Funny...

... isn't it strange, that more of my adult life has been spent without cell phones and email than with them. How did I ever cope without instant communication? How mysterious and scary! Well, back in the day, we did have a two way radio system with a large antenna attached to the end of our house. The radios had a range of about 40 miles from home. Our vehicles all had these hunky Motorola radios in them like the old police radios, you had to pick up the microphone and press the button to talk into it. While primarily used for our small business, we used them as needed for our own personal communication. We could radio each other about important stuff, like, can you pick up the kids from school on your way home, or we need milk. So, in a way, I guess we were 'cutting edge' communicators of our time. But now, wow, we can call the grandkids, or instant message them, or even video conference with them, from anywhere anytime.

When I got this in a forwarded email this morning, I realized almost all of these apply to me:

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 when...

1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list. AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself. Go on, forward this to your friends. You know you want to!

~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a WIP for Big Knitter. This is seriously soft alpaca yarn (Baby Alpaca Worsted from Plymouth Yarns)

My Dragonfly and Ladybug Bag

Just received this bag in the mail...from Betriska's etsy shop. I love dragonflies and ladybugs, so the fabric was perfect for me. And the bag's size and square bottom design are perfect to carry a sock project. The bag sits up on its own, the center pull ball sits in the bottom, keeping everything neat and tidy while on the run. Thanks Betriska!

Miss Zazoo

Here's a little gal who's getting ready to travel to her newly adopted family. I just love her auntie-like expression! Made by talented artist Lulu Tatum, Miss Zazoo resided in the store for only a short time before being adopted.

Progress on my Favorite Socks KAL current project, Priscilla's dream socks. I used an alternate toe from Nancy Bush Vintage Socks, the 4 point star toe, because I needed a little bit narrower toe than the short row toe from the pattern. I did enjoy that star toe, you p2tog for the decreases, which gives you a little pattern that's visible, kinda like a gansey.

This is sport weight yarn, so the socks will be for winter or maybe I'll stash them in the bag with my knucks for our upcoming trip to Canada.

My Knucks

During our recent trip, I finished my first pair of knucks:

Now that summer is closing in...I'll put these away for our upcoming cross Canada trip.
I am still awaiting my passport which I will need for the trip. I mailed the renewal on February 10th. It needs to arrive by May 10th. The lady at the post office told me the turn around time is now 10 weeks. This will be close. I guess I need to start crossing my knuck-covered fingers!

Favorite Socks KAL

First Progress Photo on my Priscilla's Dream Socks for the Favorite Socks KAL.

Duet Sock Yarn, sport weight, on size 2 needles. I have 56 stitches on the needles. They are going to be some nice comfy winter socks...I can't remember this colorway name, but I do like it.



I have used this short row heel and toe before from Priscilla Gibson Roberts' Simple Socks: Plain and Fancy book. I found this book just loaded with amazing knowledge. There are instructions for true intarsia in the round in there which just blew me away. Quite awhile back, I made some black kids socks with an inset white ghost using this technique, I remember the whole time I was knitting those socks, I was just in awe!!

Snow and Yarn

What a trip!
We found ourselves mixed up in a late March blizzard and needing to get over Donner Pass and down the other side to Sacramento to visit relatives. Here's what it looked like...(it looked gorgeous to us desert folk...even if we were a little terrified traveling on I-80.)



But, what the hey, might as well stop at the summit and visit Jimmy Beans Wool in Truckee, where we learned some things. One, we missed the "main" Jimmy Beans store, which we didn't know about, back down the hill in Reno (we'll surely have to check that out on our next trip though), and,

Two, they are in the process of closing the Truckee store and consolidating everything into their Reno location.
So, lots of things were on sale. And big knitter found a few treasures:

Karabella yarns SuperYak, a 50/50 yak-merino blend in worsted weight. (on sale)

Beautiful, luscious, lovely, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in color 74 "Mother Lode"...an appropriately named item for Jimmy Bean's to sell. It's on the needles already; I called dibs on this one before we even left the store. Whoo whee it's gorgeous.
As for me, I did find a pretty little tweed to make me another pair of knucks, and some sock yarn.

Rowan Yorkshire tweed DK for some knucks.

Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sock (sock weight). Love the colors!

Colinette Cadenza in Color 70 Raphael, dk weight. I'm not sure if this will be socks or what, but I do love the colors. Maybe a soft scarf or some wrist warmers??

Anyway, we did meet a very very nice salesperson at Jimmy Beans whose name we didn't get but who was as enthusiastic about our projects as we were. After our fix, we headed down the other side of the pass and by the time we reached Sacramento, the sun was shining and the green grass was sparkling.