NIKE 100-Mile Reward

I've loved NIKE since childhood. It took everything I had to settle on my Asics running shoes over NIKE but I did it only because with my eyes closed, the Asics felt the most comfortable and this is so very important with running. Anyways, today was the day I strolled into Dick's Sporting Goods in search of a gift for self for completing my first 100 running miles (yes - I'm still celebrating) and look what I found. OMG--Every girl needs a NIKE running skirt with a reflective stripe!! (BTW: That's not me in the picture but soon should be after I complete my next 100). This Dri-FIT skirt features a built-in compression short and strategically placed pocket in the back.

I Made It - 100 Miles

I made it -- 100 miles by April 1st!! Just wrapped up my last 3.5 miles this morning to reach my goal. I'd love to say it was easy but towards the end, it felt like I was running a marathon every day to catch up. It was my own doing (laziness) during the month of February in which I only managed to run 2.84 miles the WHOLE month. No excuse but that I get so lethargic and lazy in the winter months. Anyways, I wouldn't have done it without Runagogo! Now, on to the next challenge of another 100 by July 1st.

March Flea Market

There were loads of antique dealers at today's Flea Market. I was delighted to sift through junk boxes filled with old sewing notions but only settled with a few items that I had a need for. The baskets add to my knitting room collection.

And....yet another sewing basket to hide more yarn!

Collared Tank

Just finished up this collared tank from the Spring/Summer 2007 knitsimple mag. Substituted 4 skeins Reynolds Saucy mercerized cotton on #6 cn for size medium. This cool little number was only 20 bucks!! I just love the cabled collar details and the way it stands up on it's own -- too cool. The only change I made was to sl st the collar sts for a nice, clean edge. It's good on it's own for a casual look and then again the collar stands up nice under a suit jacket. Starting a second one tonight and will work in a little more waist shaping. This one's a favorite.

A Day of My Favorite Things

Today was a blur of some of my favorite things: Being on the road, Dallas, Shopping, Knit Shops & Joe's Crab Shack all in one day. I drove a total of 750 miles for the main purpose of buying a new handbag - don't ask - it's complicated. I left the house at 5:00 a.m. and got back at around 9:00 p.m. Talk about a whirlwind of fun in the "BIG D"

Fosters Western Shop in Denton is one of my favorite stops along the way that has reasonably priced rhinestone belts, accessories and clothing. Then to the Galleria to get my new, larger LV handbag. Passing through Macy's (to the parking garage, of course) I found a Nine West denim pant suit for work that was on sale and will be perfect for the summer months. I couldn't dare leave town without hitting a knit shop or two. I had never been to Passion Knits which is in the Highland Park area so I checked that out (pictured - neat layout of knitting area "lofted" above the sales floor). Made my way back north by way of Plano and my favorite knit shop in Texas, The Woolie Ewe. There, I did order a kit for a Queensland top and the pattern/yarn for Fiber Trends Felt Alpacas & Llamas. Joe's Crab Shack is a favorite stop for peel 'n eat shrimp, oysters, clams & Coronas.

Wicked Hand in My Pocket

I can hear Alanis Morissette singing along with me, "I've got one hand in my pocket....."

In case you missed my previous rants, I had a late start waiting on backordered Rowan Denim for the Wicked knit-a-long with KIP and SNK. This project also did double-duty for Project Spectrum in Blue for the months of Feb/Mar. The denim cotton yarn shrinks 20% in length just like a pair of jeans and takes on a fade over time. I debated knitting it longer for shrinkage but didn't and it turned out just fine as I like my shirts to ride above the low-waist line anyways. The only adjustment I made was to finish the bottom in the crossover rib pattern.

Run Yourself Ugly Update

Husband's injury put a complete stop to my workouts but I'm back into my running shoes this week to work on my 100 miles by April 1st. I'm behind at 49.15 miles and need to get my rear in gear--literally. I started a new dietary thermogenic supplement, TIGHT!, that seems to give me the energy to wake up before the 4:30 a.m. alarm clock. (I'm hoping it's claim to burn fat pays off, too). What I really like about this supplement is you only have to take one pill every 24 hours.

On the Road to Recovery

Last week was hectic for both husband and myself following his surgery. It's a ton of work being a caregiver and we had many challenges but somehow we survived the week. His f/u appointment was this morning with Dr. Miller and there was a Frankenstein moment as they removed the bandages revealing the staples in his knee. Whew... I didn't hurl ... and the doctor released him to go on with his life with a full leg brace and crutches for six more weeks.

Tempting II

Okay, I'll admit it... I completely lost interest in this Tempting II sweater project. It all started when I ran out of Rowan Calmer and had to order another skein from out of town. Other projects came and went and I was determined to get things caught up this weekend. While the pattern was extremely simple and looks great on the tiny designer, my sideways knit top band turned out ridiculously too big. Although I had read other posts with the same problem, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why I was having a problem. I followed all the directions and started over 3 times which took up my whole Saturday. By Sunday, I'd lost all my patience and replaced the [k2tog, k1] with [k2togs] and knit the band on a 2x smaller needle. I'm happy with the results and especially like the comfortable feel of this yarn.

DIY: Pincushions

When mom and I go to the monthly flea market at the colliseum, I'm drawn to baskets, handwrought alluminum, vintage potholders and vases. We've been "pricing" the vintage glamour girl head vases and finally found a couple we could reasonably afford with pincushions in mind. This was a weekend for completing projects and I gathered up some red velvet to complete our fashionable pincushions.

Hospital Knitting

I'm making the best of a bad situation here. Husband slipped on the ice this week and tore his quad muscle (upper thigh) away from his knee and today was the surgery to reattach it. The surgery went well and I got some knitting done on this baby blanket while waiting for him during surgery and recovery.

Girls Just Wanna Shop II

Kansas City here we come! I was in need of some serious shopping therapy and grabbed my girl Melanie for yet another quick overnight road trip. We can tear a mall up ... we did just that and made a day of it. We then lounged in style in our spacious Embassy suite that had plenty of room to lay out all of our loot from the mall. It was some very much needed GIRL-TIME and rejuvenated me for the work week ahead. Love ya, girlfriend!!

Magic Stripes Thigh-High Socks

These socks fit the bill for a quick and easy weekend or portable traveling project. The pattern is available on the Lion Brand website but I found mine in the Spring 2006 knit.1 VOGUEknitting issue. The ribbing makes for a nice, snug fit and can also be knitted longer in length for the scrunchy legwarmer look that's back --- That's hot!!

One Mighty Long Sock

Taking a break from complicated projects to amuse myself with these quite long (thigh-high) socks. In the meantime, the wait continues for my backordered Rowan yarn for Wicked. I like how Stitchywitch adapted hers for quarter length sleeves. If only I was blessed with such thin arms -- I think I'll have to stick to the short sleeve version.

LaLa Scarf

Every knitter has a few staple knitting books that she goes back to several times for knitting inspiration and patterns. For me, Greetings from Knit Cafe has become one of my favorites and there are several other items in the book I still want to make. I was knitting and couldn't stop and ended up with two scarves and enough leftover to make one or two more. It was my first experience with mohair-weight lace knitting and it really comes to life when blocked.

Snuggle Buddy

This just warms my heart and makes my cup runneth over. How can you resist loving up to a face like this? I absolutely adore my dog, Sheba. We have a little ritual in the morning and no matter how late I am running, this is the sight I have when I look out of my bathroom. She's simply irresistible. Although she's a master of laziness, just about every morning when she hears me open the drawer to put up my hairdryer, she runs into the bathroom to get her teeth brushed. Of course, she has her own toothbrush nearby but shares my toothpaste. I am so lucky to have a dog that enjoys good hygiene.

Chanel-Ish Cardigan Jacket

I am SOOO pleased with this very sophisticated and classic ode to Coco Chanel from the book, Greetings from Knit Cafe. The KnitPicks Wool of the Andes yarn (in Chocolate & Cloud) makes it a very warm piece for winter. I machine washed it in cold water and lightly tumble dried and the yarn holds up great.

The key to the tweed stitching is to make sure you understand the stitch pattern when doing the arms/shoulder decreases because at that point you are on your own to keep in pattern. Also, make sure that the row before the bind off is in the same color for all corresponding pieces. (You can see my oversight in the previous blocking post). When finishing, I found this out and had to add a color touch-up to one of my front collar yokes, but it's all good.

Blocking Cardigan Jacket

The pieces are complete and the blocking is ON! I've already ordered the yarn for my next project so my goal is to get my jacket constructed before the next package of yarn arrives.

Next: I'll sew the shoulder seams, set in sleeves; and sew the sleeves.

Then: Single crochet the edges and finish with one round of Crab stitch alternating colors.

2007 Resolutions

Every year I tend to set my New Year Resolutions around projects. Sure, I'd love to work out, more, eat healthier and lose weight but it all seems to take a back seat to my crafts. Today, I brought in the firewood and got cozy for a full day of scrapbooking (since I hadn't touched any of my THREE books in 2006). I can feel the pressure building on me to get caught up and I'm feeling pretty good about getting 7 page layouts done.
I can always workout tomorrow.......

Happy New Year

The snow is falling.
The fireplace is loaded down and burning bright.
The dogs are sprawled out by the warmth of the fire.
Dean Martin is singing, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"....
I'm knitting the sleeves of my jacket in my favorite chair sipping Godiva coffee spiked with Bailey's.
It's such a perfect Christmas picture then I hear click, click, click as husband oils his new handgun in the kitchen. It's little moments in my life like this that strike me funny and make me appreciate how different we all are. Best wishes to you and yours for a happy new year.

Saturday Morning Felted Bowl

We had a good laugh this morning at our Saturday morning meetup. After all this time, Angelique discovered that she was knitting backwards. I had to come to her rescue and admit that I too had taught myself to knit twisted stitches that very same way and painfully had to reteach myself. After shaming Gwen not to stop, she finished all but the thumb of her first glove. It was a happy, rainy morning and I finshed this felted bowl from Noro Kureyon.

Cardigan Jacket

Long holiday weekends are great!! Now that I'm done with the wrist warmer holiday marathon, I finally got to start on the Chanel-ish Cardigan Jacket from Greetings from Knit Cafe. The honeycomb tweed pattern goes quickly and as you can see the jacket has no side seams. The directions for the set in pockets were surprisingly easy to follow.

Merry Christmas

I was really hoping for a White Christmas but it turned out to be even too warm to light the fireplace this year. The dogs enjoyed their knitted stockings filled with dog treats. Their gift to me was a new pair of (Harley) cowboy boots. They have such great taste!

Pillows Are Done

The quilted pillow covers are complete and now I can get back to my Christmas projects. They turned out to be a time-consuming undertaking but are quite darling I must say so myself.







Still spending a ton of time re-doing my craft room and added this lamp to the knitting side. It's a kit I purchased at Hobby Lobby, filled it with small yarn balls and added a stockinette knit shade cover out of Kiogu. The big news of the week is that I ordered a denim upholstered rolled back Parsons chair from Ethan Allen that not only will look good in the room but support my back while working on all my projects. Bad news, it won't be delivered until March.

I Was a Quilter ...

Long before knitting, I was a quilter. I attended local Quilt Guild meetings and made many family members and friends bed sized quilts. I even made a go at hand quilting for hire but found the very little money for the time invested took the enjoyment out of my hobby. My last partially completed quilt is a hand-pieced, hand-quilted Dresden Plate in reproduced 50's fabric that I hope to someday revisit. But since I found knitting I haven't looked back until recently when a coworker repeatedly asked me to redesign her daughter's old Pottery Barn baby bumper pad bedding into two pillows for Christmas. I'm a sucker for heirlooms and enthusiastically agreed to put aside my holiday knitting projects to undertake this challenge. Because bumper pads are over an inch thick, I had to remove the quilting, the batting, cut out the motifs and sew in borders to make each of the 27" pillow tops. Now I'm requilting the tops and found I really miss my old love of quilting.....

A Bit More Organized

You wouldn't know it by looking at this space, but it took over 6 hours to reorganize the "office" part of my sewing room into a knitting corner. Previously, it held old bodybuilding trophies, school books, tax papers, useless junk and dust. I pitched most of it and now I'm very proud of my new knitting area. Like any project that leads to another, I think I need to add a cozy chair.

A Long Thanksgiving Weekend

My Thanksgiving turkey and leftovers have been stretched throughout the long holiday weekend. My meal turned out fabulous and aside from being under the weather most of the weekend, I found plenty of time to watch movies, Project Runway reruns and knit. The Xmas dog stockings are both hanging from the mantle and I completed a custom made to order pair of felted clogs for the winner of the craft charity auction at work. Even found a little more time to complete a felted Xmas stocking from Noro Kureyon.

Stockings for the Dogs

One stocking down and another to go before Christmas. Sheba and Sassie are going to have a wonderful Xmas with their own stockings full of bones, toys and treats. I'm going to reverse the green and red on the next one and then knit one more for my mom's Chihuahuas. The pattern is from the book, "Christmas Stockings" by Interweave Press.

Knitting Ambassadors in KC

Lia, Jackie and I felt like celebrities as we rolled into the Sewing & Quilt Expo in Overland Park, KS and the man at the front desk asked us, "Are You Models?" Okay, so we had primped this morning, had our matching pin-up knitting girl t-shirts looking official loaded down with our knitting hardware -- so I guess we looked the part! Actually, we were the Knitting Ambassadors there to teach the basics of knitting and crochet. It ended up being quite a bit of work and required more patience than I had expected. Also, I found I prefer to teach children crochet over knitting. We got some nice gifts for our participation and headed back home very content with our fun-filled overnight stay and yarn shopping adventures in Kansas City.

A Long Texas Weekend

Spent a couple days in Georgetown, Texas for work meetings then a little shopping fun with female clients at the outlet mall in Round Rock. Once the hard work was over, made my way to an outdoor coffee shop on Congress Avenue in Austin that looked down the hill at the State Capitol.
Why yes, I had my knitting handy and found a shady spot to lounge for a couple hours before heading toward Dallas to spend the weekend with my grandparents in Gun Barrel City. One of my favorite things
about the drive around the lake is this patch of cactus that proves "Everything is Bigger in Texas!"

CMA Awards

The knitting needles sat idle tonight! Country reins and Brooks and Dunn got their share of awards for Best Country Video, Single of the Year, Song of the Year and Vocal Duo of the Year. They had my vote for Entertainer of the Year, but Kenny walked away with it.

Ronnie and Kix --- I'm your biggest FAN!!

Wichita Toy Run 2006

The weather was surprisingly nice today for the Wichita Toy Run. We were among the estimated 2,500 bikers who made the slow ride from downtown to the Kansas Coliseum with our toys.

Wrist Warmer Charity Auction

I've been pressed for time lately so I took the easy way out on my contribution for the United Way charity craft auction at work this year. These mock cable wrist warmers knitted up quick. I made the red pair for myself, a couple others for mom and the four pictured for the auction.

Wichita Eagle at KIP

The Wichita Eagle newspaper sent a reporter and photographer to our knitting meetup meeting tonight at Chipotle to interview us and take pictures. Jackie was talking us up and posed for a photo shoot. Our article should be in the paper sometime next week.

Tea Cozy

Today is a cold, rainy Fall Saturday and the FedEx fairy arrived with my new teapot from ebay. What a perfect day it was to drink hot tea and knit this Tea Cozy out of Sugar'n Cream cotton. Must.Use.The.Handknits!!

Knit Picks Order

My first Knit Picks yarn order came in the mail today. Can you say WOOOO HOOOO?!? It's such a high to come home to a package of reasonably priced, high quality yarn for a new project! Knit Picks suggests substituting their Wool of the Andes yarn for the Chanel-Ish Cardigan Jacket pattern from Greetings From Knit Cafe. I'm stoked to start it but have a few other projects to get done first. If you're keeping track, I'm at a stand still on my Tempting II sweater. I purchased the Calmer yarn in Texas and came up short so I have to wait for their shipment of one more skein. Lesson Learned: When purchasing yarn out of town for a big project, be sure to buy an extra skein---you just never know.....

Woofstock & Surprise Party

We started the day by going to the annual Humane Society fundraiser, Woofstock at Segwick County Park.








Sassie and Sheba strutted their stuff with hundreds of other dogs of all breeds and sizes. This was Sheba's first time to this event and for a Pit, she was very well behaved and only really disliked the couple friends' dog that went with us (not pictured).


Who would've known turning 40 would have been such a big event. Later, my friend Melanie picked me up for what I thought was going to be dinner with another friend and turned out to be a surprise party of 70 friends and family members. Husband and her had planned it out for months and totally had me fooled. Even my neice, Amy, flew in from Chicago. Guests were provided with ribs, chicken and beer. It was quite embarrasing to be such the focus of attention --- combined with the bikini picture of me posted at the front door!!

The BIG 40

Well....it's here and I bravely faced my coworkers today to be greeted with confetti, balloons, cards and gifts at work. That was great but I don't think it was necessary for them all to wear black today!! I'm told 40 is the "new 30" and that I've lived the lives of two 20 year olds--that's just great. Going to have sushi for lunch with hubby and momma's fixing me dinner. I think I still have PRINCESS status.

Pig Trail in Rogers, AR

Our last road trip for the season took us to the Blues, Bikes & BBQ rally in Fayetteville, AR over the weekend. We took in an evening at the rally and a day in Eurka Springs. The new Harley dealership, Pig Trail, in Rogers was well-worth the stop -- it's huge!! Hanging out with our friends, Razz & Stacy.