I am such Magpie.

“I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now.” ~ Sophia Loren



As we are going through Aughra's house to get it ready to sell. We are sorting thorough everybody's inheritance. Mine is dishes. I love dishes. I have ever since I was a small child. They always seemed like beautiful bits of our lives. Each thing holding a shining memory of an event or time.
The crystal Irish Coffee mugs with clovers etched on them hold the memory of the first time I felt elegant. I was drinking hot coco out of them. I remember feeling so grown up. The porcelain dolls I loved so much. They hold the memory of the time I tried to steal them when I was 4 or 5. I had them carefully wrapped up in some blankets and clothes when I got busted. They are also the things that taught me you can't take something just because you want it. The dainty star shaped dishes Aughra brought with her first ever paycheck. They always reminded her that she didn't need anybody to do for her. She can manage 'very well on her own, thank you!'
The memory of My great-grandmother's cookie jar all the way up on the top of her refrigerator. So very high up. I received it complete with pre-historic cookie crumbs.

The personal tea set that Aughra used to bring tea to my poor sick Mama-san when she was a little girl.

The teapots. All of the wonderful teapots. 20 in all. They used to resided the china cabinet they are in here. Then they lived on the top of Aughra's kitchen cabinets. About 10 years ago, Aughra decided it was time to put my teapots away. It had been ten years since I saw them last but as we unpacked them I knew which one was in each newspaper wrapped bundle. I told little stories about them as we unwrapped them.

So many memories. I brought each memory to my house. I pulled them out and polished them so they would gleamed brightly in their cabinets. I told Mini-me the story behind each item. As I put my families memories away, I tell her that someday these will be her memories to keep. And whether the story showed the person it was about in a good light or bad it made them real to Mini-me. Which is so important to me.

Socks! Sock-ty Socks!

“His socks compelled one's attention without losing one's respect”~ H. H. Munro

So I appear to have a major sock problem. Some would even call it an addiction. 6 pairs of socks and 3 toys over the summer. Whew.

I started with a pair on the plane to Canada. Slalom. So pretty. The yarn (Little Freak yarns) worked loverly with the pattern. The very cool part of this pattern is that all the heel shaping is hidden in the cables that run to the bottom of your heel. I did make a small change to the pattern. My toes are in stockinette instead of reverse stockinette. My only complaint with these socks is that I must have been tense on the plane cause they are a little snug in places. As soon as Mama-san laid eyes on them, she wanted a pair. She is waiting for a skein of yarn to speak to her.

The next pair was Send a Little Cable socks. I saw my good friend, Knitty, making them at the kitchen one day and felt and over whelming need to make my own. They are a heavy sock made from Little snugs a Little Freaks worsted weight yarn. These were super quick and easy to make. I love how they turned out and I am all around happy with them. Can't waited for boot weather!

I also made Pablo over the summer. Okay. So I made a little joke whiling naming this project on Ravelry. Pablo is a classic Hispanic name and my yarn colorway is 'Can't we all just get along'. So I named these socks after the Paul Simon song Adios Hermanos. snort. I had some major knitting issues with this sock. It was all me. I just plain couldn't get it with the first sock. My 2nd sock was done in 3 days. My one thing is the cuffs want to roll. I have worn these a few times. They fit really well.

Then I revisited Bettie’s Lace Stockings for my hostess with the mostest. She saw mine when I went to the great white north and asked me pretty please. How I say no? After she let me have a sneak preview of her shop update. These were way easier the second time around. Miss Thing has a 12” calf. So after working 3 rpts of the Wide Lace I went up a needle size. I also worked another 3 rpts to the end for height. Which was kind of guess work due the the fact that the calf in question lives in Canada. They fit her and she loves them. So total win for long distance sock knitting.

Of my other three socks. One pair isn't finished. I haven't get picture for the other and I am going to post separately for the third.

I also made some toys this summer. One Woe cake for a swap. And some lovely little bears from The Knitted Teddy Bear book.
I made some notes on them but don't have them in front of me. So I will blog about these again.

CeliaAnne's Canukistan Odyssey

Our story begins with my lovely friend inviting me in February to Canada for the Olds Fiber Festival in June. I talk to the the mister about going and he agrees to send me north. YAY! Then I realized that this will be after the whole you need a passport card/passport to go to Canada or Mexico thing goes into effect. Thank you, Homeland Security. I feel so much safer.

Still no big whoop. I need a copy of my birth certificate that is embossed to renew my drivers license in October. Seriously, Homeland Security, you shouldn't have. So I go online cause the world is online anymore right? Well, not really. I found the county and state was born in no problem. I even was able to look my birth record online. I was not able to order a copy. So I tried calling the county seat they had a recording tell you to download a form and send them money for the copy but I couldn't leave a message and talk to a person. I have a problem with blindly sending money away with no proof I did. I dug around on the internet some more and found VitalChek Express. This site not only helps you order you records they get to you really fast. They are an expensive service. I feel they are worth it and give them two thumbs way up!

Next thing I did was price tickets. Yowouzer! I talked to my World Travel Papa-san about how to find cheaper tickets. He said Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, and Travelocity. So I tried each of them and got the cheapest tickets though Priceline. I was really happy at this point. Yay Priceline!(Please continue to read as my opinion of Priceline changes dramatically later.)

Having got my tickets and my birth certificate, I can now work on my passport form. Which is honestly pretty easy to fill out. Then I went to the post office to get my picture taken and order the passport.Voila! I am feeling Pretty froggy about this whole thing.

I started to research what could and could not be taken on a plane cuz sitting for three hours and not knitting? That would make me nuts. Hey guess what? YOU CAN TAKE KNITTING NEEDLES ON A PLANE and your IPOD. I was very pleased to find this out. I printed a copy of the page to take with me in case the security tried to make me toss them.

Oops! 1st Hiccup. My out bound flights were canceled. Eek! I called Priceline they assured me that I was booked on new flights. I would be getting into Calgary later though. I update my Friend. Whew! Crisis averted, Right? Right?

2nd Hiccup. My Friend has the opportunity to buy a house. Yay, her! She will be moving in around the 1st of June. So I will get to stay at her new house. SO Exciting. Seller of said house starts being flaky. Grr. The tenants of said house tear things up on their way out the door. So there will be a little remodeling. Still things are good.

The day of my flight comes. I go to my online itinerary and confirm my flights. I also printed off a copy. This was a very smart move on my part. I tell my 'bum that I would like to be there 2 hours early for check in and random craziness that always occurs. He tells me that we don't need to be there that early. We bicker bit. I let him win. So we get there and hour before my flight and try to check in. Remember up there when I asked you if the crisis had be averted? Yeah. No. I go to the check in counter of the airline I am suppose to be flying out on. They have no record of me and tell me I need to go to the original airline I was booked on before the those flights were canceled. Which is in a different terminal.

The KCI airport is set up in Hubs that are far enough apart you need to drive between them. So we go out and get into our car and go to the other Hub. We get to that airline counter. Wait in line for 10 min for them to tell me that they can't help me I will need to call priceline. So I go to a pay phone to call priceline and can get confirmation that I have tickets on the flight with the 1st airport. I couldn't get a human being to answer. This was still during normal business hours. So we go get in our car and drive back to that 1st airline counter. I get a different lady than the 1st time. I relate this entire thing to her. The very nice Delta Lady gets on the phone with priceline and gets a human. I was shocked. The over the intercom comes the boarding calls for my flight. So she calls the flight and asks them to wait. She trying to deal with priceline. She tells them that we are working under a time constraint. They are still spouting the company lines. And long drawn out story very short I missed that flight. So it comes to pass that they never booked me on replacement flights. After much begging and pleading She gets them to release my tickets to her. The next flight she can get my on is 4 hours later. Sigh. I call my friend to tell her I won't be there until 11:30.

Eventually I get on my flight to St Paul. Nothing exciting happens. Thanks the powers that be! When I get to my connecting flight from St Paul to Calgary, I find that the plane has been delayed. Apparently someone got airsick from turbulence in New York and they had to pull a seat. So I called my friend again. It will be more like 12:30. By the time I get there my eyes are so bloodshot I can't focus but my friend is there waiting.

Meanwhile my poor friend. My hostess with the mostest is having problems of her own. Things did not go as planned with the move. The house was in worst shape than she thought. But her'bum came through. The super hero that he is. He told her that he would finish the moving while she played with me. YAY, Mr. FREAK!

The next morning we went to breakfast and then on to Olds! I loved olds. It was great fun all kinds of fiber people to talk to. I got to meet the Owner of Twist of Fate yarns. She gave us a Ravelry Button to wear around. We ran into a couple of other Ravelers. I went buck wild with the yarn. A great time! Upon seeing Canada in daylight one thing struck me. They still have Lilacs. I love lilacs but they fade so fast in Missouri. Also the Poplars were pollinating. So there were tuffs of fuzzy stuff floating every where.


When we got home that night we exchanged goodies with each other. I had made her a pair of socks(those are them in the picture), a CD and a crochet hook holder thingy. I brought her girls some books. She gave a bazillion ton of goodies I got a Project Bag from Lingering Springs that I have been coveting, a rubberhoar bag, some needles, a thread cutter and some yarn. WHOOT!!

In all my trip to Canada was wonderful. Red Deer is beautiful. My Friend and her family are delightful. I can't wait to go back.

Her Red-headedness is MARRIED!!!!

My girlfriend ran away and got married to her long time beau.


To them I say:

May your mornings bring joy and your evenings bring peace.
May your troubles grow few as your blessings increase.
May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.
May your hands be forever clasped in friendship and your hearts joined forever in love.

Love ~C.

Bad Blogger! No Cookie For you!

I have slacked off on the blogging of knitting projects. so I am going to do a huge one right here. I have a serious thing for socks and sock yarn right now. I blame all the great sock designer and indy dyers for this affliction. Seriously I can't seem to make anything else.

So the 1st project you haven't heard about is a Swappy Project. I was in the Bebeh Freak's designs 1st ever swap. It was called the Hot Stuff CAL/KAL. We just stated whether we wanted mitts, socks or hats. My swappy buddy wanted sockies. I made her Rainy Day socks out of Crystal Palace Panda Cotton. She has promised me pictures of her sock clad feet but as of yet hasn't delivered. This was my 1st time using Panda Cotton. I liked it. It was not a love-at-first-sight thing, but I will use it in the future.

The 2nd Project, done but not reported, is my friend Jodi's Paper Back Novel socks. I designed this pattern based on a song by Gordan Lightfoot. Once I successfully recreate them, I will share the pattern. promise. I made these out of Little Freak yarn's littlesock. I love this yarn. LOVE!

The 3rd project is The Gardner made out of Zitron Trekking Handart. This was my 2nd pair of socks for the Spider along. These are beautiful socks with a flowery vine pattern up the front and a big spider on the back. Also had a really cool lace trim along the top. I did fiddle with the pattern a bit. I had to make the heel gusset a little bigger and I ended all the vines with buds. once again love the yarn.


4th project( I told you busy, busy), I made My Missouri Autumn Mitts for the Moma-san out of some discontinued Knitpicks sock yarn. I am selling this pattern for $5,if you are interested in it.


My 5th project is a hostess gift for Missy Jodi. She is letting me stay at her home while I feed my yarn addiction at a fiber festival in Canada. It however is a secret. So I am not tell you about it.

My 6th project is Bettie's Lace Stockings in Littlefreaks Yarns. Did I mention I love this yarn? Anyhoo. This pattern was in Interweave Knits, Spring 2009. I like the finished product a lot. I had problems with the pattern through. My calves are apparently shapelier than the designer's. Once I got up to the larger lace pattern and worked 3 repeats I had to go up another needle size and then again after 3 more repeats. Still I like them and will make another pair for a friend.

My 7th unreported project was my 1st ever Cookie A. Sock, Monkey published in this really cool online mag, Knitty. I made Monkey out of Pagewood Farms yarn. Again had to fiddle a bit. This it was because my friend Rosemary is very statuesque and needs more to stand on than us under 6 ft. However the pattern was easy to memorize and was fun. This gives me hope for some of Cookies more challenging patterns.

Currently I have sock for Mini-me and a tank on the needles. Whew! Finally caught up. I will try to post projects as I finish them in the future.

Real or Memorex?

So everybody has heard me refer to my loin fruit as Mini-me. Here is why:


One of those is me. One is Mini-me. Scary, huh?

Handmade Heritage-Maternal

It is late afternoon here, slowly creeping in to night and I am musing about my heritage. I grew-up in a very crafty family. Both sides of my family are really into handwork. From Crewl embroidery to crochet/knitting to Quill work. So I decided to share my thoughts on the two sides of my family. I will start with Mama-san's side. Recently, Aughra has decided that congestive heart failure really does mean she may not survive it and has started clean out her house. I received two precious objects from her recently. One is the first ever piece of knitting she ever did.

Aughra made this little cream (white?) sweater for my uncle when he was born. We are talking 1949 or so. It has been a little moth-eaten since the time it was worn by her little boy and is an awkward little thing. 60 some-odd years ago someone (her mother-in-law so the story goes) told Aughra that she couldn't knit and she would never be able to keep a house. The knitter in question is a very stubborn woman. Nobody tells her what she can or can't do. So she taught herself to knit. This sweater has a wrap type closure with crocheted trim around the neck. There is some dissension as to whether or not it is worked in acrylic yarn. Mama-san believes that it is acrylic based on Aughra's social class at the time. I don't know of any moths that eat acrylic.

The 2nd item is also made for my uncle when he was a toddler. This navy sweater has color work on it. She worked the nursery rhyme 'Hey diddle diddle' on it. There is a little grey cat playing the fiddle, a dog with his tongue lolling out in a happy smile and a cow jumping over a red moon. You can see on the cow where it has been stained by baby food. This sweater has no moth holes in it. So I am certain this one is made of acrylic.

I love handmade things. They represent time to me. When we make something for someone specific, we think about them during the time we spend on it. If it's for our soon-to-be child, our hope and dreams are work in to the object as we go. These little sweaters were made by a young mother deeply in love with the man of her dreams and are full of love for her 'Sunshine'.

As I was growing up, my hands always had to be busy. It was a rule in Aughra's house. Idle hands and what not. Mama-san and Aughra have always had something crafty going on. When I was very little, we were always working on something for the Church bazaar. Then Aughra decided to build a miniature town in her basement. Mama-san and her had an interior decorating business once. Always busy there. And as we go through her house all these ventures surface. Such good memories.

Freaky Socks!

I got some wondrous yarn from LittleFreak yarns named Celia. Yep! you heard right. Celia! cackles Let me introduce you to my Twisted Freak socks. I had the best time makes these socks. The pattern is Twisted Hourglass by Robin Griffiths At first the charts were eye-crossing but after about an inch or so I got my groove on. These are my favorite socks right now. I love the yarn so much that I now have 3 more skeins in my stash. LOVE!
Note: I have updated my Mitts pattern. It is published and up for sale. I am selling it at an introductory price for the month of February

Updates!

I just updated some stuff on my blog. There is some new stuff to behold. One Of my Favorite people just opened her OLYS Little Freaks Yarn. Check out the link down in my yarn candy. Also I have added a link to my new ArtFire Shop. The shelves are a little sparse. I am still adding stuff to it. And have I mentioned how much Ravelry rocks recently? No? Well let me tell you Casey And Frecklegirl are awesome. They gave me linkys to my patterns. So now there are cool links to PDFs of my stuff.

December is super busy as you all know so that is all for now!

THE GREATEST SOCCER PLAYER in my Life

I promised pictures of my Soccer Star. Here they are. This photos are mainly from the game when she was in the goalie position. She really seems to enjoy soccer. I admire her so for being athletic. I am so not. I can't run across a flat paved surface without falling down and really messing up my arm but this is about her. Last spring she played indoor soccer and was thrilled with goalie. This time her team was too good and the goalie never had much to do. So it was super boring. Even with all that talent and skill, her team didn't have a winning season. The other teams were just too good. but that's fine she had great fun and they gave her a throphy at the end. As I think all females will agree, a lot of bad can be erased with something shiny. So Ends soccer until spring? Maybe? Sigh. Girl Scout Cookies anyone?