Has it been that long

Has it really been since the 21st since I have blogged. Time sometimes really does get away from me and I don't know where it has gone... ;-)

We have been "home" since Wednesday, and it is driving my DH nuts. We have needed to clean out the inside of the truck some for a while because when you have three people and a dog living on a truck, it gets crowded in a hurry. When you add all of the "stuff" i.e. school books, reading materials, knitting paraphernalia, and the clothing that we all need, we just don't have all that much room. We then add all of the things that we "think" we might need and it just gets out of control. Add to the fact that winter clothes and hats and boots and socks and scarves and mittens and gloves all take up way more room than warm weather stuff, and we just were overburdened. We have spent the last couple of days doing some sifting and refining and have taken a lot of things off the truck, but DH is DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!!!!!! I guess that Husbands are supposed to do that to wives. Isn't it what keeps us knowing that we are alive?

One of the things entailed in cleaning out the truck was getting my little yarn stash under control. When I started to organize it, I realized that my small yarn stash was not so small. It had outgrown the two boxes that I had to contain it (it might has something to do with listening to Lime n Violette and all of their yarn pRon) so I had to decide what could be left at home and what I NEEDED on the truck. DH made the observation that perhaps I am collecting yarn. Not just any yarn, mind you, but sock yarn. Really really nice sock yarn, at that. So, I had to box up about half of it and leave it in the container in a box...boo hooo, waaaahhh. But he's happy that what I have on the truck is contained in one tub, that can be pushed under the bed, and it isn't at our feet any longer. It makes for a roomier look to the truck, whether that is reality or not.

I also got to play with my new ball winder. My sister makes a wonderful yarn swift. She is able to hold the right tension and keeps the yarn coming off the skeins just right. DS loses interest too quickly. He really wants to help until he realizes that it is a major undertaking and it is cutting into his computer game time. DH makes a passable yarn swift, although he tends to keep his hands at the wrong angle and then the yarn doesn't flow as smoothly as it should. After an hour or so of winding yarn into balls, he saw the real need for a real swift and so will build me one at his first opportunity. YAY!

Anyway, I have been working on the Six socks KAL socks, and darn-it, I won't have them done today. I am such a bad KAL person. Although, I did only have part of March to do them...so maybe I "ain't so bad". Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I was assigned my swap partner for the Secret Pal #10 and then my computer promptly ate the emails that I had gotten from the SP hostess along with all the information about the swap and I was going nuts. I didn't want my spoilee to think that I was a flake and not contacting her and all of that, but I didn't have her contact info. Then I find out that the hostess has had her computer go belly up with the hard drive fried and I'm thinking that we are deep trouble. But I should have know....you don't get to be a Secret Pal hostess without being way more organized than I am. She had the forethought to print out the list of all of the swap partners she had partnered up and she was able to give me the contact info so that I wouldn't look so bad and could actually not flake out on the swap....Thank you Heatherly!!!!

I have been glancing through some of the blogs that I like to read, and I am sooo jealous of all of the people that got to got to NYC and REPRESENT. We were so close, but so far and I couldn't make it. We were on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which would have entailed driving straight up US 13 through DE and NJ and then I could have taken the train and all, but it wasn't in the cards. I will have to keep track of where else she is going to be and then maybe I can do one. I would so love to see her and see the things that everyone was talking about.

I guess I should get off of here and go help the DH drive me just a little more nuts than I am, but it's better to be a little nuts than in the dog house. LOL

Have a good one.

Welcome to Spring

Today is the first full day of Spring and it sure feels like it here in Tennessee. We got a load out of Texas and are heading to Lancaster, PA. The route from the Dallas area to Lancaster takes us directly through Louisville, KY. That means that we get to go to the Mid-America Trucking Show for Thursday and Friday. We also have enough time to go through West Virginia and get our mail....which should have some really nifty things for me and others in our family. I know that I have several skeins of sock yarn sitting at home waiting for me and DS has some books, and there might be a cd or something for DH. When you don't get your mail for several weeks at a time, it makes for surprises several times a year.

I am still working on the socks for Six Socks KAL for this period. I am bound and determined that I will get them done by the end of the month so that I can start on the next socks when the KAL starts and not feel so rushed. Two months should be plenty of time to get a KAL done, wouldn't you think?

I also have another pair of socks otn for DS. They are on little bitty needles and since he is so hard on socks, I thought that a really firm fabric would be good. He doesn't have very big feet, so it shouldn't take too long, although I am spending most of my time working on mine and not his.

I haven't started the mid month dishcloth for the MonthlyDischcloths KAL
yet as I have another dishcloth on the needles that is a man in the moon and I want to finish that before I start the other. We went to Wally world today and the selection of yarn was pitiful. I wanted to buy some Bernat or something like that and all they had in the main section was a bunch of different acrylics. I then went to look at their pitiful selection of knitting needles and found some dishcloth cotton, peaches and cream. They also had some of the 1 pound cones, in cream, white and one variegated. I almost bought a cone of the cream, but didn't know where I would keep it. Not only that, but just how many cream colored dishcloths do I want?

I'm hoping that Spring is here to stay. I need for it to be spring, I
need to quit wearing the long sleeved shirts and get out my t-shirts. But to do that, I need to clean all of the winter stuff out of my closet here on the truck and get the stuff out of the container so that I have more than 2 t-shirts and warm weather clothes. Is it safe to do that? Do I dare take off most of the cold weather clothes and swap? Will we get somewhere where I will freeze to death because I don't have the right clothing? Such a dilemma!!!!

This blogging thing is getting easier and easier the longer I do it. I am getting more proficient about being able to put things into the blog that I want to add. I don't always get the pictures taken that I want to take, but at least it won't be so blah now that I can put clip art and stuff into it, YAY!!!! Isn't it just a bit more cheery with the flowers for spring?

I don't have much else to post, except for a big Hello to my Secret Pal 10 swap partner. I can hardly wait to start spoiling my partner and being spoiled by my other partner. I think that it will be fun and my spoilee will be surprised...at least I hope so.

Enjoy Spring.

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Every time I talk about our Irish heritage in the hearing of my sister, she questions where I got Irish heritage. I then have to proceed to remind her about where our families came from and what their last names were. Then she understands that just maybe we have the right to claim a little bit o' the Irish.

We were sitting just north of Pittsburgh, PA yesterday morning getting our load from Laredo off of our trailer when that winter Nor'Easter started. It started as little balls of ice and then in the course of about 15 minutes turned into great big, fat flakes of snow. Before we got out of there, there was probably 1/2 to 1" on the ground. We left there and went to the grocery store where we got the requisite dinner of corned beef and cabbage, which we cooked in our crock pot. When we came out of the store, the snow in that area had abated for a bit.

We are on our way to the Dallas area, and the further south and west that we get, the warmer it gets. You would never know that we had just come out of that nasty weather up in the northeast if our truck and trailer wasn't so dirty and until this afternoon, covered with 2 inches of ice.

On the knitting scene, I am still working on the socks for six socks KAL. I had to frog them clear back last night because there were some problems with them. Let's see, I miscounted the stitches per inch and made them 12 stitches too wide for my feet. Then, for some reason, there were a couple of places on the increase areas of the toes that had holes that I couldn't fix except to frog. I was going to leave then as they were, but then I wanted them to be wearable and to last for a while so I decided to frog them and start over. Now, to get them done before the end of the month. The yarn I'm using for the socks ----------------->>>>

I also have a pair of sock on the needles for the DS. They are on 0's, so they are going to be taking a little longer....but they will be a good firm fabric that should last until he outgrows them.

I am also working on a dishcloth called "Purly moon". It's cute and is going well. It has the man in the moon in it and I am doing it in light blue cotton-lin, which I like a lot. It works up nicely.

I have downloaded the first two days of the mid-month dishcloth KAL, but have decided to wait until I am done with the one I'm working on to start it.

We organized my yarn last night. I had the bag of yarn that I had gotten at Stitches west but we hadn't put the yarn away yet. We just kept moving it around because it didn't have a place. In January I had purchased these large crafttainer's at AC Moore just to store my yarn and my books on the truck. My yarn quickly outgrew the one for yarn and so we put the books in a box and the yarn in the second container. Now it is organized by sock and dishcloth and then the other container has the yarn I bought for the Kerry sweater from Black Water Abbey Yarn, (which looks a whole lot better than the picture shows) and other miscellaneous yarns such as the yarn I bought to knit the dog a sweater and the gloss that I bought for the DH and some other wool that I can't remember what it is.

I hope that we get out of Dallas and they send us back east. We have requested to go to Louisville, KY for next weekend so that we can go to the Mid-America Truck Show. Think Stitches on steroids with everything geared towards Semi trucks. We went last year and weren't able to get there until the last day and we only saw half of the show. We got the things we went for, but we didn't see any of the show trucks or the trucks they have set up to look at and missed all of the music, etc. Also, I hope the weather is better this year than it was last year. It was so cold when you had to stand in line for the shuttle buses and stuff.

I hope you have had a good St. Patrick's Day!!!

Finally...

I finally got some pictures taken of my "finished object". I have several dishcloths and the pair of socks that I was working on for my DH. I was trying to upload the pictures, but they seem to not want to show up in my blog. You can look at the things I have finished here. Technical glitches that I can't fix sometimes drive me nuts...;-)

In the "on the Road" part of this blog, we are traveling across Texas on our way to Laredo. The temperature is a balmy 83 degrees, the sky is blue with large, fat, fluffy white clouds scattered across it. It sure is different than the 12 to 18 degrees that we were experiencing as late as Wednesday up in the Chicago area. Tuesday night in Janesville, WI it snowed on us. Only about an inch or inch and a half, but it was still white, it was still precipitation and it was still cold.

I was going to post some pictures of what we did on Sunday, while we were still stuck in Rapid City, SD. If you would like to look at the pictures of our "mini-vacation" please go here.

I am looking forward to finding out who I am partnered up with for Secret Pal #10.
I have some ideas for thing to find for my PAL as we travel around, but I have been patiently waiting until I find out some more about them. What I like, might not be what they like and I don't want to buy or make or anything something that isn't going to fit them to a T.

I guess that's all the news that fit to print. Hope everyone that might just take a glance at this is have a wonderful day and a better weekend.

Ciao

Secret Pal #10 (revisited)

I am going to join this Secret Pal # 10 and the rules say that you have to answer the questionaire and have the answers posted on your blog, so here goes:

#1. What is your favorite yarn to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *NOT* like? I like all yarns that are natural fibers. I have been using some bamboo Tofutsies lately that I like, a lot, or at least since I got the yarn vomit cleaned up. I don't like the novelty yarns very much and absolutely abhor one type of moda dea yarn that has tinsel running through it that I used to make a scarf for my sister.

#2. What do you store your needles/hooks in? I store my knitpicks in the case they came in. My straight single points are in the top tray of my stash box and my crochet hooks are in my large knitting bag. DH has said that he will make me a needle case with leather on the outside...we'll see.

#3. How long have you been knitting and where did you learn? Do you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I have been knitting off and on for 30 years. I learned in junior high home ec class and would consider that I am an advanced beginner. I am game to try anything as long as it contains knits or purls and working some of the things I have lately, and successfully, yo, ssk, ssks...etc..

#4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? I do have an Amazon wish list that actually has some knitting books on it and can be found at spoons34595@mypacks.net on amazon.

#5. What's your favorite scent? I love the scent of English Lavender and vanilla, but my favorite perfume is an Irish perfume called Inis. It's clean and crisp.

#6. Do you have a sweet tooth? What's your favorite candy? A little bit of a sweet tooth. Chocolate of course, but DARK chocolate. LOL

#7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I like to sew, plan for building our house and decorate. I do spin, although I haven't since we have been on the truck. I own a wheel and will again when our house is built.

#8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3's (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)? I like all kinds of music. We listen to country, western, christian, Celtic, Irish, jazz, swing, 40's, but not hard rock and especially not headbanging music.

#9. What's your favorite color? Any color that you just can't stand? I am partial to greens that are on the dark end of the scale and like colors that complement the greens, like browns, blues, some pale yellows. I really don't like orange and virulent purples.

#10 What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I am happily married to the love of my life. We own a small trucking company (1 truck and my husband drives) that we lease to a larger company. We are on the road all the time, but have Internet access most of the time and enjoy what we do. We have a Parsons Jack Russell terrier and a DS that travel with us.

#11 Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or poncho's? I do wear scarves, hat, and mittens, but have never, and I mean never, seen the point of a poncho. I mean really....

#13 What is/are your favorite item(s) to knit? I am really liking the sock thing. I also like knitting dishcloths because they are quick and easy. They also allow you to try out different stitches and practice for a while and then be done.

#14 What are you knitting right now? I am working on a.) pair of socks made from Tofutsies yarn. They are being done Toe up on two #2 circular needles for this months Six Socks KAL. Love this style. b.) a scarf for my ds c.) a couple of dishcloths and d.) a pair of socks for my ds

#15 Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, plastic, aluminum? I have become very partial to Knit Picks options. I use them for everything because they come in so many sizes and lengths. I do have various sizes of bamboo straights and finally gave my aluminum straights to my niece.

#16 Do you have a yarn winder or a swift? I recently used a 40% off coupon to order a ball winder, but the only swift that I have is my husbands two arms, although he plans to remedy that and make me one modeled after the ones that we saw at Stitches West.

#17. How old is your oldest UFO? I have a blanket that I am working on for my ds that is several months old that is being done in crochet. The other things that I have are only a few weeks old.

#18. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas used to be my favorite holiday, but things in our family have changed so much lately that it is not the holiday that I remember. It has become stressful instead of peaceful. I do like Thanksgiving because we get to spend it with my parents and don't have the stresses that are there when we do Christmas.

#19. Is there anything you collect? I have a rather large collection of Boyd's Bears that is going to be liquidated when we get our container moved and I can get to the boxes. I collect Red Wing pottery, yellow ware bowls and advertising items, and crockery or pottery that is unique.

#20. Any books, yarn, needles or patterns out there that you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I would like to have some of the Austermann Step yarn in one of the natural colorways to make a pair of socks out of. I also really want the Mason Dixon Knitting book because of all of the great reviews I have read and from looking at the book. I am really spoiled and bad about just ordering what I want, although I am going to stop that so that I can give my dh something to have on my list for him to purchase. I have not subscribed to any of the knitting mags because I haven't decided which one of the magazines I like the best.

#21. Are there any techniques that you would like to learn? I want to learn Fair Isle and steeking....but only after I get proficient at the socks that I have started to work on. Steeking scares me to death. I work so hard to get the fabric of whatever it is done so that it looks nice and then I cut into it?

#22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I am learning to knit socks, but I have yet to take my foot measurements. I wear a size 8 shoes, and usually wear women's medium socks.

#23. When is your birthday? My birthday is July 8th.

March 3rd

I can't believe that it is March 3rd already and I haven't posted in a while. We left Seattle the other day and have had a wild ride for the last few days. First we broke down in Missoula, MT and spent the better part of a day sitting in the Caterpillar Truck engine repair building. We got that fixed, went to the truck stop for the night and then headed out across Montana. We got to Broadus, MT where it snowed on us and was soooooo cold. Then the next morning we made off across South Dakota in horrible blowing snow, cold, cold temps and icy roads. We got to the scales and were told that most of the state was closed on I-90, so we should go to Rapid City, SD and sit it out in the truck stop. That was yesterday morning about 10 am and here we sit. We thought we might get out today, and DH called the port of entry to get the paper work extended so that we could go and they changed their mind and said that we couldn't go. The roads are still closed to over sized loads and until the state police say so, we have to sit. Not only that, it sounds like Minnesota still has a lot of road closures or at least "difficult travel conditions" (as quoted from the 511 road report system) which means that we can't move.

On the knitting front....I have finished the socks for DH. They turned out very nice and I have cast on for the socks for the Six Socks KAL. It is an interesting sock and I think that I will have fun knitting it. I also have finished the mid month Dishcloth the the Dishcloth KAL and started the one for the first of this month. I have the yarn separated and in my project bag for socks for my DS and I will probably start them in the next couple of days.

I will post some pictures when we get out of South Dakota and I am not on the T-mobile hotspot in the Borders in Rapid City.