Monkeys, a new FO!

They're finally done! I did the gusset and the foot and the toe in record time on the second sock and I like them alot. Well, I like the pattern. I'm not so fond of Lorna's Laces, actually. I think that it needs a smaller needle.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A - Available on knitty.com - but you know that already. It's so popular, everyone is knitting it!
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock - Peach
Magic Loop Method, one sock at a time
Needle: Knitpicks Size 1 - 2.5
Start Date: 12/7/2007
Finished: 02/08/2008



Like them? I do, too. They're not my favorite though. The Stansfield #12 red ones are my favorite at the present time.

I also started an "Eleanor" sock. It's not as popular as Monkey. It's pretty and it's very simple to knit. I am going to change the pattern to have a left and a right so the lines don't go in the same direction.



Pattern: Eleanor - By Monkey Toes published in Socktopia. This is a free pattern.
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill - Blueberry Hill
Needle: Knitpicks size 1 - 2.25mm
Started: 02/08/08

The kicker, they're a gift for my lifelong friend who happens to share her name with that of the pattern. Notice how nice the k1,p1 ribbing looks in my beloved Cherry Tree Hill as compared to the Lorna's Laces. Also note that I did go down a needle size. (a teeny bit smaller). I was considering using the size 0 here thinking this wasn't going to be too stretchy but this should be ok. The pattern is cake, can knit while sleeping. zzz zzz zzz

Well, that's it for this quicky post. I have to clean the dungeon up a bit! Stay tuned for a Weasley Weekend Update!

More Family...More Weasley...More Monkey

As I was saying Friday, before we were so rudely interrupted with work making that a rather short post, I have had a bad week. My poor son had his asthma flare up quite severely. This required us to nebulize and use steroidal meds which often adversely affect his behavior. Additionally, he was exhausted from being awake and being unable to breathe.

Monday morning, I decided that I wasn't up to snuff so I called in sick and stayed home with him. No telecommuting. Just he and I.

"Mom, are we...absent today?"

"Yes, baby. We're both too sick to go out. Mommy wasn't feeling that well and besides, I have to take care of you".

"Ok, just making sure that I'm absent so that I know where I am. A kid in my class was absent for five whole days, did you know that? and like...he was in Florida seeing Mickey Mouse. Do you think we could do that?"

Amazing what some parents are thinking, isn't it? Why is that acceptable? What kind of message does that send to them? "Schools not important and mommy and daddy want to save some money so we'll take a vacation when everyone else is in school". I guess they don't know about the truant officer.

The next day, Tuesday, we were all back at school and work. I was well rested and ready to tackle the rockpile. Pick-ax in hand, I set out for the day. I dropped off DS and then went to DD's classroom. We did a special project for career day and I got to be the guest speaker, telling them all about how to make license plates. Ok, ok, all the things they need to know about how things go from being a movie to going up to the satellites and down to your tv set. It was technology and broadcasting for four year olds. It was great. I have decided that there is a reason why I am not a teacher. 90 percent of them listened but a few strayed in the back, off the carpet and were talking. "Excuse me, boys and girls, if you're talking you're not listening. If you're not listening, you won't get a surprise present at the end". One little boy raised his hand and said that he knew how to talk and listen at the same time..... Very smart, these pre-schoolers.

After that, I went back to the house. The little doggie had escaped from the crate. She knows how to unhinge the sides now. I don't trust her. She may be better behaved but I still think that she doesn't care about the wood floor as much as I do and may do peeps on it. Nothing worse than puppy peeps on the wood floor. Turns it black. I went into the house, rehinged and tightened up the crate. I put her in there. I decided that it was such a nice day, no need for the big heavy coat. I emptied the coat pockets and put everything on the table. I put on a sweatshirt jacket thing. I saw a nice apple there and put the apple in my pocket. Dog in crate, check. Older dog relaxing, check. They have water, check. Coffee cup in hand, check. Keys in pocket, check. Go outside, slam the front door and just as it was closing...CRAP! THAT'S AN APPLE, YOU IDIOT, NOT THE KEYS! Keys were where the apple should be and the apple was where the keys should be. Both happy while I cursed.

Neighbor not home, spare key locked in her house. Blackberry in car. Car not locked. Cruise web for number of locksmith. Call. He comes. It's raining. I eat the apple. It's stuck in braces. He can't unlock the door but has his handy-dandy drill. He drills out the tumbler. I go in the house, dog loose yet again. Keys are fine. I pick them up and head off to work. I get there by 10 am. Not TOO bad, considering.

Let me show you my Weasley. It's all together now. I used three-needle bind off for the shoulders. I am almost regretting not knitting the sleeves in the round so I may do that when I make one for DD. It's lovely and I love Cascade 220 ... ok, even more than the Superwash.





How's that D, hah?

I have picked up Monkey as well and I may try and finish this tonight while 'watching' the Superbowl. We'll see. Ready for the heel flap!


Time to go and get ready for the adventuresome day!

Next post, our "100th Day" project!

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Package Pour Moi!

Today, I went to my NYC office for a little Holiday get together for our staff. We all brought in goodies and lunch things to eat. We had pumpkin cake, carrot/jello salad, blondies, grape leaves, flan, banana bread, pasta salad, pizza and empanadas. Yummy!

Ok, I am done with NYC until maybe once in the winter. I came home to this.

My STR came today!

A nice big box, and this was what was inside:

Comon gang, Brenda Lee voices, please, "Blockin' around the Christmas Tree, have a happy holiday..."

And then I tried them out with Stansfield #12 knitted in the kangaroo dyer's yarn from Webs:

Don't they look delicious?

And, my Monkey, WIP:

And, some socks to be:

That Spinel (far left) is nice and green not nice and blue. It's calling to me...Here there be Dragons Sock pattern from the Keyboard Biologist?

Ah, life is good.

Merry Christmas to all of you in Sock Cyberspace.

A Winter's Day, in a Deep and Dark December.

Today, a dark dismal winter day, cold and damp Once again, I am not feeling all that well, scratchy sore throat, cough, sick. A dark winter day. This is what it's like in Alaska, I keep telling myself. It's only like this here for a short time. I think that I have SADD.

Now, back to our Broadcast, "Life in a Gameshow"

Yesterday, the kiddies and I enjoyed a visit from Elizzabetty. She brought over her game show toys to show us, the GPS and the new tires. We had tea and oatmeal raisin cookies for snack. The kiddies love her and wanted to show her all their toys, too. I was enamored with her new tires.

My minivan has beautiful bald tires. You know, God only created a few perfect tires. The others he covered with tread. See the nice hole in my front one? The air is leaking out and I'm skiddin'


Bridgestone Turanza 36k miles.

Click here for the Goodyear Assurance Triple Tread with Aquachutes! I love that word, I'll type it again, AQUACHUTES. Sounds like an amusement park ride, no?



I have to get new ones. This is a necessity. I could have a blowout. There is a Mavis Tire store across from the RR station in Massapequa Park. I am going to NYC tomorrow for our end of year staff meeting so it'd be a perfect day to get tires. I am dropping the car off there and hopping on the train and when I come home, I'll be driving on my new Goodyear tires with ... AQUACHUTES!


Last night, we took the kiddies to dinner. I wanted to try a new Chinese Buffet called Tian Tian that a friend recommended. I had the address, I mapquested it but couldn't find it. I told DH in the car, "See! Now if I had a GPS like Betty!" and he gave me that look that said, "you're out of control". We hit the regular buffet. "Good Taste". It's ok, the food is a little better than tolerable. The egg drop soup is good and I put wontons in it. The skin on the wontons is too thick for my liking but not all that bad. The ribs are good and they get stuck in my braces. The shrimp dumplings are great! The sushi sucks. I told them the sushi sucks. Oh well, the kids love it.


Last week, DS broke our cheapo dinette set that DH had from his apartment in Inwood, Manhattan days. We can't really raise the family on this especially now that we have homework, artwork and bigger kids that sit in real chairs. He broke it being out of control and falling. It looks like this now. It has those side leaf things that you can't lean on. Pay no attention to the garbage on the floor, I just wrapped some presents and have to clean up.




So, this morning on my way down to the RR station to purchase a ticket for tomorrow, I stopped in the furniture store and made an offer that they couldn't refuse. I got exactly what I wanted. Natural dinette, double pedestal table rectangular with rounded edges, 4 side chairs, 2 grown up armchairs for the mommy and daddy, dual butterfly leaf. The table stores the leafs underneath so when I have my husband's entire family over here we can all sit at the table. I have service for 12 as well from a previous appearance on a gameshow. This table is big, it's 42x60, good for everyday use. With one leaf, 72, with two leafs, 84. The room is 13x16, three walls of windows. This will go parallel to the 13' side which leaves little room for my glider.

Problem: I love that glider. I don't know what to do with it! It'll have to move..maybe to another room. Where am I going to knit!!!

We love this room, we live in this room. I built this room from the dirt up. We eat and watch tv in here and it's a shame that I didn't make it bigger. BIGGER is better.

So, I'll have to see how the furniture works. We'll need to get rid of that entertainment center and buy a 42 or 60 inch plasma for the wall to create even more space.....

Shall I have to make another appearance.

OK, OK, I know I have you in suspense. Wanna see my monkey?


it's going swimmingly and this pattern is great! Easier than it looks, for sure. (or, as DD says, "Shirr", she sounds like Marsha Brady sometimes. Not like a native Long Islander who would say it just like "SHORE" or "SHOE-AH".


Oh well, kiddies are at a birthday party, I'm not feeling that great, time to clean the house.

Stay tuned for an update on my monkeys and pictures of my sunroom with natural table.

I'm out of control.

My 100th Post - Monkeys, Pink Monkeys

This is my 100th Post and I'm going to show you a project that I started this morning.


Monkey Socks. Pink Monkey Socks. Lorna's Laces, color=Peach.

I know, it looks pink but I wanted PEACH. I know I spent $450 on a camera so I could show you stitch detail you'd think it'd get the colors right. Well, that's the color it is. It's supposed to be PEACH. I ordered PEACH and the yarn came marked PEACH and that's exactly what it looks like in person. IT"S PINK!

I like this yarn....but not alot. It feels and acts alot like Fortissima and costs a little more. I was expecting it to be more tightly wound. I must say, it does a very nice job of behaving itself, not like Tofutsies. It isn't splitty, it is nice and soft and even smells delicious not like sheep poop and vinegar. It's just all over nice and I will use it again...and again. BUT, It's not my beloved Cherry Tree Hill. I am totally in awe at CTH. I wanted to make this pair out of Burgundy CTH which is in my stash but alas, it's not wound. Don't get me wrong, I love STR, too. The one thing that makes me like CTH a teeny tad better than STR is the weight. I use STR lightweight and it's not skinny enough. I am weird and like to have tons of repeats and itty bitty stitches and STR doesn't do that. If I use my size zeroes it becomes too dense. They're still heavy. I'm thinking about trying laceweight to make socks out of. The colors are truly awesome though. CTH has nice colors too.

OK, you twisted my arm, I'll show you. Time to flash some of my stash.

I picked up some of this Sockittome stuff. I haven't used it yet but the sample that they had in the store was very nice AND, it was 20% off....

Earth, Birches, Wild Cherry

Below, we have some CTH that was 50% off....

Burgundy, Purples, Blues, Wild Cherry. I think that's what the middle ones are called. I will look again later.

One more CTH, Teal Green, making friends with some Wildfoote.

Not being able to resist a sale, I picked up another ball of Tofutsies in a tan/earthy color.

Not liking that lime color, I will give this one more go. It's splitty and it's nice at the same time. I did like the lime green socks more after I was done. They're nice lightweight summer socks but working with this stuff is the pits. The Wildfoote was also on sale but I think that I paid too much for it. It looks like pumpkin pie, nice fall color. My sister in law will like that color very much and I am thinking that Bluebell Rib from Sensational knitted socks may be nice for her.

Well, that's it for now. Back to the Monkey socks and the Iris Afghan that really hasn't grown much because I've been addicted to completing more socks lately.