My wild week end

my other stitch marker buddy Marga sent me all of the above and all i could do was just marvel at it all. she seriously spoiled me the kids loved it as each one of them found something in my box of goodies to pack off with :)
mike took the tooth brush cover( i accidentally threw out his tooth brush last week when cleaning the bathroom ) this cover will help me identify the new one i have to buy him this week LOL
Laura grabbed the green frog right away loaded it up and began to squirt her brother who in defence grabbed the bubble gun and went after her. he is 12 she is 14 years old what can i say. Mandy arrived much later and took off with the lamb eraser and the little brown dog. oh yea mike got the Vermont candy and left the kids the m&ms to share.
i got alot of awesome things well needed i might add.
the stitch markers of course very beautiful and the wonderful accessory bag that i can sure use for the dp's i pack along was just thinking of that too... looking at bags to move into so i can carry them in something other then a zippie which i do swear by.
and of course the lamb pattern holder i was just thinking what in the world could i do about making my patterns stand up when knitting and watching tv. this fit the bill totally :)
and then the ball of yarn by Paton's wow i showed mike right away. said look i got some yarn i can make your clogs now . he likes the colors and was very happy that i can do that now. i had some black left over for the bottoms but ran out of the yarn for the uppers . i would have to ordered more yarn on line for his clogs but there it was . right colors and all.
and she sent me this tin with a see through lid. i had just been thinking you know if i could find a tin with a see through lid i could put my stitch markers in that and see them right off. and there it was.
i even managed to take off with the tiny note book before all the kids did LOL tucked it into my knitting bag always looking for tiny note books . thanks Marga for all the goodies it was a most wonderful treat :)

clogs clogs and more clogs this pair is for me. yep hubby got tired of me taking off with his didn't take long for that to happen so i dragged out my stash and had just enough green to do one pair decided to use black for the bottoms of any i make this is a before felting picture .
Mandy pie and i decided to go for a very long walk. and it was too. this is i swear the only mail box in town that is so colorful so Mandy stepped in front of it for a photo. anyone that knows her knows from this picture she has grown alot this year .

we took our time not to many sunny days in this neck of the woods so not only is this the 3rd walk i took yesterday but we went from store to store and just looked and looked and looked . took us well over an hour to finally say ok head home. one stop at Mc Donald's for a drink and fries and we were off up the hill to home when we ran into ..........

the guard dog!

yep the shoe store is closed and here is there guard dog we had to stop and get a shot of this one. see Mandy has a dog just like this one but with all white with black spots name of Haley and when she comes to spend the week end so does Haley my dogs think she is there puppy LOL
and lastly here is an areal shot of my neck of the woods all the white you see surrounding my town is glaciers nothing but fields and fields of ice. global warming ? not here not hardly LOL i am located just about smack dab in the middle of this on the coast line where the yellow line is this is a picture of the proposed road into Juneau connecting us with the rest of the world by road. so far since we began we have been land locked. no way in or out except by boat or plane.

meanwhile i am struggling with casting on the second sock yep i cant begin to tell you how many times i have cast it on knit a row and then figured out i did the pattern wrong LOL i wont give up but i may put it off until tomorrow when no one is here i keep getting distracted . today Mandy wants to make stitch markers so we will spend some time doing that. while Timmy plays x box and Laura chats on line with all her friends. and mike runs out with his buddies to work on his suntan LOL

here is a link to a really good news letter i got today in email well worth a look see i think http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976965244

all about festivals happening all over the place down south from here knitting and fiber fests . look so wonderful wish i could go. sighssssss oh well you know every time i see something like this i think yea maybe i should try to begin something like this here ya never know . would have to convince some of the higher ups that it would be a good thing LOL now there is a wall for you. a mile thick. shhhh ok am out of here need more coffee

Dish Cloth Pattern Hand Written By Heather

given to me in a hurry on a piece of paper many years ago. By a young lady i met. Many times back then this is how knitting patterns made it around. since for years we didn't have the net or even a local yarn store. and mailing out for yarn or patterns or books or supplies was near impossible as i mentioned before Alaska for years was off and on the list for over seas foreign mail making getting much up here near impossible due to cost for the common person that is . Heather signed the note and left me her phone number which i cut off of this copy. I lovingly carried this note around for years in all my knitting books of special patterns :) I would estimate this note at being close to 20 years old.

stich markers G-Girl sent me and the sock i finished

these are so pretty G-Girl sent me these along with the beautiful green stitch markers she made me and the pretty 4 leaf clover beads i turned into stitch markers of course. Thanks G- Girl so much.

OK i said tomorrow but i couldn't wait on the side is a slide show of my yarn stash in there you can find the yellow yarn i talked about earlier.

and with that i am going to bed . have to take hubby to the air port in a few hours :)

zip lock bags aka zippies & me Percy pack rats sister LOL

I am not to sure how many middle names i do have but one of them is pack rat. sister to Percy pack rat i guess.
i have yarn here that out dates my first wedding anniversary just two skein's mind you but hey still pre- dates my wedding anniversary LOL lovingly kept in old sandwich bags and then eventually transferred to zippies. good heavy duty zippies i swear there a knitters best friend. everything goes into those at the beginning of a project. oh yea getting ahead of myself there before i tell you how i pack my knitting bag let me tell you more about the two skein's of yarn.

my first grandchild was on his way. back before we knew he was a baby boy now a 23 year old brat. anyway i bought this lovely cotton yarn in yellow...a fingerling yarn. and sat and crocheted him a beautiful dress. and then here comes mike my grandson and last child still at home . lucky for me i had this friend here who had just had this baby girl so i gave her the dress and kept the left over two skiens of yarn. which surfaces once in awhile for me to lovingly remember that baby dress i made oh so long ago. well it surfaced about a week ago for some reason these two skeins of yarn have just not stayed with the rest of the yarn in my yarn stash. and mike was home so i said hey look at this mike ! and i told him the story about the dress. he looked at me like i lost it totally and then i lost the yarn again LOL it surfed off again and resurfaced tonight in the quilting material cupboard. all i can do is smile.
and now its going to be used in some nice projects and of course i will knit up a swatch of it to go in mikes baby book of photos of him and his son:)

ok how i pack my knitting bag & and why would you really want to know ? LOL
for some reason i felt i had to tell you so here goes. and since i typed it all up no reason to hit delete LOL so...... sufferrrrrrrrr ..................

A 1 or 2 gallon zippie for the whole project of the day.
several smaller freezer Zippies cause there the good heavy duty ones
carry the supplies i know i will need. such as measuring tape. row counter. yarn cutter, pencil paper, stitch markers and of course any possible needles i may need.
another one holds the yarn i will use easy enough to pull that end out of the zippie
and all of it goes into either the one gallon zippie or if i need a larger one i have two gallon zippies. along with the pattern of course

and yes i do have knitting bags. but living in Alaska has taught me one thing always make sure everything that goes in that bag is water proof. no matter what it is cause you just never know. i have actually taken projects out on skiffs for the day while hubby fished i knit. or very rarely crocheted.
watched whales out there or seals and the fish swim by while the sun pounded down on us and i knit through the whole thing. i remember one time when we were out on the skiff sitting there watching in totally panic as this killer whale swam right straight for the skiff i thought he was going to ram us he stared right at me and all i could do was hug my knitting project close and try not to catch fish with my open mouth. LOL last min he dove under the skiff . i have dragged my knitting everywhere here. camping hiking fishing and just off to the beach. i swear when little people pack off with there woobies this grandma packs off with her knitting . same things i think. yep mine is definitely a security blanket kind of thing at times LOL

once a skein of yarn gets to a certain stage of being used up. and is sitting rather flat and can be squeezed to flatness with out effort i rewind it using what i call my magic wand stick and then put into zippies for further use.

if it was small enough like sock yarn to begin with it goes into either a zippie to begin with or into a plastic see through box i get from Costco baking department with cookies in them save the box eat the cookies LOL
my stash of yarn is growing . its in a cupboard now taking up the whole thing plus and box i got my heater in from Costco and a knitting bag sitting at the end of my bed and in see through cookie boxes stacked up on the stair way to the attic. and i am getting ready one more time to think seriously of moving things around maybe setting up the knitting differently.
until then here is my stash.
notes : the box of yarn is mostly wool some nice lady gave my hubby for free in a yard sale. lots and lots of it in there. she took good care of it too. and it made it through allot of smoke from the church fire here all in a huge garbage bag .
and now its making its way into project after project.
and then i got this huge huge box of yarn given to me by a wonderful and dear friend i have known on line for years who lives in Hawaii she was getting rid of all her yarn sent me a box full of yarn beautiful stuff. i shall find good uses for :)

oh yea and the magic sock box. i was telling G- Girl about that box in email tonight. thought i would tell you about it too.
i found this really large recipe box in a yard sale many years ago its wooden and had files in it for those large cards and tons of room for all my sock knitting supplies which i kept in there for years. when i moved everything out of it and into a binder sort of keeper bag for all my supplies. i went through the card files and found allot of things like cards with sizes on them for my now 28 year old son when he was 9 and of course mike when he was 5 and 6 years old. and i found a hand written pattern for a hat i love to make all the time don't for the life of me know where i got the pattern originally but i wrote it all out by hand . and tucked in there also was this one pattern that has along with the hat pattern made it to all the major knitting books i have dragged around as this is my staple book sort of thing. this tiny piece of paper with a dish cloth pattern on it. that was had written down for me by this lady who said this is easy try it out. i never did and i intend to now. for the April shower along . yep going to get that out and knit one up see what that is about .
one never knows.
ok this is to long photos tomorrow . i got a few i have to take then too . so well add those then.
time for me to go to bed . hug a pillow and a skien of yarn :)

Bomb socks ? ugh not another manic week end

all i can do is laugh if i don't i will soon find myself totally insanely crying my eyes out.
what will happen around here next.
lets see before i relate this one to you.
so far this winter we have had
1. the dive bombing eagle carrying a deer head that took out an electric pole and took out our elec for a while.
2. the 200 inches of snow or more that did in my patio in places as well as a ton of fences and other things in town
3. the moose that took down a helicopter in a city not to far from ours like 50 miles
4 the fire up the road that took out and apartment building
5. oh yea and the cops and beaters chase through the neighbor hood when two i cant call them ladies tried to beat another lady who ran into a bank for shelter but they just kept grabbing her trying to beat and rob her so she ran up the street cops got one guy on the ground right outside my house with rifles pointed at him. wrong person wrong person wasn't a guy that was the perp was two idiot women on some thing i bet but not men or boys

awe and now the latest one
a bomb scare
some idiot left a back pack under a 6,000 gallon drum of oil (heating fuel tank ) right outside and behind the court house here. just two blocks from me they shut the whole neighborhood down for 7 hours .
we were taking Timmy's found birthday gift to him when we went past all the cops and barricades thinking oh there getting ready for a rally outside the court house and the state legs building. no way . and then when we got to the govs mansion and more road blocks the radio was screaming the news to us and we were amazed found ourselves on a one way trip for along while because we could get out but getting home was a whole different story. our grandson mike tried desperately to get home he was pretty worried about us and was refused entry to the area. even when he said i live there. it was sorry no go they told him he could walk the long long way around and he thought no way so he stayed where he was.
what really got me was we left the dogs and one cat at home. and were not in the least prepared to evacuate for nothing. i had one sock project in my knitting bag and that was it the new 160 gig external hard disk drive i had was hooked up the PC downloading all the information i wanted off the pc to it. and wouldn't be done for a few hours. ughhhhhhhhh.
if anything had blown up for real our kids would have told us we couldn't continue to live in the down town area we would more then likely be told to move to the valley LOL
you know its times like this my knitting comes in handy keeps me sane totally. as it is i finished one sock and am working now on the very first row of its match.
i did spend the better part of today working on locating all redundant pics and taking them off the storage unit i have. so i will have more room for more pictures .
i am thinking i should come up with two sock patterns one should be called fire socks and the other one bomb socks LOL maybe wild animals of alaska dedicated to the moose and eagle LOL oh yea and i hear tell there is a wolf out the road taking small dogs like i said what next ...........
yea i am like so cross eyed from looking at pictures for days now and so being driven slowly mad from the insane life around me LOL
i will take a photo of the one lone sock later and post it tomorrow . going to my daughters here again soon for a couple of hours all this insanity may as well leave the neighborhood for a bit gesh some people sure do get bad cases of cabin fever LOL

mandy pie & sweater , plus easter ,& winters end

i think i walked into a house where everyone there was very tired out. something to do with a birthday party sleep over and staying up until 5 am. that was enough to put Timmy on the couch in sleep mode until dinner and mike on the carpet in front of the TV sleeping away too for his own excuses not to far off from the others. those of us with any energy. put eggs together for the big Easter egg hunt . but peaches had a tough one going there with all the snow still outside there was no place safe to hide anything. so the egg hunt happened in doors. Mandy pie found all the peeps LOL i had no clue what a peep was just never paid attention to them until this year when they came up on get stitchy in the form of u tube shows. so when i saw Mandy pies peeps i had fun grabbing one up and running to the kitchen and stuffing it onto a plate and into the microwave for one min which was the smallest amount of time i could get on peaches microwave. know i too know what peeps do in microwaves. LOL my son in law was standing behind me and he couldn't believe what he saw either. so i grabbed another because the kids hadn't seen yet and they squealed and laughed and couldn't believe what they saw too. and then peaches said if that blows up your going to clean it . hummmmmmm.........not a problem........... don't worry.......... it didn't ........... and that was it ... Laura got on line with her buddies and they were all over the Internet looking at the peep shows on u tube. having a blast . so the peep shows came to our town LOL maybe a few years late. but even we got in on the fun this year.

i got my stitch markers from G-Girl in the mail there just lovely totally and she sent me some other beads to use for anything i wanted along with . i still have to take pictures of it all so i can share those.

i sent out my stitch markers ( surprise not telling what else ) to her today she should get that in a week.

and i sent out my stitch markers to the other gal today too.

hubby had fun at the yarn store shopping and fun at the grocery store too, shopping we talked about this stitch marker thing he really got into it so said ok hon you can do this one once a year only because he doesnt want to be left out. he had way way to much fun LOL and i am leaving it at that i am also limited from here on out to one stitch marker exchange buddy at a time. so my next stitch marker exchange that i can get invloved in may be this coming christmas or could be next easter. we will see. and it will depend on who is throwing one around that time .

meanwhile i am still knitting on this sock here got it to the toe and realized i had gone to far so its alittle to long so frogged back a few inches to make it right. once done with this i have the other one to do.

its been a real struggle with this knitting socks with real sock yarn and someone else's pattern other then plain but hey well worth it. and of course i changed it to suit me i don't like socks that come above my ankle because they tend to fall down and bunch up so i always knit ankle length to begin with . so these while same in the exact pattern are ankle length of course.

reminds me of the time i first learned how to knit socks took me a month to figure out the pattern. that is just about how long its taken me to figure out this one LOL so it feels but its worth it. allot of it is the constant frogging. one of those ugh another mistake oh goodie rip rip rip. nothing like do overs. LOL

but i am so so close to the end of this first one. so so close.

oh yea and DA Egg didn't make it . the gal who brought in the lovely pillow at the end and was asked to put a bird in the middle won. sigh oh well. easy come easy go. i had fun that is what counts. i haven't gotten the egg back yet still have to ask when that is happening. not worried about it i will stop in and ask soon again. just not today.

this past week found us with tons of rain and warmer weather. so once we step outside the whole world seems so ugly right now. at least out neck of the woods is . i cant begin to tell you about the amount of serious clean up that i have to do out there this year. its simply awful. allot of trash blew into our yard this winter i know people don't walk around here dumping stuff i know it blows in. and the amount of dog pooh. well i know it wasn't all my dogs it sure is a ton. and i know that fence we talked about is seriously going in this coming summer to end that right now. LOL

so hubby has today off and i hope he isn't thinking of running a muck cause i want to clean that front yard up best i can. rake all that trash and ugh yuk away. so it isn't depressing to walk past the front door.

and that way i can enjoy looking at the pretty rhubarb peeking through the ground.

oh yea and we have some repair work to do on our patio some of the beams hold it up didn't make it through the heavy amount of snow fall so the patio is off limits until that is repaired.

oh well there is always the beach.

to run or not to run

omg i get up this am and am working on Mandy pies sweater got the heart done in the back the one hangs off the hood. was busy beading it and the dog next door begins to bark and bark and bark and bark and bark. and driving me nuts i was thinking of going next door and telling them to please do something but left it alone figured something isn't right. well know soon enough. sure was right. next thing i know knitting is thrown down and i am heading for my cloths grabbing as fast as i can getting dressed shoes and all as i run for the front door. not one fire truck but three go Zooming by screeching all the way. and around the corner and down the street up the hill they go. by this time i have my coat on my hat my cell phone in hand my dogs are going nuts my cat is sitting in the recliner taking note of everything looking at me with this mom what is going on look. and i step out and look up the hill and see this wall of black smoke billowing up into the sky. and think omg am i going to have to grab and run again. or what. they reported they sent some 15 units up there before they were done. i lost count was to nervious.

see just about a year back the Church across the street from me went up in flames and they had to come in and grab everyone from this area including me hubby and the dogs and get us all out.

the year before that i ran again from another fire that was down the street took out a mini mall

so i was thinking what do i grab and where the heck do i go since i was doing the alone at home thing today. and wouldn't you know i couldn't get anyone in the family on any phone they had to pick up so i could let them all know what was going on.

figured even if i had they wouldn't be able to reach me for about 30 Min's so the dogs and i would have to stuff the cat in the knitting bag and run. keep calling until we got someone to pick us up.

well we didn't have to run. thank god but i sure feel for the people that got burned out. it was an apartment building .

"Remodeling crews who happened to be working in a nearby building took their ladders to the burning apartment and helped people escape from the third floor, witnesses said"

i heard people were jumping out of windows 20 to 30 feet up so i think these remodeling crews are hero's if you ask me. my daughter sent me the photo later after she heard about the fire and called me frantically trying to see if i needed rescuing again last time she couldn't even get near the house to grab me up it was horrible.

my grandsons buddy had an apartment up there said he is ok called mike to let him know said he lost everything in that fire.

as you can see took me all of today to calm down and now that i am if i do knit its going to be very little
i can still smell the smoke in the air.
ok think knit purl knit purl hey this is better then counting sheep. knit purl knit purl :)

cracking the code and my ship came in :)

ok ok first i show off my shopping on line items and then i talk about socks and patterns
oh i tell you i was so so happy to see all this over this week end and today.

knitting on the road
a simply Divine sock book

sock it to me guide
something to stuff in my sock bag for when i am trying to make socks someone Else's size

two skeins of sock yarn # must buy two more of same though

and of course two each of size 1,2&3's circular needles in size 24 inch i think so i can knit two socks at one time of course :) i am like so so tickled pink.

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first thing i did of course when knitting on the road came in was pick out a pattern and cast on. got the cuff done and then one round and poof totally lost. until last night i couldn't crack that pattern code to save my life. finally gave up went on line to i don't remember where and one of the sites said vogue knitting book explained the tbl my mind said oh goodie i have that book. dug through my book shelf of all my knitting books and found it and hunted it down. i was getting the original tbl for the first round but the second round was just going over my head. and i was so so tired of tearing everything apart to the cuff and beginning again and again and again. but i am and always have been determined. so when i saw the explanation complete with pictures i was in heaven. just totally glad i got that code cracked. and now have about two inches of that sock knit up .
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meanwhile G-Girl my stitch swapping buddy on line and i have struck up an email conversation about socks LOL
she is testing the waters same as me but doing i think she said toe up sounds like and exercise huh well its actually a style of knitting socks if you don't know .
i had been thinking of how many ways one can actually knit socks
1. socks knit on dp's
2. knit on one circular
3. knit on two circulars
4. knit on a magic loop
5. knit on a loom
6. knit on a sock knitting machine
7. knit on a knitting machine flat
8. knit flat by hand

and then there are styles
socks knit regular style
socks knit ankle length
socks knit low low ankle length or bootie socks
socks knit for sandals
socks knit knee high
socks knit thigh high
socks knit with toes
socks knit with a re knit able bottom

and the other styles
socks knit toe up
socks knit from cuff down the traditional socks
socks knit from side to side
socks knit in awesomely wonderful patterns

awe the wonderful secret life of socks . and i bet there are more ways too just
haven't discovered them all
only ones i have done so far is ankle traditional, dp's one circular and two circular socks

ok hubby is off today so we have run around had breakfast out of course and bought this dresser with a mirror for the frontroom at a motel hotel here that is putting in all new furniture. price was right $20.00 was hoping for a little bit bigger one to go behind the small couch so my grandson could get out of my baking drawers i think laura would like that but we didnt get to the sale in time kept going past it everyday. oh well she has 36 more rooms to go through.
one can never have to many dressers LOL