new mag & all things knitting

rowans new magazine is out. full of wonderful patterns for the cold fall and winter nights… not so here in san antonio but wonderful just the same. a nice addition to the rowan yarn collection featured in this book is cocoon. they colors cover all the shades that i crave.. muted greys, cream, browns and greens.

how wonderful would it be to knit these socks! they are on my want but not practical list. my favorite practical pattern is this sweater.

ahhh but i am knee deep into two baby projects that need to be finished. i honestly forgot how much i enjoy holding the needles and working my way through a pattern. i get the feeling that the weather will turn fall soon. i hope this year we have the opportunity to see the fall leaves in hill country~ but at least the drive is an excuse to knit on the road.

in memory of khiva

khiva is the long time pet of my brother. she is remembered by all in the way she had chosen to treat each individual she encountered. truly she was and always will be ~my brother’s cat. through many stages of his life, she was always a part, meeting new people along the way, taking on new roommates and finally part of a loving marriage which includes a wonderful child and~ of course~ khiva.

on the rare occasion when my brother would leave on vacation along with his roommate, i would have the opportunity to cat-sit. she so missed my brothers attention she would take her front paws around my right leg and let me drag her to the door when i had to leave for work or class. however when he was around it was as if i did not exist.

my brother, his wife and their son had to say good-bye to khiva. i can honestly say they were as lucky to have her as she was equally lucky to be theirs. i am sorry for their loss~ she will be missed.

xoxo

the dedicated follower (of fashion)

a dear friend of mine hand makes a card that inspires me and cheers me u pto no end. what a wonderful card and so nice to be thought of.

thank you leigh.

& at the same time opal and percy are becoming friends at last. it is not only me, but anthony who has noticed that opal has started to feel at home with us. she is getting into our routine and now chooses to spend her lazy time cuddled up near one of us but even more special she has won percy over as it is his choice to be near her, everything he does in his little stubborn head is his choice J

happy birthday grandma

happy birthday grandma. and of course to top the big day off after a meal out on the town ~ we top it off with the best cake ever.

lucky for us~ grandma has her birthday just around the time that the hatch chile hits the market and dad makes the trip, car full of a years worth of hot roasted hatch chile in freezer chests that end up fitting not only in our freezer but requires the extra storage space of our neighbors garage freezer. this year we tried our local supermarkets hatch green chile brownie- for addicts like me it was bliss. sadly it did not go over well with most of my coworkers

chicago- on fire

"then there was the great chicago fire. i was there. the stories of how the fire began were wildly contradictory, but i was there. some people say the fire was started by a stampede of cows. some say it was just one cow. some tried to blame it all on someone they didn't like. one fella tried to blame it all on his own brother, just because his brother had stolen away his girlfriend and married her. the wedding took place in las vegas. it was a modest affair of about 150 guests, non-denominational (which really pissed off the parents of the bride, but hell, you can't please everybody). during the ceremony, some rotten little punks yelled "fire! fire!" and the whole place cleared out in no time. the maid of honor even broke her ankle in two places after being shoved down the altar by the always overly zealous justice of the peace. well, the ankle was pretty back and the maid of honor had to be shot, and exactly one week later the entire block burned to the ground. even the bricks burned.

but at least nobody tried to blame it on a cow. and the wedding went ahead as planned.

and some people actually believe that nero fiddled as rome burned, and that he really did look like a badly aging peter lorre. on sunday nights we'd all gather 'round the television set to watch the disney show, and i would always fall asleep from boredom. but i had a big old siamese cat named butch who'd always loved to play with my face moments after my head hit the pillow. so i'd awake startled, sometimes, crying, sometimes covered with blood and crying, staring into the idiot box. sometimes i'd see walt himself, sometimes mickey or goofy. but sometime i'd see a thousand bright blue caribou racing a dust storm to the finish line, neck and neck all the way like nature's own indy 500! flesh and blood against the elements! and i remember wondering to myself, "why are they racing?" then one fine day i understood why the race took place. it was because the hairs on those caribou necks were being tickled by the instinctual knowledge of a fire raging not too far away, and most certainly headed this way. humans often get the same feeling...like an oddly warm breeze malevolently fueled by the maddening flames behind it."

-kramer, nyc, july 1989

my trip to chicago…. a trip that made me think differently about many things brought on by my own warm breeze..

rain rain go away….

we have had enough rain to flood streets, rivers and take lives.

colleges, schools and business were closed. major highways were closed and many streets were flooded. over nine inches in less than 12 hours.

i re-found my happiness.

what a wonderful yarn. i now have chosen my pattern and have been invited to another baby shower.

i am so looking forward to finishing this project and sharing my results along the way... for both of them :)

Tension:	22 sts x 30 rows
Needle size:	4mm/8UK/6US
Meterage:	130m (142yds)/50g ball
Yarn weight:	DK
Composition:	57% extra fine merino, 33% microfibre, 10% cashmere

there was an old woman who lived in a shoe…

ok so it is not an old woman~ it is a toad

and it is not really a shoe.. it is a dr. marten.

none the less we have an old toad who lives in a doc martin. in the morning we wake him up and move him along….

yeah yeah yeah

cant get any better than this. tickets have not gone on sale yet (august 17th) but the performance will be on sept 24th.

i will, of course, put a link on my blog to ticket sales when they go on sale.

other upcoming tickets at where i work.

babies babies & more babies

i am so tired right now that i cant sleep. i would very much like too but my mind is wandering. anthony and i have a friend who has just had her second child. their first beautiful baby girl came when we were living in boston and i had time to myself to experiment with knitting. based loosely off a pattern i found on the web i made her this little dress. now being a few years later i would have liked to become a better knitter~ as it is~ i have been overwhelmed with my job, homeownership and spending what little time i have with the dogs and husband.

2^nd beautiful baby girl deserves something nice- but what? there are a few patterns i would love to get into but i know they will take me too long to finish and with my luck she will be old enough to have her own children by the time i am done.

my bookshelf is full of ideas but i still am uninspired. in my search i came across “easy baby knits” by claire monthomerie

i don’t know what is inside the book but i am a big fan of ryland peters & small publishers- they have never disappointed.

keep checking in~ this may be the book that gets me back into the knitting thing….