This week as flown by. I can’t believe it’s Friday already! I’ve got a show tonight, so I’m getting the typical show night stomach pains and nervous jitters. Hopefully I can channel that into a good show! Now, for the pictures!
First, here’s a picture of my completed bucket hat, starring me and Bella….

Bella says: my mommy’s hat is way cool!

Yay! I swear she likes it when I hug her like that. She loves it when Jacob and I pay attention to her. Here’s more proof that she’ll put up with anything: (click to enlarge)

Okay, so we love our Bella Schmoo a lot. And she really does like it when Jacob puts the glasses on her. Go figure. (Don’t worry, Chili was outside during this photo session, playing with toys and chasing rabbits. She is happy happy happy.)
I also have a picture of my top down progress to show you…nothing terribly exciting, but this is how far I’d gotten when I finished my first ball of Bernat CottonTots:

It is SOOOO soft. I’m adding some stripes of color in, but I’m not sure how or where. This pattern knits up so fast! I might finish it this weekend. I wonder if I’m getting faster at knitting….hmm. It’s almost been a year now since I started…who knew I’d get so obsessed?? I have my friend Leslie to thank for that….
Well, it was a good week. I got a lot of work done, Jon Stevens got kicked off American Idol, and I got in some knitting + quality time with Jacob. Now I just have to survive tonight’s show, and then I have the rest of the weekend to relax! I’m going to go see my sister tomorrow night for fun time knitting and shopping. Don’t worry – I won’t spend much. I just need some basics, like a pair of shoes that I can wear to work. I wear this pair every day. They are a pair of Rocket Dog moon boot thingies that I bought off Ebay. Comfortable? Yes. Durable? Yes. Stylish? Umm, sort of? Sometimes? Only with pants. I need at least one pair of comfy shoes I can wear with a skirt…so I’m on a shopping mission. And Cathy will help me.
Hope you have a great weekend of knitting and good company. I’m off to work, read blogs and be generally happy that it’s Friday. Yahoo!

So, I tried to have knitting night last night but no one came. Boo. However, I had knitting night all by myself, with some Pilsner Urquell and my newest project on the needles. Me and my schmoos (Jacob and Bella) settled in on the couch to watch American Idol’s Latin Night! Gloria Estefan! And boy, it sucked a lot. The only person I thought sounded remotely good the entire time was Diana DeGarmo. Even Latoya didn’t sound so hot. John Stevens … oh, my. He must go. He MUST GO!
After finishing the Cavewoman tank, I decided that I need a easy, gratifying project that will knit up fast. No more mattress stitch finishing for me right now. So I pulled out my Denise Interchangeables, size 8, and cast on for a top down raglan, a la Glampyre. If you have never tried this pattern before, you totally should. It is super easy, and works with pretty much any worsted weight yarn. I used it for my own top down lblue raglan (check out my gallery for pics.) You can make it short sleeved, long sleeved, cropped, or super long. You can add your own shaping, or knit it straight down. It’s a great pattern.
I am using Berroco CottonTots in Wonder White. I only have three balls, so if I run out, I may do some sort of fun striping thing at the bottom. Or maybe I will just get some more CottonTots. Anyways, this pattern is perfect for TV watching….the top is straight stockinette stitch with increases every other row, and then stockinette for the rest of the body. Easy peasy. I *heart* Stef’s pattern. And this yarn is really soft, and easy to knit with, but it’s almost…oily? It slides over the needles so much that it almost feels greasy. Maybe it’s my imagination. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten dinner while knitting AND watching Harry Potter.
In other news, I have a show this weekend and I can’t believe it. I have rehearsal tomorrow night for the first time in 3 weeks? 2 weeks? and then bam! Friday is the show. I hope I remember all my lines…songs lyrics…dance steps….name of the play….
I’m exhausted. I’m going to go rest my head on my desk for a minute and try not to fall asleep.
Hey, check out Designs on the White House. This is a design contest, and all the proceeds will be going to John Kerry’s campaign. The website is great, and check out the judges….fun times….If I had mad skills, I would totally submit a design, but I will be content to see what other people come up with.
P.S. Jacob and I watched “Ali G Indahouse” last night. Worst. Movie. Ever.

I am a ray of sunshine beaming out of my office, in spite of :
1. the gray skies and drizzling rain that I have to walk through to get to work
2. the green van that I rear-ended on my way to lunch today
3. the small headache that I have due to aforementioned fender bender (and yes, it was so my fault.)

Happy Freakin’ Monday! Ha.
Seriously, I am fine, and everyone involved was super nice, even the policewoman (who did NOT give me ticket because the damage was so minimal. Love her.) What broke my heart is after I hit them, the husband got out and looked and spoke to me, and the wife was just leaning against the steering wheel, all sad…I felt so bad. Finally she got out, and I said, “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” and she looked at me and said, “I’m not hurt. But it’s just that EVERYTHING is going wrong!!”
Yo, I feel you, lady.
Later, while we were waiting for the cops, she came over to my car and apologized and said they’d been having some bad luck, but they weren’t mad at me. Aww. So, it was actually a pleasant accident experience, if such a thing exists.
Well, enough about that. Let’s get to the knitting! May I present to you, the Cavewoman Tank:

I am Cavewoman. Ugh.
Click here for a back view. I changed this pattern a lot, mostly because the yarn I used wasn’t looking pretty with the design they were doing. And, I decided that I’m just not a lace up front kind of girl. So, I completely changed the back, changed the straps to i-cords and sewed the front together with a little overlap. I kept most of the decrease shaping (what they called “accentuated decreases”) because I liked the way it looked. It’s still missing something, I think, but really I’m just not a fan of the yarn with this design. Maybe in white or black cotton for summer? Yummy.
This weekend was fun-filled..I got second in a karaoke contest this weekend! Yahoo. I saw an ad in the paper, I knew some people at the bar, so we went, and it was big fun. But get this — I was first (yuck!) and after I sang, they gave me a stool. They did it like American Idol (as in, the judges tell you what they think RIGHT THERE.) I got judged on vocal ability, appearance (!), energy, and overall entertainment. And dude– the judges were HARSH. I didn’t even know they wanted costumes! (Although I should have known since the bar hosts drag shows on a pretty regular basis.)
Even after they were kinda hard on me, I still got second, so I felt good. And I sang Fame. I really need to expand my karaoke repertoire…
Playing piano at church went well. Not too many mistakes, and really nice people. I’m playing next week too, and I’m hoping this will become a permanent, paying gig.
Okay. It’s 5:00, and I gotta go home and relax. It’s been a busy, weird day. I hope everyone had fun at the March in DC..I can’t wait to read everyone’s blogs about it! (Oh, and on that note, look at my right sidebar…I made a couple of buttons for the Knitters Against Bush website. Feel free to swipe one if you’d like! )

thank you, thank you, Secret Pal!!!

So, check out the beautiful photo album that my Secret Knitting Pal sent me! I *heart* this album. I’ve been looking for a new scrapbook lately and this one is just perfect. My SKP is a rock star, whoever she is. Thank you SKP!! You are awesome!
Yahoo! It’s time for the weekend!
I’m going to karaoke tonight…and a wedding tomorrow.. and on Sunday, I’m playing piano for this church in Athens (!). Listen to how they found me….two ladies who attend the church came to karaoke night on a Wednesday last month and they heard me sing a song. I ran into one of them in the bathroom (!) and she asked if I would be interested in helping out with their music ministry at church. Turns out they need a pianist, and I am a pianist, and well, it just all worked out. So, if this goes well on Sunday, I may have a paying gig as a church pianist every Sunday! And here’s the cool part… the church ministers to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in Athens. So their congregation has people of all religious backgrounds and social backgrounds, etc etc. It seems like it’s going to be a pretty cool place. I personally have always had some problems with the lack of acceptance in a lot of organized religion, so yay for a church who loves everyone. Hopefully they love my piano playing too….
In the knitting front, I will be working on my almost finished critter knitter blanket this weekend (click to enlarge)and also finishing up my cavewoman tank. I wore my Chevron Tank out last night and got lots of compliments on it. Of course, the knitting friends were more complimentary, but that’s because they KNOW what goes into actually finishing an article of clothing. The non-knitters always say, “Are you going to sell those?” (Umm, no. Not after I spent so many hours knitting it. I’m going to wear it until it’s falling apart. And if I knit you one, you better wear yours out too.)
By the way, the Wal-Mart here has a clearance rack with all kinds of crap on it, including yarn. Now, a lot of it is acrylic yarn, but I found a supply of Bernat Cotton Tots for $2.75 a skein. Not bad! 100% cotton, and pretty yarn. So if you need a couple of skeins for a summer tank, maybe you should check Wal-Mart. They also had Homespun super discounted, just in case you haven’t made your No Sweat-Pants yet, or you want to make a pretty scarf for a Christmas present…
Okay. Enough with the discount shopping. I can’t afford to buy anything anyways. That’s way I’m counting on my bartender friends to pass a few drinks my way tonight, and my closet (and probably my friend Leslie’s closet) to provide me with an outfit for the wedding on Saturday. Because I’M SAVING MONEY. Because saving money is cool, and I’m too cool for school.
Feeling punchy, is it 5:00 yet?
Have a great weekend!
Oh! I was playing with Photoshop today, trying to figure out how to make a regular photo look like a cartoon, and I made this using a tutorial I found online. Isn’t Bella fabulous as a strange pink cartoon?

Why are you waking ME up?

*Warning: American Idol content below*
Okay, I really don’t want to post about American Idol every week, but did you watch that last night? The girls who are obviously and consistently the most talented singers got the least number of votes and FANTASIA almost got kicked off. Is it rigged? Is it a ploy by Fox to get more people to vote? Is John Stevens Satan’s spawn? I really think that Diana and Jasmine have great voices, but they’re just not consistent. I’m not even really a FAN of Jennifer Hudson, but I know good singing, and I know that girl sings better than John Stevens. I’m voting 50 times next week, like the rest of the viewers probably will. It’s getting nasty…*End American Idol talk*
Okay, enough of that. I was freakin’ out last night while I was watching and had to vent about it somewhere. I knitted last night too! I worked on a critter knitter blanket, using 15s and two strands of Homespun…it’s going really fast. I also decided to take out the shoulder seams on my tank and re-do them. They just look bumpy and sloppy right now, and I really want to wear this tank when it’s done. Right now it looks sort of cavewoman-ish with the brown colors and bumpy shoulders. Uggh. (That’s my cavewoman sound.)
I just get so excited when I’m almost finished with something, and I want it to be done FAST. So I usually rush through the finishing and it ends up looking crazy. I will be patient. I will be patient. So on my list for this week is finishing up the tank and making it beautiful, possibly finishing my critter blanket, and trying to start this Dale of Norway tank that I’ve been trying to make. [ By the way, I need size 4 circs for this tank, so if anyone wants to trade some size 4 circs for some bamboo circs, I wanna talk to ya...Just leave me a comment and I'll email you back. I have 6s, 8s, 10.5s, and others in bamboo and metal that I'd be willing to swap...]
Yay for weekend knitting and new knitted tops. I really need to start knitting stuff I can wear to work, but it’s just more fun to knit lacy summery tops!
My boss gave me a card for Administrative Professional’s Day yesterday! I was touched. It never hurts to hear thanks for the hard work, right? And thanks for all the encouraging comments about my finances. Without spilling everything about my life, my finances suck royally, but I’m working hard to make them better.
P.S. Hope you don’t mind all the dog pics…my knitting is a little uninteresting right now.

I love yarn. Just like my mommy.

It’s Wednesday. I’m sleepy again, and I need breakfast. Grr. Send milk and cereal.
Last night Anne Marie came over and we watched American Idol and knitted. American Idol was highly entertaining, as usual. It was Barry Manilow night… (and Ryan Seacrest kept making comments about how hot Barry was…umm, Barry Manilow is NOT hot. Especially to teenagers watching the show.) I thought almost everyone sounded good last night, except for George Huff and poor little John Stevens. Ick.
But the knitting! Anne Marie was working on a critter blanket for the excellent Critter Knitter Knit-A-Thon. And she had such a great idea…she’s taking a dishcloth pattern and just knitting it on huge yarn and needles. Duh, why didn’t I think of that? What a great way to make a blanket that looks cool and is fun to knit. I’m totally doing that with some Homespun this week.
I worked on the tank. and here are some pics to prove it to you.

the tank parts ready to be seamed!

here’s the tank being blocked.

I messed up the finishing…again…at the shoulder seams. Grr. Please remind me to knit my next project in the round. Puh-leeze. Now the tank is blocking, and I’m still deciding what to do about the front. Right now, it’s like a little cardigan, and I want to wear it as a tank top. The pattern says to use chocolate brown yarn to do a lace up thing on the front. What do you think? Lace up, or some other closure in front? I can’t decide. Help me.
After seaming through The Daily Show and Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, I decided (at midnight) to organize my yarn. I should have taken a pic…but my stash has been reduced to about 5 large Ziploc bags. Not a whole lot, people. I’m gonna be running out of yarn real soon…I’m already saving up for next month. Well, I’m planning on saving up for next month.
Part of my yarn shortage problem is that I’m broke. I’m meeting (well, over the phone) a credit counselor today to get some help with some of my financial issues. One day, I would love to be happy and debt free and rich and famous. It’s possible, right? Right?????

Yawn.
I’m so sleepy this morning…I need a big cup of decaf and a sausage and egg biscuit. But I didn’t get up early enough for that….
This weekend was jam-packed. On Friday, Jacob did things around the house while I knitted and lounged. On Saturday, I mowed the lawn. I was really excited about mowing the lawn because my mom never let me do it when I was growing up (We had a mower with an extremely long extension cord and I think she didn’t want us to mow over the cord.) Anyways, I was really looking forward to mowing! Yahoo! Fun times!
Turns out that mowing the lawn with a little pushmower is NOT the fun-filled activity I thought it would be. It is hard work. And it was HOT. And we have TWO ACRES of land. I mowed until my little hands and shoulders couldn’t take it anymore, and then I collapsed on the couch. Jacob was working on our fence the whole time, and laughing to himself because he’d mowed the lawn before. Ha.
After that, I was done for the weekend. I slept a lot, and knitted a bunch, and relaxed. We did some work on the house, but sometimes on the weekend, I just want to SIT. Not do dishes, not vacuum, not dust, just SIT. So that’s what I did this weekend.
I forgot to take pics of my new tank top in progress….
I’ve finished the front and I’m about halfway through the back. I think I’ll have it finished by the weekend. I did, however, take pictures of my fabulous new stitch markers from my friend Jen over at MonkeyKnits! How cute are these? (Click to enlarge) Jen sent me these doggy-related stitch markers (and a fabby little monkey head as well!) and they are too cute. The doggies even look like Chili and Bella! What a nice, unexpected gift…it totally brightened my day. Thanks, Jen!!
Nothing much going on here otherwise. I’ll post pictures tomorrow of the tank-in progress. Oh, and I’m about to start knitting in another knit along – a T3 knitalong hosted by Maggie over at Click-Clack…Join in the fun!!

hi, I’m Bella. Feed me some people food.
Hello! This week has been crazy and it’s almost over, yahoo. One good thing that has come out of the towing of my car (grr) is that I have to park several blocks away from my office and walk. Now, this is a real pain in the ass when I have an early meeting or a bunch of stuff to bring in from my car. Luckily, this week, I’ve just had me to bring in. So I’ve been walking every day, and I feel more awake. So I’m thinking that if I get a parking pass soon, I’ll still park far away so I can walk…unless I have a meeting… or sleep late…
I finished my Bottoms Up Bucket in one night…that pattern is so awesome! It’s super easy to follow, knits up quickly, and looks darn cute. I haven’t posted a picture yet because I’m trying to be super cute in my picture for Becky’s knitalong contest….I’m exploiting the talents of my photographer boyfriend to come up with something fabulous!

I also started working last night on a new summery top. After flipping through all the great patterns I’ve gotten lately, and looking at my tiny little stash, I swatched up some Bernat Denim Style and started this tank. It’s knitting quickly on size 7 needles. I don’t know how I feel about the dark brown lace up thingy in the middle, but I’ll figure that out when I get there. This little tank is part of a tank-along I’m doing with my online knitting group….I’m seriously going to run out of yarn soon if I keep knitting so much. But soon it will be so hot here in Athens that I’ll need a plethora of tanks and summer cardigans. I can’t wait for summer! Bring it. Now.
Jacob and I have been renting DVDs a lot lately…mostly of Mr. Show and The Ben Stiller Show. Mr. Show is one of the funniest comedy shows I’ve ever seen…it’s definitely not family humor, but it’s damn funny. If you’ve never seen Mr. Show and you aren’t easily offended, go out and rent some of the DVDs.
Well, that’s all the news here. Sorry if you came to my site earlier and got a bunch of jumbled code at the top of the screen…I’m still working out some kinks in the PHP for my skins. I will be an expert code monkey soon…I hope…
Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for all the nice comments on my finished knits. You guys make my yucky days a lot easier.

I have a load of pictures to show ya. First, the completed Chevron Tank:

I love this tank! It knitted up SO fast. And the Cotton Fleece makes it soft and yummy. It needs to be blocked a little, but otherwise it is finished. I did crochet around the armholes and the neck. I’m still a firm believer in knitting things in the round… the seaming on this tank almost ruined it, but I didn some crafty crocheting and weaving and saved it.

Next, we have the super quick Homespun Poncho. I wore this outside last night and it was pretty warm! I used two strands of Lion Brand Homespun and the Cape Mod pattern from Stitch n Bitch. I didn’t follow the pattern exactly but the great thing about this pattern is you can add your own twists and designs in it. I think I may still add fringe to the bottom…but, for now, yay fun.

And we had knitting group last night for the first time in a while. Yay! We were planning to knit and watch American Idol but American Idol was pushed forward a night since Bush had to give a speech. Grr. Things I didn’t want to watch…so we let Jacob watch it on mute and we gabbed and knitted. We had so much fun. I have missed knitting night…Camille is moving to Atlanta so it was her last night…sad times…but hopefully the rest of the girls will want to keep having it. And we can actually watch American Idol next time.

Leslie and Camille	Anne Marie and Jenna
Jenna and her “7 day” afghan	my Bucket-O-Chic

Yesterday was a yucky, yucky day…my car got towed out of my office parking lot and I had to pay $150 to get it back. This is what I looked like most of the day yesterday: but I got my car and paid the damn fee. So all’s well that end well, I guess, although I still think there is a special place in hell for parking services employees. Okay.
Today will be better! I am determined! I am happy! I am a ray of sunshine beaming out of my office!

Yay! What a great weekend!
So relaxing. I got SO much knitting done, that I just have to show ya. (click to enlarge!):

The Chevron Tank is nearly finished! And I did seam it last night … ugh … I HATE seaming, and I’m so bad at it, and I’m really trying to get better, but UGH. I seamed while watching The Matrix Revolutions on DVD (another ugh for that movie…painful.) And click here to see what happens when I try to take a picture of myself in the mirror at 1:00 AM. Oops. So, I promise a clear picture of the finished tank this week. Yay! It’s looking good, and Cotton Fleece is so shiny and pretty when it’s knitted up. Yum.
And here are some family photos, since it was Easter this weekend and everything.

My sis Michelle, my mom and my bro-in-law Dave

my little step-nephew Mason

a kinda dorky pic of me and Jacob

We ate ham and hung out. It was good times.
Next on the knitting front is the Dale of Norway tank, and possibly T3 from the new Knitty. But first I gotta finish seaming this Chevron tank… I think I need to take a class on how to finish things correctly. Grr.
Happy Monday ya’ll!!
P.S. I CANNOT find my tax returns. Argh.