Its the first day of school. Middleson had a difficult time falling to sleep last night and was very nervous this morning. He started middle school which includes a 10 mile bus ride each way. My heart is with him today. He is a brilliant child and school is good for him. Socially he has many problems. He has aspergers and this makes him seem very strange to his peers. My social life at that age was not the greatest either and I had no disorder making me strange but still I can relate to him. Child of Clay on the other hand was off to high school without a backwards glance.

I have found some inspiration. I moved the telly into my room, sorted yarn and got things ready to roll. I cast on the beret in this photo and found the pattern not detailed enough. I like diagrams and pictures of different angles. this one needs all of the above. This is from Hats a Knitters Dozen that I purchased some time ago.

I love hat and bags. These are 2 of my favorite things to knit. Since I got lost somewhere in the above pattern I cast on another snowball hat in mulled wine highland peruvian wool from knit picks. This is a fun hat to knit and not at all difficult. I made one last year for COC and she has misplaced it and requested another. This inspired me to pick up the baby bolero that is in my WIP wrestling. I am going to attempt to finish that today.

Now for a tradition of sorts. I always take picture of my kids on their first day of school. I hadn’t considered this a tradition, simply something I do. When they were littler I would take them to school and get photos in the classroom. COC was less than thrilled with the whole photo op this morning.

Does anyone know anything about CSS? Or where to find good info on it?

missing mojo

I am at a horrible place right now. I have no interest in knitting. I am forcing myself because of ravelympics. Not only do I not have interest I am making  horrible mistakes that have to be frogged and fixed.

I strung  beads on some wildfoote I have had forever and will never make socks out of. I would like to make the purse like Robins only larger. (btw way Robin, wish you could have listened on the phone last night as my best friend opened her gift to find the bag I bought from you. She is in love with it) Now I cannot justify knitting this mini bag until I finish my other projects. Any ideas on how to get my mojo back? I think I am going to move to my bedroom to knit where its peaceful. Maybe that will help.

Family facts…

here is how it is. My oldest brother is 23 years older than me. then there are 2 sisters 21 and 22 years older than me. Mom took a break for 6 years and had my brother, another 6 1/2 year break and another sister, then 7 years later there was me. My dad died when I was 12 (suicide) Mom remarried when I was 15 to the man in the picture whom I refer to as my dad. (he has put up with enough he deserves the respect of the title) So my mom has 6 kids, 16 grandkids and 15 great grandkids. Of the grandkids my nearest sister and I have 10 of them. If all that is not confusing enough I married an older man with adult children. His son in law is the same age as me and it just gets worse. But I am blessed, as Suzanne stated in her comment, to have a loving family for the most part. My one sister is a bit of a grudge carrier. Hasn’t spoke to me in over a year. I called at Christmas to apologize and she didn’t accept it. I think all families are strange in some way. I was sure my husbands family was much more normal than mine. Almost 7 years of marriage have wiped out that myth.

My Ravelympics WIP wrestling list

3 dishcloths, 1 pair of socks (almost done) 1 hat (ravelry link) and 1 baby sweater. Somebody motivate me please! My team is counting on me!

Birthday party

My family has all headed home which is always sad for me. I don’t get to see my siblings enough.  I love being able to hear about their lives and listen to them reminisce about childhood.  Since I was born so late in moms life they have very different accounts than I do.

Here is the birthday girl……

We had a nice time at the park. Very simple food and room for children to play. My sister and sil both loved their purses. I asked them to post with them which turned into an ordeal. As they tried to decide which way to stand and how to pose my brother commented that I should come back in a few days when they were ready. Here they are trying to get it together while my brother looks on.

Now one of them posed. They seemed excited to be on the internet and I promised to change the names to protect the innocent so we will call the shorter one Zelda (my brother’s humor) and the other one is my sister Peggy.

Don’t they look good? Zelda is 54 and Peggy will be 65 next month. They are not your average senior citizens.

Ravelympics update: still slow going. There is a reason these projects were still in progress.

Here is a link to check out. These cable necklaces are very cool and the videos interesting to watch.

Packages go out today!  This has been so fun! I am thinking of doing another one with the entries being a tiny knitted item for my tree……whaddayou think?

Pins and needles

It’s time to announce the winners! I must say I have visited many new blogs from many visitors and you are all winners! Unfortunately I only have 4 prizes.

The Zen Yarn Garden goes to SunsetKnitter

The twisted sisters will head to blogless Purple.

Katherine gets to try out the AMAIZing

Turtle you can pick a sweater of your choice!

I need addresses from you all and I hope to mail everything by Friday! I hope that all of you will be back to visit again. I will visit all of you as time allows.

rannells (at) gmail dot com

One more day!

I was reading Tammyknits and I so totally agree with her on WIP wrestling. I am forcing myself to keep going so I don’t let my team down. I finished one of Jasbo’s socks last night. Yep a sock. A worsted weight sock on 4mm needles but a sock none the less. I really struggle with the kitchener stitch at the toes. Mine never looks good. Maybe that is why I get discouraged with socks.

Tomorrow is the big day! I will try to announce the winners but I doubt anything will be mailed till later this week. One of my sisters arrived from Abilene on Sunday and my brother from Idaho made it in yesterday. My other brother will be here in the morning and it’s party time. (picture people sitting around a table, talking and laughing, nothing to strenuous)

Now about that yarn…I started with Lily Sugar and Cream in white and the dye is Jacquard. The rasberry color is the procion that I bought for tie dying. I was planning to buy more and get enough for a party but didn’t follow through before the store on Amazon closed. I ended up buying  a kit  also by jacquard but the dye in it is not as vivid. I redyed the purply part 3 times. I was disappointed that it kept rinsing out and  wishing I had more of the procion. I basically took the  yarn and wound in on my knitty knotty made from pvc. I started by putting just a bit each of it in the 2 dyes in a large glasses and kept feeding more in hoping for a graduated effect. I am thinking I need to buy a  pound spool of white and try again. Imagine the possibilities……..

Thank you all for your wonderful comments. This contest has been fun and I have “met” some really nice knitters on the net!

Now back to the house cleaning so I can wrestle those WIP’s

hand dyed?

I joined up for dishrag tag and wanted to find some really different yarn to send on to the person I tag.  I think the companies need to make some new colors since I was unable to find anything that really caught my eye. I was searching through my own stash and found some WHITE and since I like dying yarn I decided to make something myself.

I was inspired by these:

And this is the result:

Not exactly the same but still very nice!

Here is my first WIP wrestling fo:

I know I was going to post photos of 2 finished bags but they are gifts and I am hoping to take photos today of my sister and sister in law with their new bags. So instead I leave you with this…….

aaaaaaaaaaah!

That is my word for today. I am totally overwhelmed. I should be knitting but…life is getting in the way. My son came for a visit which is great! My sister will be at mom’s tomorrow (all the way from Abilene), my brother will be there Monday (from Moscow ID) and someone well meaning ladies gave me 2 coolers full of frozen apricots, cherries and plums to make jelly with. I am in the process of defrosting the freezer to attempt to fit it all in there! My house is trashed and I should be  cleaning knitting. As a matter of fact knitting sounds really good right now.

Tomorrow’s post:

2 finished bags, 1 pair slipper socks and some hand dyed dishcloth yarn!

For todays comment……what is overwhelming you today?

shopped till I dropped.

Yesterday was my monthly trip to the city for supplies. This always seems like such a great idea till the day is over and I am trying to put away $250 of groceries from Cosco. I go with my parents to do this and that is good and bad. Always good to spend time with them and at their ages the days are numbered we get together. Yesterday was going to be girls day out. Mom, me and Child of Clay. I ended up taking Jasbo too!

We started out at Ross. What a great place to get school clothes. My boys don’t ever need as many as CoC. She is starting high school this year and that makes it more important than ever to have “clothes”. She is a good little shopper and very thrifty. We spent $138 and got for her:3 pairs of jeans, a top and a zip up hoodie, for middle son: socks, underwear, shoes and a cool billabong shirt, and Jasbo got shoes, socks and underwear, I got some of those magazine stored boxes in hot pink for my knitting mags. I think we did really well!

I was dissapointed that I missed out on any craft/knitting stores but I spent my money at Sally Beauty Supply. Now if I could have one or two people need a highlight done I could recoup and shop online.

The contest is also doing well. If you are doing one yourself and want to increase traffic try this http://wiknit.blogspot.com/ (Thanks Abigail!) I have been deluged with sudden comments. Perhaps new friendships will be formed from this.

I wrote a nice little post yesterday and published it but apparently wordpress ate it as it is gone. I was telling you all about my insanity. I have been sweating perspiring at an alarming rate even at night and having these weird mood swings. I cannot seem to handle chaos at all. I was telling a friend about this and she told me I was having menopause. What? I am only 42 with a preschooler at home. This can’t be true. But alas, I think it is. I am not a bit happy about this but ,sigh, what can a gal do? I am going to see a Dr. and see if I can get a little help with this. I HATE the thought of taking hormones but I may have to. I want to check out natural alternatives but since I am on antidepressants I will see what the Dr. orders.

Today, it’s a parade.

When I was a kid I always wanted to be in a parade. I wasn’t one of those children who did 4H, girl scouts or any fun club activity that would land me in a parade. I was the child who watched from the sidelines to scared to try, wishing it was me. I was the child in hand me down clothes that everyone laughed at and teased. It’s strange how that sort of thing stays with you your whole life. I still struggle at times in groups situations, wondering if I belong or not. My daughter on the other hand is the opposite. Oh she has had some teasing over the years but at age 14 she has really come into her own. She has faith in the Lord and had some awesome training by a youth pastor a year ago. She is so funny. She is the biggest klutz (gets that from me) and has learned to laugh at herself because of this. Her confidence comes in knowing who HE has made her and that HE has plans for her. I often think that I get to watch her live the life I so desired. By the time I was her age it was not good in my life. My dad committed suicide when I was 12 and my mom really lost it for a while. She was clueless as to what I was doing and I was into drugs, alcohol and trouble. I know deep inside I longed to be one of the “good” kids and although I had accepted the Lord at age 12 I really had no one to teach me how to grow and become what He desired. I believed I couldn’t be good enough for God to love me and that I was bound for eternal damnation. I know now that I had to go through all that I did in order to become the person I am today. The person I am today relies on God to help me raise my children so they might in turn serve him. Funny how this post came about. Today is our parade for the BHC fair and my daughter will be waiving from a convertible as a princess. I feel very proud as the driver of her car and her mom because I know what she said at the Princess competition. She was asked (did I tell you this already? sorry if I did its just on my mind) what she would change about herself if she could change anything…she didn’t say to be thinner or smarter or more popular. She stated that she wished she loved people more, that “the world doesn’t revolve around me, it revolves around the son and the son is Jesus our savior”
I hope I am not letting my pride get the best of me but I am very proud of her. She is a typical 14 year old and far from perfect (last night she was pouting because I didn’t trust her enough to go to the dance-how do you explain it’s not her it’s the drunk cowboys that you don’t trust?) her room is usually on the verge of being condemned and her music drives me nuts (Christian screamo? isn’t that an oxymoron?) But today I am going to enjoy her moment in the parade knowing Christ brought us to this place.

So today it’s a parade, in ten years maybe she will be speaking at Women of Faith (her dream and what she feels is her calling) or maybe not. Whatever comes I want to enjoy each moment as a gift from the Lord. Have a great day everyone! ( I forgot to mention she doesn’t want to be in the parade, she entered the contest at my urging, hoping to win so she could pay off her text messaging bill)

August 1st

I read Tammy’s post this morning and it made me smile. Surprises, they don’t always turn out do they? I am a hard person to surprise. Here’s another unusual fact…I peek in Christmas packages. I do this for more than one reason. First off I can’t stand not knowing what is in those packages, even my kids gifts from other people can make me sneak a peak. Sad isn’t it. I justify this with the fact that I can act happy at a gift that is not what I was expecting. My darling husband, bless his heart, is a terrible shopper. Poor guy hasn’t got a clue and yet his heart is bigger than Texas. Christmas before last he got me a lamp. An ugly lamp that is adjustable so that my light isn’t in his eyes when I read in bed (and no I am not always aware that I read with one eye closed) I have given him lists and yet he doesn’t shop off of them. I think he is a bit ADD and looses the lists!

There was this one really nice yet scary surprise he gave me. At the beginning of our Sunday School we meet in the sanctuary to sing and share. There is a time for memory verses and a time for testimonies. My dh proposed to me during this. Yep! Good thing I wanted to marry him!

Another unusual thing is that my first child was very large. My sister and I were pregnant together and due 2 weeks apart. I went over my due date and so did she . Her dh called on June 28th to tell us they had a 10 pound boy. I said ” I sure am glad I aint having a 10 pound baby”. On the 30th I had my boy…yep 10 pound 4 ounces. Just shows you should be careful what you say.

Here are our boys recently.

My long haired boy. his hair is at least 4 inches longer than it looks.

Here is my sisters boy with my parents. My dad is 6′ while Nick is 6′8″

I also want to mention that I think Robin should win a prize for most unusual thing posted about herself. Check out her blog. She does some amazing knitting!