Here's my donation!

The two on the outside are 12 inches each and the two in the middle are 13.5 inches.



That's all. Move along.

Hair today, gone tomorrow!

Well...I did it. I cut all my hair off. Most of it anyway. My friend, Katy, and I had decided to few months ago to donate our hair to Locks of Love. And today was the big day.

Here's how long my hair was.




And here it is now!




Pardon the bad "in the bathroom mirror" pictures and the fact that I look like death warmed over. I worked Monday night into Tuesday morning, so my after pictures were take about noon when I'd been awake about 23 hours.

And I have an FO!!! My Noro Silk Garden clapotis is done! Again, cruddy pictures, but I'll get a better one on Thursday if one of the ladies at SoP will help me.


It's color #82, and very fall-esque. I wanted something a little darker for fall/winter than my last clapotis.


And yes....I use insulation for my blocking board. You should have seen the look on the guy's face at Lowe's when I told him what it was for. He must have thought I was nuts! How many people go into Lowe's to buy a single sheet of insulation?!

You know your home has been invaded by knitters when....

This was the line-up of knitting bags as you walked into my dining room Saturday night. I didn't get a picture of the dining room table, but let me tell you....we girls know how to put on a good feed. Let's see if I can remember everyone who was there....Minnie, Erin, Jen, and Jen, Eliza and Alisha (aka Lime and Violet), Sarah, Deawn, Miriam, and Linda. Thanks for coming over girls!!! Good food, great conversation, lots of laughs. We need to do this more often!

I've been AWOL!!

Things haven't been as relaxed around here lately as I'd like them to be and that's partially my own fault. The patient census has been low at work, so I got staff reduced a total of 20 hours last week. Nice at the time, but not so nice for the paycheck. I'm still getting paid, but only at base wage, not shift differential. So when staffing called me on Friday, I said that I'd pick up some hours over the weekend. Worked 4 hours each on Saturday and Sunday, then worked my normal 12-hour shifts on Monday and Tuesday. So I didn't get my normal 3-day weekend to relax.

And I've got the party on Saturday with the knitting ladies. That means the house has to be vacuumed (which will take all of 20 minutes), but there are bigger carpet issues. For some reason, these dark spots started appearing on my carpet at the top of the stairs and in my dining room. They look really nasty, so I've got to haul out the big rug shampooer (is that even a word?) and clean the dining room and part of the hallway.

I've also got to figure out what I'm going to feed you ladies when you come over. I'm thinking a pot of nacho cheese with the fixings for nachos, fruit, veggies, and what else? Maybe some cookies too? I don't even know! Anyone who wants to bring something is more than welcome.

And the dog desperately needs to be brushed and given a bath. She's just looking kind of pathetic at the moment and I feel like such a bad mom since I've been neglecting her due to the work situation.

Knitting when I can. I've kind of stopped knitting on my current sock...not that I don't love the Lisa Souza yarn and the pattern, but it just isn't inspiring me at the moment. So I picked up the Silk Garden that I bought and cast on a clapotis. I've got 10 of the straight row repeats done and I think I can do 4 more before the decrease rows. Still haven't cast on for my simple knitted bodice from Stitch Diva. I did swatch for it and got perfect gauge, so I'll definetely be able to use some of the Lamb's Pride that I got last summer at Brown Sheep.

Just finished watching Walk the Line and I loved it! I need to get watching my netflix movies. My list just keeps growing and I'm not watching them as much lately.

Oh! And I just got a call from my church's organist asking if I'd be in town this weekend to sing a solo at church on Sunday. Sure! Never mind that I've never seen the song that she wants me to sing. She kinda sang it to me over the phone and I recognize the tune, but that's it. We're going to get together on Friday afternoon to practice. I don't know why I said yes. Probably because I hate telling people no. I even hate it when I have to tell patients no at work. Like one of my patients this weekend who wanted some ice cream, but he's has to have thickened liquids since he's got a swallowing problem. Ice cream melts into a thin liquid, so I had to tell him he couldn't have ice cream. Why do I have to be the bad guy?!

So, let's see. We've talked about cleaning, the dog, work, food, the party, church stuff....anything else? Hmmm....how about a couple random pictures!

I was/still am a big sci-fi/fantasy geek. I love Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. And of course I had friends in college who were the same way. I made my friend, Angela, this Sam bear for Christmas a couple years ago. None of it was sewn, it was all done with that heat 'n bond stuff that you can iron seams together with. Aside from that I was very proud of this little guy. I even made all the little pots and pans for the back pack and he's got his little bedroll and the elven rope there too. I'm such a dork!

Random Friday

- Party is next Saturday, the 26th, whenever anyone feels like showing up. I'm thinking between 6 and 7. If you still need directions, I'll be at SoP on Thursday, or you can email me (address in the previous post).

- I haven't touched my spinning wheel since vacation. I should really get going on the rest of that merino.

- Had my friend, Cindi, over tonight. She knit on the afghan for her mom and I worked on my current sock and Clapotis.

- If ordering pizza on a Friday night, order it before you get hungry or you end up waiting a really really really long time.

- Would you believe that Cindi is still in the stage of knitting where she has NO STASH!!!! She stills buys just what she needs for the project she's currently working on. I keep showing her my stash to try and provoke her into a yarn-buying spree. I think we're getting close....hehehehehe.

- Only a week and a half until I whack off most of my hair to donate to Locks of Love. I can't wait to get rid of this mop. I don't even care what the lady does to my hair as long as it gets cut off.

- I picked up extra hours to work this weekend. Just 4 hours each on Saturday and Sunday, but it'll help with the bills.

- I've got nothing else, so I'll end with this random picture of me from 2 summers ago. This was taken at my hometown's sesquicentennial (150th) celebration, just prior to the costume contest where I won Best Dressed Woman wearing only my underwear (1860s underwear that is!). Who knew that you could be only half dressed when you're wearing 14 yards of fabric?

Party time!!! (the actual info)

Ok, ladies! I guess that we decided on Saturday, August 26th for the party at my place. Early evening until whenever we want it to end. We'll work out the actual time at SoP Thursday and then go from there. Feel free to bring/come in pajamas or something comfy because I have got plenty of places to bed people down for the night if you want to stay or don't feel up to driving home (at least room for 9 if people don't mind sharing bed and if someone doesn't mind sleeping on the floor, then there's room for 10...now where did I put that sleeping bag?). And oh yeah....bring a pillow if ya want to spend the night because I only have like, 4 bed pillows, but there are about 10 pillows that came with the sofa if no one minds having upholstry face come morning.

I'll have food and some (very limited) beverages....think milk and water and coffee...maybe some soda or something else. So if you want something besides that, then bring it on over.

I'll print out directions and bring them Thursday or you can email me at boelmaca@cox.net.

PARTY TIME!!!

That's right ladies!!! I have finally cleaned out the garage!!! (Or as clean as it's going to get.) Also got the totes out of the furnace room and family room. So tonight at SoP, let's plan when we can get together at my house for a knit party.

And will someone please pick Minnie up off the floor. ;D

Hippy Crunchy socks!!

Kitchenerd (new verb) the toe of the second sock this morning before bed. Ended up with a good sized ball of yarn leftover. If I end up doing this again, I'll probably put ribbing around the top, do three repeats for the leg instead of two, and make a heel flap rather than the shortrow heel. But all in all it was a good sock, and for a last minute pattern, it was well-written (except for the heel...that was just weird...it was very clear, but I had to play around and fudge the count for both sock heels.).