paste link into your browser.

www.quizilla.teenninck.com/quizzes/924312/what-kind-of-yarn-are-you

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll...

Happy Labor Day!

Comments and Graphics - Layouts - Photobucket

Try not to labor today. Even a cookout is laboring. Order takeout ~ and have it delivered!!!

Now You See Her, Now You Don't

So...Hello. Howahya? It's been awhile - again. I disappeared from the blogoshpere as per usual. Am wedging in a bit of screen time here to say hello and I've missed you all.

It's been one crazy, hectic summer around the old homestead here. New jobs. New home. New life. New aches and pains. No knitting. No creating of any kind for several weeks now. Not even enough time or ability to sneak a peek here and there at your lovley blogs. So I'm completely out of the loop!

The big things on the list here are the major life changes...and the being put on the injured list. Seems I've developed a whopping case of carpal tunnel in both hands and BROTHER has it been a pain! It literally came out of the blue and knocked me backwards. Looking back now I can see where I've been having some problems for several months. But I chalked it up to the usual arthritic pain and stiffness and kept about my daily business.

Now am in splints on both hands full time indefinitely. Typing, knitting, crafting of pretty much any kind, even just the usual mundane daily tasks are off the list indefinitely. I'm cheating somewhat today to sneak in a short bit of blogging and catching up on email and what not. But it ain't easy!!!...and I can see where it's going to be a long time coming getting back to normal stuff. Surgery may be on the horizon.

Anyway, lots of missing all of you. Lots of missing writing. Lots of missing pretty much everything. Am hoping am allowed sooner than later to at least be able to surf the internets and keep up with all of you of course. A few more visits to the doc's office and we'll see.

I hope you all are having a fabulous summer and are now looking forward to the fall season with your creativities. I sincerely hope to see you soon ;0)

Have a knit pickin' good summer and fall ya'll !

Granny's Back In Town

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of a few of the projects I've been busy with the last few months. Today it's all about the Granny square afghan I made for my new little niece in Texas.




This is
Miss Brittania Anne
Born June 15, 2010.

My sister sent me this picture a few days ago. It had the caption "I'm supposed to be sleepin'". She has her days and nights turned around right now and this picture was taken at two in the morning. I'm thinkin' judging by this picture, baby thinks it's pretty funny. Poor mom!



I love Granny Square afghans. I make them. I buy them at thrift shops and yard sales. I love the classic look of it. It's a very enjoyable pattern to crochet and there are so many ways it can be configured color and pattern-wise. It's my favorite thing to crochet and I chose it for the new baby. I considered other patterns...and doodled around making various blocks and strips. I settled on the granny.


I chose Bernat Sport baby yarns for this. It needed to made of something that's very washable and 'wag-able'. But it's very soft and I love the feminine color combination. It should be good to drag around for a few years.

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll!

After The Sunday Funnies...Muckety Monday

Yes, as parents and even as grandparents we have to sacrifice some things so the children can benefit. Some sacrifice more than others!

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Deceptive Practices

Looks can be deceiving sometimes. I saw this picture on the internets the other day and did a double take once I read the description. All this lovely crafting stuff is not real. It's a cake. Yes, you read it right...a cake.

If you're like me, you watch a lot of WE TV and Food Network. For a while now the more popular programming has to do with weddings (Oh David Tutera, please come design my dream wedding...mmmmmm). I love 'Amazing Wedding Cakes' on WE. 'Cake Boss' is good too. I'm always blown away by what can be done with cake, frosting and sugar. Some of the ideas the clients come up with for their cakes is mind blowing at times...whether beautifully embellished classic...or totally off the wall designs that no one would ever dream of ~ usually.

The work is always detailed, stressful and incredibly satisfying when it's complete.

The only thing I have a hard time with is knowing these cakes are out in the open for days at a time while being designed and decorated. Loads of fondant is rolled and handled for hours and days...with bare hands. You NEVER see the cake artists washing their hands before handling food. It makes me wonder just how sanitary it really is by the time it's finished and served to a multitude of wedding and various party guests. And...is the cake FRESH when served? After days of being handled at room temperature and being refrigerated repeatedly, it makes me wonder. It makes me somewhat squeamish thinking about it and I lose my appetite for cake. It also makes me VERY aware of what I'm doing in my own kitchen while baking or doing cooking of any kind. Erring on the side of caution isn't such a bad thing.

But I'm always impressed with the finished product on these shows. The cake artists are truly artists indeed. Bravo!

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll!

Pinky and The Brain Brain Brain Brain....

I woke up with this ditty in my head the other day. I don't know why because I haven't heard it since my youngest child was in Jr. High...and that was some years ago.

From the time she was in the third grade until she was nearly grown, her favorite cartoon on TV was 'Animaniacs'. We watched it together...a lot. My faves of all the different characters and their shorts were 'Pinky and The Brain', 'Mindy and Buttons' and 'Good Idea. Bad Idea'. Pinky and The Brain were mutated lab mice who lived together in a lab somewhere...I'm assuming here in the U.S. The Brain was always scheming dastardly ways to conquer the world. Pinky was his not so bright goofy little side kick with a british accent who said "narf!" a lot. The introduction to the cartoon was a song that if you heard it only a couple of times, stayed with you forever. It was always fun to watch.



'Good Idea. Bad Idea.' was just down right funny. Just a few seconds long, it consisted of a strange looking skull head/skeleton/stick figure of sorts doing things that were good ideas and bad ideas. The narration of each one was voiced by Tom Bodett...the infamous Alaskan DJ who found world wide fame narrating Motel 6 commercials and saying "We'll leave the light on for ya". These silly little good/bad ideas were the best. Nuff said.



Mindy and Buttons - a toddler named Mindy and her dog named Buttons. The mother of Mindy was always leaving her in the care of Buttons, usually in the backyard, to be watched over by him while mom was busy doing something else, being the speaker at meetings about better parenting or being honored as mother of the year. Ha! Needless to say, all kinds of chaos ensued involving Mindy getting into trouble of some sort...without her realizing she was in trouble...and Buttons was the one who took the brunt of physical pain and mental anguish trying to keep her out of trouble. "Silly Puppy". When Mindy's mother would speak to her on her way out, Mindy would always say "OK lady". Mom would try to get her to say 'Mom'. The effort was fruitless. When mom left the room, Mindy would say "OK lady. I Love you. Buh-bye".



My child picked up on that and to this day when we end a phone call, she says in a squeaky little Mindy voice "OK lady. I Love you. Buh-bye." She signs all her emails to me that way too. I wouldn't trade that...or the years we spent watching those silly cartoons together for anything in the world. THAT'S priceless.

Enjoy!

Have a knit pickin' good weekend ya'll...and "OK ladies. Love you. Buh-bye!"

Music To My Ears

I ran across this video on AOL the other day. This relatively unknown talent unveiled her latest album a couple of weeks ago. Since I'm a lover of all things music, I'm always interested in giving unfamiliar artists a listen.

If you can get past the goofy stuff in the very beginning that makes absolutely no sense, the song she wrote and performs is very good. She manages to make a ukelele sound more like a mandolin...which is a good thing. Her self inflicted harmonies are quite good too. There's a couple of little misses and off key notes. But over all the song is great.



Just wanted to post something a little different, off the knitted path as it were. My first love is music. I've been singing all my life. I still do. In a band and stay busy. Music of all kinds is never far away from my ears. I've worn out a couple of Ipods and before that countless CD's. And before that cassettes, and before that records. I've sung 'em all and heard 'em all. I'm singin' 'em all and more importantly, listening to 'em all. I'm always open to the new...and the old.

Music is meant to be shared. Share this with the music lover in your life.

Enjoy!

After The Sunday Funnies...Muckety Monday

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Sometimes fences are needed to protect our privacy. Seemingly that becomes more and more true with every day. Everybody and everything is in your business and we scramble to find a little peace, quiet and private moments wherever we can, whenever we can.

But wouldn't it be nice if all we needed was soft, knitted fencing that cushioned both sides. No harshness from either side. The ability to fold it up and put it away for awhile and let both sides of the fence stand together on property lines of life to speak gently to preserve the right to privacy...for ourselves...and each other.

I would knit fencing until the cows came home if that's all it took to make a peaceful and private world again.

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll.

Major Announcement

Federal Government Bans Knitting in Public Buildings

WASHINGTON, DC (AP) -- Citing the rapid rise in the number of new knitters over the past 12 months, the United States Congress and Senate have both taken unprecedented measures in passing a bill banning knitting inside any public building, according to documents released Thursday.

Under the terms of the new law, knitters are required to take their knitting at least 10 yards from any public building. Although they are allowed to carry knitting inside, anybody caught engaging in the act of knitting may be subject to a $10,000 fine or 10 years imprisonment.

According to recent studies, the mere sight of a knitter actively knitting increases a person's odds of becoming a knitter by 200 percent. The dangers of second-hand knitting have long been a concern for Federal worker Irene Schlamp, who is happy to see the bill pass. "It's been a big problem in my department, where people often take four, five, or even six knitting breaks a day. Those of us who want to do our work can't because we're so distracted by the clacking of those damned needles."

But not everybody is happy about the news. "This is so unfair!" says Betty Schnoodle, a worker at a U.S. Postal Service processing plant in Louisiana. "Why should we be forced to huddle outside in the cold when we want to take a knitting break? We're not hurting anybody."

Human rights group AmKnitty International has already filed a suit claiming the new law is unconstitutional and violates the civil rights of knitters everywhere.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, OK, OK....so it's not exactly major news, or even factual for that matter. But it's 'slightly' possible knitters are discriminated against: Maybe in a bar~not the best place in the world to knit. Or maybe the 'Man Cave' where the wife/girlfriend isn't even allowed to enter in the first place...but why not; he invades your space every chance he gets with "Hey babe! Bring me a beer!" when you're right in the middle of counting stitches at a critical part of your knitting. You throw your hands up, say "yes dear", mumble something snotty under your breath and imagine him being impaled with knitting needles...through the lips! Well, not really - the impaled part. But it's fun to think about it!

So the next time I decide to knit in public, I'll post a sign on my forehead that says "Down with knit discrimination" and then watch the strange looks and the dumb questions fly! A girl's gotta have fun sometimes!

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll!

P.S. My baby...the youngest of six is 23 today. Where does the time go? Happy Birthday Alexandra!!!!

After The Sunday Funnies....

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I just thought this was cute.

I watched the whole HBO series 'John Adams' Saturday night...all seven parts. I couldn't stop watching. It was fabulous. The fact that I love history doesn't hurt either. I recorded it to DVR so I can watch it again at some point...which I will. It would be a great learning tool for kids in school just starting to learn about American History and the Revolutionary War.

If only our Founding Fathers could have seen what their work was going to lead to 234 years later. I think maybe they would have worked longer on the Declaration of Independence to try to avert so much of what we deal with today as a result of our National Government. There's a lot of good in our country, but it seems like the bad is starting to out weigh it.

But I am proud to be a citizen of this country and will do what it takes to protect our freedoms. My youngest son has rejoined the Marines and will be doing that very thing...again. Thank you Scott. Thank you God.

God Bless America.

Sparklers, Hot Dogs and Thou...

It's hard to believe it's Independence Day already. It only seems like yesterday I was sitting here wishing you all a Happy 4th a year ago. Time flies when you're busy.

I hope all of you here in the U.S. have a happy and safe Independence Day. For those of you over seas readers: have a wonderful weekend. Come here one day and enjoy all that goes along with our Independence Day traditions and celebrations. It's the best!

After The Sunday Funnies...Muckety Monday

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One hundred percent true. About ninety percent of the time, I don't know what I'm knitting until it's finished. It's only on a few occasions throughout the year that I set out to knit something in particular...with a pattern in hand and a purpose for the completed project. I think I've already met my 'occasional' particulars for the year with the baby stuff I've knitted.

Most of the time I just want to feel the needles in my hands clacking away playing with some sort of yummy yarn just to be doing it. Knitting is an addictive behavior. I cave in quite frequently to the urge. Better than food, tobacco, and alcohol I'm thinking. Knitting and frogging. Knitting and frogging. Knitting and frogging for heck of it.

It's very satifying.

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll !

After The Sunday Funnies...

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This past week was 'Knit In Public Week'. I was a participant. But I'm ALWAYS a participant. My knitting goes with me wherever I go and I don't hesitate to whip it out in front of everyone if I have time to kill.

In my daily travels out and about in the usual places, I did see a few people doing the knitting in public thing: at work, the mall, doc's offices, Dunkin Donuts, sitting in the drive thru at McDonalds (yes, McDonalds is true) and even the airport. I guess the memo got out! If there were Sonic Drive In's around here, I probably would have seen it there too. When I was living down south, going to Sonic to get my daily diet coke and knitting while sitting there in the car was the norm for me. No place is off limits when it comes to me and my knitting. And strangely enough I don't get odd looks and stupid questions from people about what or why I'm knitting in public.

It's so nice to see at least SOME people doing something in public besides yakking away on their phones, texting a mile a minute and not involving themselves in what's really important in life: KNITTING!

I say every week should be knit in public week!

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll.

After The Sunday Funnies

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A day late here. But working on catching up.

Have a knit pickin' good day y'all!

Disappearing Act

Howdy ya'll! Yes, I dropped off the planet as far as blogging is concerned. Not by choice mind you, but forced into hiding after my computer took a nose dive never to recover again. Poor old thing. Had to shoot to put it out of it's misery. :0(

By choice I did take my time to figure out what I wanted next when it came to shopping for another one. I spent a lot of time searching...and researching. Finally - three days ago I made a decision. So yesterday I brought the new baby home...and I'm sooooooooo in love!!!!

Being old and nearly blind, I chose one with a VERY large screen and fabulous high resolution. We're a perfect match. But it's very light and easy for me to tote around when I need to do some 'pooter' totin'. (My sister calls a computer 'the pooter'. It stuck. Whatever...)

So now I'm in a situation where I can do the blogger thing again...thank God! And the cherry on top of this deal is I was also able to upgrade my camera! WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!!!!! Now when I wanna post pictures, they'll actually be visible and not all grainy and dark and stuff. Imagine that! Who da thunk it????!!!!!

While I was without 'real' computer access (I did use my phone a lot during this time to kinda stay in touch with the nets), I did stay very busy in the creativity department. It's been great. My sister is now a week overdue having her baby and my focus has been getting some things made for her and new baby...a girl. Oh what fun it's been doing the girlie stuff! I have lots of pics of all those things I made. I will post those soon. I've done some other things too, not baby related. But the caveat here has been that I broke my left wrist a couple of months ago and it's been a bear trying to get knitting and crocheting done. But where there's a will, there's a way...and by gosh I worked at making a way!!!!! So I got a few things made and very satisfied with what I turned out.

So, with all the upgrades, improvements and whatever in the high tech department, I should be good to go for awhile. It's good to be back and hope I get to stick around indefinitely. Looking forward to catching up with all your blogs and what you've been up to the past couple of months. Will get back to posting the regular features...and hopefully improve on those and add some new stuff too.

It's good to be back. Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll!

After The Sunday Funnies

So here I am late with the Monday Funny...again. I've been busy. Working. Working. And more working. Right now I have more work than I know what to do with. But I'm not complaining mind you. I'm extremely grateful to have so much, especially in our down trodden economy these days. Work is good. Yes it is.


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Knitting is a disease. Once it's in your blood, there's no cure. It goes with you wherever you go. It doesn't matter where you are; it's gonna rear it's head and make it's presence known.

So what if people stop and stare. Give 'em and wink and a smile. It's surely contagious. This is the kind of disease you WANT to spread to the world.

Let there be a knitting pandemic!

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll :o)