Hope all had a Merry Christmas

My brother got me this book. My brother knows that I love to knit so this was a perfect gift. What was more special to me what when he asked me if i knit with Alpaca. When I told him that i hadn't he went on to tell me that there is a yarn store where he lives. He went there twice to get me some Alpaca but the
store was close both days. What a brother!!!!








I love stitch markers and one can never have too many of them. I got the cutest stitch markers from a very special friend... I love frapachinos so this was the perfect gift.





The Malibrigo fairy paid me a visit and was very very good to me. I got two skeins of plum Malibrigo. Purple is my very favorite color, and I was so excited when I saw these skeins. Now I just have to find the perfect pattern to use for this yarn. Thanks Malibrigo fairy.

You want me to do what on my vacation

I had so many thinngs that I wanted to do on my Christmas break. I just knew that I would get lots and lots of knitting done, so much that my hands would hurt. HAHAHA as I soon would find out the joke was on me. I have not been knitting lately but instead I have been busy painting. In early October when I purchased my house I knew that there would be several "stages" or renavations that needed to be made. Well the first part was to paint the living room. We wanted to paint this room first so that we could lay hardwood floor down soon after. I had no idea that my living room was as big as it is. It took my sister and I 3 days to paint the living room. As you can see I think that the paint fumes got a hold of my sister cause she looks like she is having way tooooo much fun. We painted the living room pumpkin butter and wow what a difference a coat of paint can do to a room. Next for me is to paint the spare bedroom cause hardwood flooring will go in there as well. My poor knitting is soooo neglected.

Hail to the Wolfpack!!!

For as long as I can remember I have always been a NC STATE fan. When Jim Valvano died I must admit that I was really saddened . I even bought my brother a NC STATE outfit which he wore proudly. ( as seen in the picture ) When Jason was around 6 or 7 some of the NC STATE players came for a workshop/game and I took my brother to seem them play. He even was chosen by Chris Corchani to come on the court and shoot some hoops with him. Imagine the proud sister I was when Jason graduated from NC STATE with an engineering degree. :0) So our family are die hard Wolfpackfans!!!

Well imagine my shock when my little sister got a wild hair up her butt and decided to find a boyfriend that graduated from Carolina. ( UNC ) For all the non North Carolina residents, NC STATE and UNC are rivals. They do not mix!!! You simply can't have a NC STATE and an UNC fan in the same houshold. It just doesn't happen that way!! What was she thinking, had I not taught her anything, was I not a good sister? Now she goes to the majority of the UNC home games with her boyfriend. He has bought her over the the "dark side". Rumor has it that she even has an UNC sirt that she wears. What the heck!!! Come back sister come back!!!!
To keep my love for the wolfpack alive, I decided to knit my brother a NC STATE hat. Since I love my sister dearly and her boyfriend is a nice guy I decided to knit him an UNC hat. It hurt me so much to break out the blue yarn. My hands itched and I broke out in hives and even went into anaphlatic shock. ( ok so I am stretching the truth a bit) But the NC STATE "red" blood kept me alive and I made it through the tramatic ordeal. Both hats turned out nice but the red one is the better of the two.

It's pumpkin time!!!!

Pumpkin pumpkin and more pumpkin. I get so excited about this time of the year for one reason. Well ok 2 reasons. Pumpkin spice frapachinnos from Starbucks, and my pumpkin cranberry bread. While I am a far cry from being Betty Crocker, I do enjoy cooking/baking. However, I must admit it that there are only a few items that I cook/bake well. This is one of them...... My pumpkin cranberry bread. I was a baking fool today and made 4 loaves of it. Between the bread and my pumpkin candle, my house was smelling soooooo good. Did i mention how much I love pumpkin. :0)

Hippoty Hop..It's bunny time

I am in a bunny group here on Ravelry and we had our first bunny swap. We were paired with fellow bunny owners and had to get a package together not only for the owner, but also for the bunny. Jackson and I were paired with a bunny named Mozart. Mozart was a brown bunny with some white on the underside of his tail. I thought that I would get Kendall (bunnie's mom) some knitting needles and stitch markers with Mozart on them. So I contacted Jillian who has a business called Weeones. Jillian makes all different kinds of stitch markers and needles. There are many many animal stitch markers, as well as other "themed" ones. I have ordered from Jillian 2 times now and love the results. These bunny ones were a special order that Jillian did for me. I simply described Mozart to Jillian and she put her magic together and came up with these. Jillian is awesome and her work speaks for itself. So if anyone is in need of some really cool stitchmarkers/knitting needles Weeones is the place to go to.

No I am not British

Meet Sir Tigger von Yorkshire. He is a project that I had to do for a swap partner. He is going all the way to England so I figured that he had to have a regal name. So I decided to give him his fitting name. I am really happy about how he turned out. He was rather easy and quick to complete. I used Lamb's Pride yarn and a size 7 needle. I hope that Sir Tigger makes it to his new home all the way to England. I for-see more knitted kitties in the near future.

Purple Haze

Jimmy Hendrix has nothing on this sock. Eat your heart out man!!!! Here is my latest sock. I am doing a wanna be cable sock in my Woolmeise Poison. I have been waiting for awhile to knit with my Woolmeise and am in love with this colorway. Purple is my favorite color and this sock will be awesome once I get it finished. Almost finished with the gussett and have the second sock on other needles and have finished the ribbing on that one. It is about time that I learn magic loop. Paging teacher Zonda, paging teacher Zonda I need to learn this bad!! :0)

Do I look like the freaking catlady?

Ok Zonda I can hear you already so no wise cracks. ;0). On Friday as I pulled into my parking space my neighbors came running to the car saying that they need my help.. Hummmmm strange I thought but asked what with. They had a huge box in their hands (that should have been my first clue to just run like hell) and informed me that they just caught 3 kittens from their bushes. They went on to tell me that they saw their mother dead in the road. (second clue to keep on running) I peeked in the box which was a huge mistake ans saw 3 of the cutest kitties just nezzled together. (keep ruuning girl). Then they asked me what they should do. I told them to call the vets or call The Haven (a no kill shelter here in town). After about 5 minutes of just standing there they asked me the dreaded question.....can you take them. I must have told them no about a million times but it went in one ear and out the other. Then as they place the box on the ground by my feet my sister opens her mouth and says just take them and keep them in your spare bedroom until we call the vet or The Haven. I could have killed her. Here I was trying to control what I really wanted to do and big mouth over rides me. So after another couple of minutes of just standing there I finally said ok and in the house I go with three 5 week old kittens. Keep in mind that I already have 3 cats, a guinea pig, and a rabbit.

The black one was a hoot, he was always in to everything. No fear of climbing up everything. The kitty in the back was the runt and was the one that I worried about the most. She was so tiny and timid. These kittens were so small that they had no idea how to eat. When I gave them wet food they all grunted and growled and stood all in the middle of the plate all in their food. Instead of eating like normal cats they snapped at it. Blackie was always the first one through and tried to eat everyone elses food. Made me wonder how long they had really been without their mother.

Well today my sister and I drove to Raeford and brough the kitties to The Haven. We cried all the way home but knew that this was the right thing to do. I a few more weeks they will be up for adoption and I am so sure that someone right will adopt these kitties.

If their is a stray to be found I will find one, so if anyone needs a cat just let me know and I will put your name on the waiting list and i will find you your perfect companion. :0)

Last day of school

Words can not even begin to epress hpw happy I am right now. I have 1 hour before the kids are gone for the summer!!!! :0) This has been a very stressful year for me so this is a well deserved break. This will also leave me plenty of time of to work on my knitting.
I can not post any pictures of my projects though due to the fact that my house was brocken into and the assclowns stole both of my computers and my camera. I am in the process of getting everyting to my insurance company so tht they can send me a check to replace all of the stolen stuff. Talk our feeling like you have been violated. They ransacked my place looking for anything and everything. I had all of my pictures (knitting ones too) not only on my camera but also on my computers and now they are all gone. But oh well, I guess that is why we have insurance right?

Shopping at Lowes??? WTF

Who would have thought that I would shop at Lowes and actually love it. But I did. Over the weekend I planted some flowers and put together a frog fountain that pees. I love the frog, he is so cute!!! I have no idea what got into me but I had a really great time doing this. Now let's all hope that I can manage to keep the flowers alive.

Miami Ink Part 3

Wow what a hottie Ami is. There is something about a bald head that appeals to me. Ami was super nice and didn't have any of his well know anger management issues. He is known for blowing up at any minute but he was so cool. This was an experience that I 'll treasure forever.
The final product. I love it the tattoo. Ami did a great job. He did give me some lip about a sheep knitting though. :0) At least he will remember that tattoo.. :0)

Miami Ink Part 2

I really hate it when people ask "did it hurt? Heck yeah it hurt. These are needles ripping at your skin so yes it hurts. But it is an addictive hurt. I am ready for another one!!! :0) Mom would be sooo happy to hear this.

Nothing like a little blood to make sure that you are alive and kicking. This pictures answers the question does it hurt. Ami was really good though, Super nice and was always telling me "you are doing great" After 2 1/2 hours I was getting antsy though and it was hurting. The outlining is a piece of cake for me but when Ami started the coloring holy cow!!!!! I wanted to bite his nose off. But I would do it again and plan on to soon.

Miami Ink Part 1

This picture says it all!!!!Oh my gosh what am I thinking was going through my mind at this time.

Ami doing his thing. I was in lalalalalalalala land. I have a tendency to get all giddy when I see a celebrity. The fact that he was touching me was enough to send me into cardiac shock!!!!

My Little Model

Here is the newest model to walk the "cat walk". Meet Misty Cherokee. Yep this is one of my babies. I knitted up a hat for a fellow teacher who is due in May. She is having a little girl so I thought that I would be nice and knit her some hats. I wanted to make sure the hats would be the correct size so I decided to let my model try it on. She wasn't very happy but did it anyway.

With love from Alaska

When my youngest sister went on a cruise to Alaska she knew exactly what I wanted. Besides the shot glass. Yarn..... She brought me back several skeins of various yarns, one of which was a merino wool. Wasn't really sure what I was going to make but I decided on a bag. So I just got done with knitting/felting this little baggie. I love this little baggie. The colors are beautiful and the yarn felted marvelously. It took two cycles in the wash and bamm out came this litte baggie. I am enjoying felting and may become the newest "felted bag lady" So watch out!!!!

Here's Kitty!!!!

Here is my Hello Kitty hat that I made for my sister. She was very surprised when I showed up at her house with it. I told her that I had made her something but didn't tell her what I made. I am very happy with the our come and lots of fun making it. Thanks Zonda for heping out with the dreaded sewing part. I am getting better though!

Ok all of my peeps. The day is fast approaching!!!!! My date with Ami James. I meet him Monday at noon for a nice lunch!!! He is such a hottie that I am drooling right now just thinking about him. :0)

Ok so I am not going on a date with him but I am going to be tattooed by Ami on Monday down in Miami. I am leaving today and am on my way!!!! Singing Welcome to Miami the entire way!!!!! I so so so so am nervous. This man will be touching me!!!!! pant pant. How will I be able to control myself? It will be hard, but the tatto will be a kick ass one. It will be a sheep knitting. before I get any strange comments you have to see it before you judge it. The sheep is a cartton type one and I am going to take a skein of Poison 5 with me for the color. I will be taking plenty of pictures and posting them once I get back. I will be back late Tuesday!!!!! Talk to you all then. Have a great weekend.

Tuesday's WIP

This is going to be a Hello Kitty hat for my sister Jennifer. My partner in crime (first name starts with a Z) found this pattern for me. So yesterday was Hello Kitty Day and that is all I knitted. Managed to finish it during American Idol/Dancing With the Stars. All I have left is to sew the ears on the side of the hat, make a flower out of felt, some eyes and a nose all out of felt. I ddo need someone to draw me a nive big flower. Any takers????????? :0) This was a very easy pattern to knit and I am going to make myself one as well. :0)
Here are the ears and the hat . Just got to sew those bad boys on to the hat. That will have to wait until Thursday when I a, under direct supervision. HHAHAHAHAH :0)

Hazel is in the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I know that there are going to be people out there, that think that I am a loony toon and needs to be medicated, but let me assure everyone that I am doing just fine!!!!!! Today my lovely postman brough me my newest addition to my kitty family. I adopted a little kitty by the name of Hazlenut Maxwell. Hazel was born on March 15, 2008 in Daytona Beach Florida. I am sooo happy to have her be a pert of my kitty klan. As you can see see Hazel loves to look out the window with Misty and love to nuzzle with my himmie Prissie. Hazel is quite the camera whore!! :0) She loves to pose.
Now before anyone calls my Dr and tries to have me committed. I belong to a Knitted Kitty group here on Ravelry where every month we have a swap buddy that me make adn swap kittied with. We have to include a birth certificate with the knitted kitty. This has been soooo much fun that I am signed up for the next month swap. Zonda and Christine you really need to sign up for this. Do it before the 28th and you tooo can have your very own knitted kitty. Aimee thank you so much for little Hazel. I LOVE her and so do my kitties. :0)

Son of a dragonfly

If I never see or hear the words dragonfly agin that would be great by me. I am knitting a pair of dragonfly socks up and I am about ready to take a bee-bee gun and kill all the dragonflys in the world!!! :0) I am an animal lover and would never hurt one, but you know what? Dragonflies are evil at this point and must be destroyed!!!It is a great pattern, not hard at all but one that does require me to focus and have minimal interuptions. Well the first sock is beautiful. I surprised myself and felt confident that the second one will come out just as nice. Well son of a dragonfly, it didn't. This is my third time that I had to frog the darn thing. Well guess what I did late last night. I killed the dragonfly. I took my bee-bee gun and shot him right in the butt. The sock is in dragonfly timeout and will NOT come out until he behaves. I am starting on another pair of socks. A pair of ankle socks for the summer in panda cotton. So far it is going very nicely. HAHAHA guess I showed the dragonfly who the boss is.....ME!!!!

Here kitty kitty kitty

This is the only new animal that I should be allowed to get.....A knitted one. I just joined a swap group in which we knit up cats and then swap them with a "buddy". I know for some of you this may sound cheesy, but this is right up my alley!!!! Mom said "oh my, leave it up to you to find a group that knits cats". So true I thought to myself. This one is going to my sister who has a flame point siamese cat. I wanted to make the eyes cross eyed but didn't know how. (her cat, Zoey is cross-eyes) So I stuck with just regular ole blue eyes.

I live at a zoo.

Everybody that knows me knows that have a huge spot for animals. I love all animals and will take in just about anything. But I honestly can say that I fell like I am living at a freaking zoo!!!!! I have 3 cats and 1 guinea pig. But wait there's one more!!!! Well here is a picture of my latest edition to the family. This is Jackson, and he is an 8 week old floopy mix rabbit. I will not bother to go into the story on how I got him but let's just make it known that I DID NOT have anything to do with it this time. I know NOTHING about bunnies so I am tyring to educate myself about them and I have my hands full with this one. But I must say that he is a good little bunny and is absolutly adorable!!!! Sp far the cats are not bothered by him and do not bother Jackson. Since I have a zoo at my house anyone that comes to visit will be charged an entrance fee to the ever growing petting zoo. :0)

I am famous

I am famous....well sort of...Well ok not really. but I was in the Fayetteville Observer on Tuesday.

My sister and I decided to go walking on our only walking trail one weekend. We did spot some photographers but didn't really think much of it. No one stopped us or asked us any questions. (There have been reported attackings on females on my side of town and one was attacked on the walking trail) So Michele and I went along our merry walking way. Well when I went to schoo last week a fellow teacher asked me if I go walking on a walking trail. I told her yes I did. She then told me that I am in the newspaper. So I went to find a copy of the newspaper and low and behold there I was walking with my sister.

I must admit that I am not thrilled at all because I have workout pants and a t-shirt on. Here I am trying to exercise and some photogchick decided that she wants to snap aless than flattering picture of me. That is me in the blue jacket holding my haor in place. On the left in the wolfpack shirt is my sister Michele. One thing I have to admit, thank god it is not my butt that they got a picture of like the lady walking up the trail. Then I would really be mad!!!

All of my students know about this as well thanks to our wonderful PE teacher. Thanks Melanie!!!! Love ya.

My gift swap

Thanks to Ravelry I have met a lot of cool people. One of which is Claudia from Rhode Island. We were both in a swap together and were swap buddies for Feb. Well today the mail-lady came and brought me a package from Claudia. In it was 2 knitted dishcloths, a bunch of tea, a bag full of chocolates, and a skein of dishcloth yarn. If that wasn't enough (which it was!!) Claudia even included 3 kitty toys for my cats. You know that you have found a good frined when they mail you toys for your cats. :0)

Thank-you Claudia for you generous package. I love it all. You did a grea tjob!!!!You went above and beyond!!!! I want to say thank you and so do Misty, Prissie, and Sophie. Meow meow meow.

Thank goodness for the Daytona 500

I always have loved Nascar but I really liked it this past Sunday. No my men (Stewart/Jr) didn't win but I did manage to finish my dad's socks.
After I finished them I called my buddy Zonda to share the news with her. Then I called my dad. He told me that he would be anxiously waiting for them. So I brought them over to the house today and had them on the table. I didn't say anything to my dad when he came home from work, but I guess he found them ok. Because a few minutes after he came home dad walked into the living room with them on. He had a nice smile on his face as he saod Chris look. I guess dad liked the socks. I feel so bad for dad. He sometimes gets overlooked in the knitting frenzy so I am soooo glad that he liked the socks. He still had them on as I left mom and dads. He did tell me as I left that the socks matched his new olive colored slacks. :0)

My Dragonfly Socks

These are my latest pair of socks. These are my dragonfly socks and will be for this months sock knit along. Yes I said mine. I am not a greedy person at all, but dog gone it I want a pair for myself. When everybody in my family (except my brother) has a pair of socks except me there is a problem. So now it is all about me time. I was worried at first that I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this pattern. But it is not bad at all. Maybe because my buddy Zonda had to go out and buy me these stitch markers that have a k2tog and ssk on them and she put them on my socks. So now I do not even have to look at the pattern cause I have these kickass markers telling me what to do.
I do not know though what Zonda was trying to tell me.....hmmmmmmm maybe that I need reminders of what to do on what needle. naaahhhh....... maybe to stop knitting socks on a size 1 when I had been knitting them on a size 3....naaaaaahhhh..... maybe to stop knitting my decreases on the wrong side of the darn needle...naaahhhhh...... Maybe Zonda just loves me.... even though I have done the above and many many more silly things. YAHHHHHHH that's the correct answer!!! :0)

My First Skein of Woolmeise

I was soooo upset and down in the dumps last week, when
I did not get any Woolmeise from the site where I usually purchase my sock yarn from. But to my surprise and joy, the Woolmeise Fairy (yes I do believe in them and have one of my very own!!) handed me my very first skein. It was about the most beautiful thing that I have seen in awhile. The colors are so nice and it feels sooo soft. I was very excited but couldn't show it right then and there, because we were in a place where we can't get to rowdy....But when I got home I told my sister and let out a hip hip hooray!!!! She didn't understand why I was so happy to have yet another skein of yarn to add to my collection, but was happy for me because I was so happy.

Now I just need to find the right sock pattern to knit.
Thank you so much my Woolmeise Fairy you are truly the best!!!!

Time to clean out!

I finally managed to prganize my "knitting closet". This should have been done a long time ago. I bought 2 big tubs in addition to the one really big one that I had. Boy oh Boy did I have a lot of yarn. (but then don't we all) I even managed to organize and keep a tally on how many and what kind of needles I have. My sister was amazed to see how much yarn that I had. But we all knows what this means don't we? Now that I cleaned out, that means that I have room for more yarn. :0)

"Hats Off" to me!!!

I just finished my first piece that is all mine. I have knitted for other people, but seldom for myself. Isn't that how it goes. Ok, so maybe I have 1 scarf that I knitted for myself. I managed to finish it yesterday. It was a vey easy twisted rib pattern that I love. I do like hats so I think that hats and socks may be my thing.

Here they are...the infamous yellow socks!!!

Ok everyone here's the finished pain in the @%*! socks. My sister loves them. She has worn them sooooo many times already and they look nice on her feet. Even though they were a pain to knit (right Zonda) the final product turned out really good. However, I am glad that these are behind me and I learned a very valuable lesson. When someone tells you to NOT use a certain needle listen to them. Do not try to be a bad @!* and use them anyway. This was a major problem, the type of needle that I used didn't work for me.